Backtracking to February 3rd..
We had gone over to my parents' house for the day to try and finally get that kitchen table sanded and stained. It was a long and monotonous process that took nearly all day (and we didn't even finish). By the end, Travis and I were both pretty tired so we decided to call it a day and spend our Saturday night at home. Mind you the previous night we walked the entirety of IKEA (though I got wheelchair-ed for part of the time) so my pregnant body needed a nice relaxing night. We stopped by Austin and Stacie's for a couple minutes to say hi since we were in the neighborhood and talked about water breaking and how to tell when it happens...because I was nervous I wouldn't be able to tell. (Irony at it's best -- it was like I had a freaking fire hydrant between my legs.) We got home and took a nice long shower as we were covered in stain, sawdust and hair from Travis' haircut. (Thank goodness I at least had time to do that..I can't imagine showing up to the hospital in that filthy state to have a baby.) With the Superbowl being the following day, we made a quick trip to the store for some party food. (Little did we know, that food was not making it to the Superbowl get together.) Once we were finally home for the night, we settled into bed and started watching Tin Tin, some weird adventure show Travis wanted to watch haha. Within the first 20 minutes of the movie, I felt a big trickle(best way I can describe it) of water come out of me. I immediately sat up in bed and said "I think my water might have just broke." I also said this once earlier that day so Travis might not have believed me at first. But as soon as I stood up it was like a floodgate. Water poured down my legs and all over the brand new carpet in our apartment (which smelled unimaginably bad when we returned). At this point I don't really remember what I was saying anymore. Probably something like, "Omygosh omygosh omygosh my water just broke! We're having a baby! Omygosh!" I ran to the toilet leaving a trail of water along the way and then pretty much went hysterical. I was giggling and rambling non-stop and continuously leaking large amounts of water. I threw on a pad and ran around with Travis trying to make sure that we had everything we needed. That pad lasted about 1 minute. I threw on another and Travis grabbed me to say a quick prayer before we left. I had to leave his side halfway through the prayer and run to the toilet so I wouldn't leak all over the carpet again. I used to laugh at the people who said to keep a towel in your car in case your water breaks while you're driving because I didn't think it was that bad. Haha, we grabbed a towel for the drive. We were pretty much packed up and ready to go but I was a little bit in denial that it was actually happening. I ran around trying to think of any other possible thing we could have forgotten. I even started to blow dry and straighten my hair because "I couldn't have wet hair at the hospital". Haha it was a fun time.As we stood in front of the check-in lady for the maternity ward, I kept wondering why they even had a chair there. Most women are probably either in too much pain to sit down or soaking wet down there. I remember being slightly annoyed at the lady thinking, "My pants are wet. Stop talking to me. I already gave you this information. I want to leave. How do women who are actually in labor tolerate this woman?" After we checked in, the triage nurse came and told us that she was going to do a fern test to see if my water had actually broken. I laughed and told her it had definitely broken and asked if they really needed to do a test. She said that if she could tell during a pelvic exam that my water had broken, they wouldn't need to do the test. As soon as I spread my legs and she saw how much "water" was coming out onto the table, she told us a test probably wasn't necessary. She also told me that I was measuring 4cm already and that I was having contractions, which was news to me. The nurse was amazed at the fact that I felt absolutely nothing. And I was thrilled. She left the room and the next time the door opened a new nurse came in, Kimmy. She announced that she would be our nurse for the night which I was slightly bummed at in that moment because I really liked the first nurse we had. I soon realized that she was just as great, if not better than the first nurse and really enjoyed the rest of my time with her. (Travis laughs at me because the only time I ever teared up, aside from when they layed Hunt in my arms which does not count, was when Kimmy put the IV in my arm. I really hate being stabbed. Especially when they mess up and have to do it more than once.)
Because my water had broken, they informed me that I only had a short window of time to progress before they were going to induce me. This scared me slightly because I really didn't want to be induced but knew that the longer I went without giving birth, the higher the risk of infection So, Travis and I began walking the halls of the hospital because I wanted that baby to come soon! I also bounced on a "birthing ball" and periodically hooked up to the monitor to check how labor was progressing. It was sooo nice being able to move around freely. I finally began to feel the contractions as the night/morning progressed. During one of our walks down the hall, I had a pretty painful one that made me lean over and grab onto the wall. That was the first time I really felt pain from my contractions. They checked me again and I was dilated to about a 6 or 7, which meant I had progressed enough to avoid pitocin/induction for the time-being. Thank goodness. Back in the room, I breathed through a few more painful contractions sitting on the exercise ball and leaning into Travis before Kimmy came back in and asked if I wanted an epidural. I hadn't made up my mind yet. I was almost silent through the contractions and Kimmy said I was handling the pain better than most people she'd seen. I was in a good amount of pain I just didn't vocalize it much. She also said that if I wanted an epidural that I should get one right then so that the pain didn't become unbearable. I was so torn at this point. I didn't want to get an epidural for several reasons, but Kimmy was scaring me with all her "now or never, unbearable pain" talk. Plus Travis was struggling hard to stay awake and I didn't want to fight those contractions on my own, though I'm sure he would've stayed awake had I needed him to he was just super tired. So, I ended up getting the epidural around 4am.
I told Kimmy that I wanted to try and give birth naturally and she respected my wish but kept asking if I wanted an epidural every time she came in to check on me. Looking back now, I wish that I would've told her to not bring it up unless I asked for it because I think she scared me into getting the epidural more than anything else did. My contractions weren't even that bad when I got the anesthetic. I mean they definitely hurt don't get me wrong, but I was totally doing okay breathing through them. Though if I would've had to endure those contractions for 8 more hours I guess I may have given into the epidural anyway, who knows. But it's all over and done with now so I guess there's no crying over spilled milk.
Thankfully, we were both able to get a little sleep at this point. I was too excited and full of adrenaline to really get more than a couple minutes here and there but it was great for Travis.
At 6am we had shift change. Kimmy left and Amie took over my care for the rest of the time. I got lucky with labor and delivery nurses. Both Kimmy and Amie were awesome. At the shift change, they checked my progress again and I was still at a 7 but the baby had dropped a lot lower..I don't know how far exactly, they didn't tell me any numbers. I was a little bummed that I hadn't progressed any farther in my dilation or effacement. But at least something was happening and I wasn't at a stand still. When Amie took over, I was given the "magical peanut ball" as she called it, to help things move along. Slowly but surely, I started to progress. I liked to watch the monitor that showed my contractions and baby's heart rate. Unfortunately when I used the peanut ball, I had to lay on my side which meant that half of the time I was turned away from the screen which drove me crazy. I had to keep turning around to see if I was having a contraction or not and check all the vitals. That was the weird thing about the epidural, I couldn't really tell when I was having a contraction. Sometimes I could touch my belly and feel that it was hard and probably in the middle of a a contraction but for the most part it was a guessing game. After several side switches with the peanut ball I had finally made it to a 10 with 100% effacement. At this point I was thinking, "lets get this party started" but Amie said she was going to give me a little longer since it was my first baby and she didn't want to make me push for hours. I was so grateful. I always heard the horror stories of women pushing for hours upon hours and being so completely exhausted at the end and I did not want that to be me. Once I finally started pushing, it was only about 15 minutes until they called the doctor in and about 10 minutes later our sweet baby boy was born. The funny thing is, when Hunt finally started to crown, Annie said "He has a lot of hair!" And I in a mixture of shock and curiosity leaned my head forward and to the side to try and look around my belly so that I could see his head (which I was successful in doing by the way). Her and Doctor Labesky(who I also loved) laughed and made jokes that very few women could actually look around their bellies and see the baby haha. I also remember thinking that when Hunt came out, I was going to be grossed out by him being covered in all kinds of "stuff" but nothing of the sort registered when they handed him to me. I was just enthralled. Tears filled both mine and Trav's eyes as we cuddled and stared at our newest family member. Nothing can compare to the feelings and the experiences that we had that night/day. And I wouldn't trade them for anything. In fact I loved the whole experience. I am probably one of those crazy women who say they love labor and delivery enough to do it over again. Pregnancy in general was just good to me. There were definitely hard and uncomfortable times but nothing in comparison to the joy and excitement that it brought to our lives.
