Adly's Birth Part 1

As you know, Monday we had a "false alarm" when it came to Adly's pending arrival. I was really bummed out after that happened and struggled with dealing with the emotions of when she'd actually come. I wanted her here so badly. How I dealt with that was to convince myself in my head that she was not coming for at least another week. I mean, she wasn't even due until the 15th.

By Tuesday evening, I had convinced my family to drive back to Michigan and wait it out. They were set to leave Wednesday morning.

I'm including this part because I really think it might've actually had something to do with jumpstarting labor. Late Tuesday night, I was sitting on the couch after everyone left and Adam went to bed. I was continuing to have contractions and was just generally frustrated. So I started looking online at natural ways to induce labor. I'd been having contractions for 3 days and was dilated to 3-4cms. I had to be on the verge of it. We had tried all the other ways of naturally inducing with no results. What else was there to try!?! Well, I found this blog post about nipple stimulation jump starting labor. This woman swore by the process working and even had a whole routine written out to follow. At the end of the post were countless comments by people it had also worked for. So, I decided to try it. Yep. At 11pm at night, by myself, big as a whale, massaging my nips. Sexy.

After about 30 minutes, I decided to give up. First of all, it just felt odd. Secondly, I have a husband who can do such things, so I decided to wait until the next day and let him try it. Off to bed I went.

Well, around 3am, I was awakened by a feeling of peeing my pants. Yep, the classic water break. I felt my shorts and they were all wet. I still wasn't convinced, thinking maybe I just pissed myself. Hey, it happens. So I got up and checked it out. It was clear with no smell. Yes. I smelled my panties. The things you have to do while pregnant! Hmm...ok. Maybe it was my water. I woke Adam up and told him, "I may have broken my water. But I want to go back to sleep. So wake me up at 5:15 when you get up and I'll call the doc."His response was, "How am I supposed to sleep now!?!" Ten minutes later he was snoring away. Hmph.

Of course, I couldn't sleep. So I spent the next 2 hours researching and trying ways to determine if it actually was my water. When Adam got up for work, I called my doctor with what had been happening and she said to come in ASAP. Now, let me tell you, the only "gush" I ever felt was the initial one. After that, it was a slight continuous almost drip- kind of just like normal discharge. Additionally, there was some blood in it. Turns out, that is from your cervix and really common.

Still convinced I was only going to be turned away again once I got to the ER, I didn't eat any breakfast. We grabbed a few things and we left. We arrived to OB Triage around 6:30am. They did all the normal things, except this time when I explained what had happened, we started to be told we wouldn't be going anywhere. Then I panicked. "OMG I didn't eat breakfast!!" (This girl can NOT live without food). Once you're admitted, they don't let you eat anything besides ice chips. Luckily, one of the nurses let Adam sneak me a scone so I was able to get something in my belly. Ladies, even if you think you might be turned away, EAT before you go to the hospital.

Around 8:30, three doctors came in and did a few tests to see if it was in fact my water that broke, and it was. At that time I was around 4cm dilated still. At 9:30am I was officially admitted to the hospital for delivery. Our nurses were FANTASTIC. The one I had all day was so nice. I think the most disappointing thing about delivery is it takes so long in most cases, you see a shift change. I totally became attached to our nurse, Agnes, and was so sad when her shift was over that evening. When I arrived, Agnes suggested I wait out the epidural as long as I could. They started me on pitocin, and the contractions started revving up. For around the next 3 hours, I handled the pain of the contractions. I'm not going to lie...they hurt. But, I'd been feeling them for four days at that point, so I was somewhat used to the actual pain. I also began to notice when they were coming on and deal with it then.

Agnes also made sure to keep me informed whenever the anesthesiologist was available. I've heard stories of girls waiting and when they were ready, the anesthesiologist was busy in surgery or with other patients, leaving them hanging for up to an hour. Ouch!! Around noon, I was more than ready and the doc was available so we went for it. They made Adam leave due to the fact that a lot of husbands pass out at the sight of the big needle. I'm not going to lie, I probably would have too. Luckily, I couldn't see anything. Agnes was amazing and held on to my shoulders the whole time...and talked to me about anything random I thought of to distract me.

Getting the epidural does not hurt. They gave a local anesthesia to cover the pain of the big needle and that wasn't bad at all. I think more of the "pain" comes from thinking about how big the actual needle is from visions you've seen on TV or from random sources. Additionally, you have to remain curled up in a ball, and with contractions, that hurts enough in itself to take your mind off the pain in your back area. As soon as the doctor was done, I was in heaven.

At that point, we shut off the lights closed the curtains and I napped. Having been up since 3am, I was exhausted. The beauty of an epidural is that you can't feel A THING when it comes to contractions. I could feel pressure, but at that point, that was nothing. You are numb from the waist down, and life can continue as normal. To me, this was heaven and SO worth it. All day I sat in amazement that some women do not get the epi. For me, it helped to make my birth experience so amazing and truly something I'll remember for the rest of my life, because I was able to enjoy it. I am not against natural in any way- in fact I highly commend the women who can do it. I just don't have the pain tolerance.

Agnes continued amping up the pitocin throughout the afternoon. Around 3, I had a cervical check by my doctor. I had dilated to 6-7cm. She also discovered my water bag was still full. She grabbed a hook and actually broke my water. What I had "broke" at home was nothing. THIS was the gush you hear about. More like flood. Adam got to witness that event firsthand and apparently it is not pretty.

By 9pm, I was dilated to 10cm- the ending point in dilation. At that point, the doctor propped me up basically to standing position (but sitting due to my legs being completely numb). This was to let nature do it's work along with gravity, hoping to make the baby drop as far down as possible on her own using just contractions for an hour.

That hour was intense for many reasons. After all the waiting, we now knew she was going to be here in a very short matter of time. That is an unbelievably surreal feeling. Adam started to stress out and looked like he was going to pass out. This inwardly made me start to panic. I tried my best to calm him down, and suggested getting my sister to come in, in case he couldn't do it. He insisted he was fine. And before we knew it, the doctor and three other nurses had arrived and were laying me back. It was GO TIME.

Adam had gathered himself by then and jumped right into action like the amazing man I know he is. They positioned him on my right, to hold up my neck and right thigh. They asked me how I count down for things, what works for me. I asked that everyone count down from ten each time I pushed. I had NO idea what I was in for....

Ready, set, GO!!