Last Thursday morning at 10:00 am I had my 38 week appointment with my doctor's P.A. At my 36 and 37 week appointments I had been dilated to a 4 so my doctor had told me that at 38 weeks if I was further dilated then they would probably just send me over to the hospital and break my water so as not to risk an unplanned home birth. Well the P.A. told me I was at a 4+ and 80% effaced so she would go see if Dr. Blackett wanted to let me have my baby that day. I waited in the room for about 15 minutes praying that she'd say yes and when she returned she gave me a thumbs up and said "Good news! You can go over to the hospital and Dr. Blacket will come over and break your water around noon." I called Matt at work and told him the good news and then drove over to the hospital.
Around 11:30 am I got checked in and they started an IV with fluids running so that when the time came I could get my epidural. I asked if they were going to give me pitocin and they said my doctor didn't think I would need any after she broke my water. Matt arrived at the hospital and we called our families to tell them we would hopefully have a baby that day or early the next day.
Around 12:45 pm Dr. Blackett came to break my water. She told me I was actually at a 5+ and 90% effaced so I should probably get the epidural soon. I told her I wanted it ASAP so my nurse paged the anaesthesiologist. After Dr. Blackett broke my water I soon started having contractions every few minutes. My nurse told me Dr. Anderson, the anaesthesiologist, had to give the lady in the room next door to me her epidural first and then he'd come do mine. The contractions were getting more painful but luckily they were always a few minutes apart so I had some time to recover. Around 1:45 pm Dr. Anderson came in to give me my epidural. I had about 4 or 5 contractions while he was placing the epidural and I was having difficulty dealing with the pain. I had a hard time signing the consent form because my hands were shaking so hard. I told my nurse I felt like a wuss, I was only dilated to a 5 or 6 and I felt like I was going to die, how did women who didn't get epidurals deal with the contractions when they got to a 10?!
Finally the epidural was in and I was feeling relieved because I knew the pain would soon go away like it had when I got my epidural with Spencer. I tried to relax but a few minutes after the epidural was placed the contractions actually got worse and I started feeling intense pressure. I was crying and starting to panic a little when my nurse came in and introduced me to a different nurse, Cathy. She told me she had another patient who was starting to push so Cathy would be with me for awhile. I heard her tell Cathy the epidural had been in place for 5 minutes. I told Cathy that I was in a lot of pain so she asked the CNA to bring back Dr. Anderson. He came in and pushed the epidural button a few times but told me that it would take about 15 minutes for the epidural to fully take effect. I told Cathy that I was feeling some really intense pressure so she decided to check to see how far dilated I was. She checked and said "Oh! You're complete!" She told the CNA and a student to page Dr. Blackett and get things ready. I was crying and trying to breathe deep through the contractions but she told me not to take deep breaths and to pant. Dr. Anderson told us that he could put something stronger in the epidural but that it probably wouldn't set in until it was too late and would just make my legs go numb.
A little after 2:00 pm Dr. Blackett walked in, she said sorry that it had taken her so long but that she'd been in the middle of a cervical exam when they paged her. Luckily ("luckily seems like an understatement, "hallelujah!" is more appropriate) about that time the epidural kicked in a little more and I wasn't in as much pain. I could still feel a lot of pressure but the pain was pretty mild and I was thrilled when Dr. Blackett told me I could push when I felt the next contraction. I felt the contraction start and pushed for all I was worth! It felt so good to push! When the contraction ended Dr. Blackett told me I'd done great and she could see a full head of hair. She said his head was facing the wrong way so that might make it a little harder to get him out but he'd be fine. The next contraction started and I pushed for about 15 seconds.
That's all it took, our sweet little boy was here! I saw Dr. Blackett hold him up and he immediately let out the cutest little cry I've ever heard. They put him on my chest and I cuddled him and just felt like I was in heaven. What a relief that he was finally here safe and sound! They let me hold him for a bit and then took him to the warmer while Dr. Blackett stitched me up (yes, I still had to get stitched up, you'd think that after my first 9 pounder a 6 pounder would slide right out, but no such luck). I was a little shocked when they told me he was only 6 pounds 15 oz. and when they got him cleaned up we could see that his hair is actually kind of a reddish brown color. Apparently my genes kind of took over on this one.
So there you have it, James' birth story. So far he has been the sweetest little guy, he only cries when he's hungry or getting his diaper changed and is a great eater. Last night he slept in his crib and only woke up to eat a few times. I'm crossing my fingers that it lasts!
