Well my due date came and went. I had an appointment with my doctor the monday after my due date (sunday) for a non-stress test. Everything was good. He was just very happy in there. I had several contractions before then too, but they weren't ever consistent. So I just waited. It was really difficult. Apparently everyone and their mom was having babies in November. I was determined to go natural and not even get induced unless absolutely necessary. Well that changed when my due date passed. I was just ready to get him out. So at my appointment I asked for the earliest due date. After a few phone calls my induction date was set for Sunday the 24th at 6am. I was so excited! It was the wednesday past my due date (the 20th) when they called and told me.
I decided to try one more thing to get him out on my own. I had been having small random contractions all day that day (20th). I'd read that nipple stimulation can jump start labor. It was pretty much the only thing I hadn't done. So, I pulled out my breast pump and used that for about 20 minutes. Well my contractions got stronger, but only while I pumped. Adelaide woke up from her nap so I stopped and figured I can wait until Sunday. Well, my contractions kept going on and off. But, I was also getting horrible upper thigh/groin cramps so it was hard to time the contractions. I told Michael that I was having contractions. Then they started to get a little more severe but stayed about 10 min apart give or take a few minutes. I just carried on my day until they got pretty painful. I called Mike and told him that he needed to come home from work. The hospital was about a 30 minute drive from our apartment and I told him I needed his help and support if I was going to do it natural. It was also kind of hard to do that with an 18 month old running around and pulling on me. So, of course, by the time he got home my contractions stopped. So we went on a walk for like an hour. And I had small contractions. So we went home and went on with our normal routine. We put Adelaide down for bed at about 8 and we sat down to watch some tv and relax.
I had felt horrible for making mike come home early from work because we really needed the money and it was clear this baby wasn't coming. I could see it in his eyes how sad he was that it wasn't the real thing. I finally just told him he couldn't look at me with his sad eyes anymore. LOL He was really sweet and understanding that I was pretty upset too. So he made us some dinner, leftovers. Yum. I ate something spicy and I started to have more contractions but very small ones. So I started to bounce on my ball. Well after about 30 minutes of that I started to time the contractions because they seemed close and really painful. They turned out to be about 3 minutes apart, lasting a minute.
Mike immediately jumped into daddy mode when I told him. He was so excited. I told him to relax and just help me and rub my back and stuff. He kept telling me we needed to call my mom to come stay with Adelaide. I kept saying no, that I didn't want to go to the hospital yet. So we just stayed at the house and I walked the house and bounced on my ball. Steele, our dog, was really sweet and was at my side most of the time. I told Mike this was it and I wanted to go to the hospital.
So, we called my mom, no answer. We then frantically started calling EVERYONE in my family a million times each. Finally we got my sister and asked her if she could come stay with Adelaide until we got a hold of my mom. We eventually got a hold of my mom and she sent my dad over with Aaron. By that time my contractions were about 2 min apart and lasted a minute long. So we got in the car and mike went 90 pretty much the whole way. He was so excited because he even used his flashers. LOL We made a 30 minute drive in about 15-20 minutes. I was grateful for that because I was having a really hard time. Mike kept saying, "do you want some ice," "how about the music? is this song okay?" It was cute. We made it to the hospital and on our way in I lost my mucus plug (sorry if TMI). That was nasty. So I stopped in the bathroom on my way up to labor and delivery. We had the hospital cop wait outside the door because Mike came in with me. It was really nice. I think he thought I was going to have the baby in the bathroom. LOL
So we get to labor and delivery and the lady at the front desk is taking FOREVER!!!! She sent me through the all so familiar double doors and those ladies at that desk took my paperwork and told me to go in the waiting room because they didn't have any clean rooms yet. They said it would take about 15 minutes. I almost screamed at them. Instead I just scoffed and walked out, clearly letting them know I was very irritated.
Mike and I walked the stupid waiting room for about 20 minutes. That was horrible but it helped me progress. And some nurse made nasty microwave ramen and i thought I was going to puke because it smelled so bad. She just smiled at me, I glared at her.
So they finally took me back to check me. My contractions were a minute and a half apart and lasted a minute. So my break window was very short. So I got in the ugly hospital gown and the lady asked me a ton of questions and then decided she should probably check my progress. Mind you, this was all the pre stuff. This was to see if I was actually in labor and they were going to keep me there. So the nurse goes to check me really fast and is not gentle. I was like "ow that hurts", and she was like okay and kept going. Mike says she had very small hands so she had to go pretty far up there. I got pretty mad at her. I yelled at her telling her that what she was doing hurt super bad. And she said, "I'm sorry I'm not trying to hurt you." I said, "REALLY?! ARE YOU SURE?!" Yeah, after she finished and told me I was already 5 cm dilated I felt kind of bad and started crying and frantically apologizing to her. It was funny now that I think about it.
By this point I was having a hard time controlling my body. I was shaking uncontrollably and my blood pressure was kinda crazy because I kind of had a couple of mini panic attacks. I would have trouble breathing and mike would come over, look me in the eye, and tell me to just breathe through it. He was my rock through the whole thing. He helped me so much. I honestly don't know what I would've done without him. He was amazing.
So they admitted me. I got the epidural to help me relax as soon as I got in the room. That took forever because the guy was really slow since Mike told him about my horrible experience last time. Suddenly I felt very robotic. Everything sounded weird and I kept telling him. The guy was like, that can sometimes happen, it will go away in a couple of minutes. That epidural experience was way better than my first.
Well after a couple of hours it started to wear off and I was feeling a ton of pressure. So the nurse checked me and I was at a 7. My water broke a few minutes after she left the room. That was interesting. I forgot what that felt like. LOL After that she continued to check me and encouraged me to try and get some sleep. I tried that but my stupid spicy dinner I ate was giving me awful heartburn. Like I couldn't lay down at all because I was coughing up acid. And I wasn't allowed to drink or eat anything to help that. The nurse eventually gave me this medicine I could drink to help. It was pretty much the grossest thing ever and only worked for 10 minutes. At about 2:50am on the 21st, the nurse told me I was complete and that she wanted me to push so she could gage how the pushing would go. I did quite a bit of pushing for her and got him down pretty far. About 20 min later the doctor came in and helped me finish pushing him out. We did find out when my water broke that he pooped in the womb and may have swallowed some (just like Adelaide). They weren't very concerned. So after a few more pushed I got his head out and I noticed he was really blue and not making any noise. The cord was wrapped around his neck twice. So the doctor very calmly unwrapped it and I pushed the rest of him out and he suctioned parker and gave him a good pat. What seemed like forever Parker didn't make any noise and didn't move. It was probably really only a minute or two he finally wailed and moved. I was pretty relieved. Mike even got to cut the cord. (:
And the rest is history. I did have a hard time getting the placenta out, but we were good after about 15 minutes. After Parker was assessed and everything they gave him back to me and pretty much let us be after the doctor finished with me. It was awesome. The nurses were great and brought me some juice and crackers right away. I did skin-to-skin first with Parker and then I fed him. He latched on right away and did really good. They took us to our room where we would be staying and told me I couldn't shower until I had peed 3 times. I was like dang!!! But, I was pretty much doing it by myself as soon as I pushed him out. I didn't need much help from the nurses. I only peed myself once too!!!
We are very blessed with a healthy boy. He is such a sweet spirit and we are so happy he is part of our family. We love him soooo much!
Overall this experience was great. We had wonderful nurses the whole time, my ob-gyn was amazing, and the food wasn't half bad. There was a woman in the room next to us who had a very fussy baby. So we didn't get much sleep with that baby screaming all the time. I missed Adelaide terribly so she came to visit us the next night. She was a little skeptical of him and wasn't really sure about him. She didn't quite understand that he was coming home with us.
He is growing and getting so big. He is still a little jaundice but his pediatrician said that it isn't anything to be worried about. He is really healthy and growing normally. (:
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