A Baby Story

I figured that before the sleep deprivation and emotional stress completely wipe out my memory, I better get this labor story down. The amazing thing is that it was 9 days ago, but feels like a year ago! Life has changed so much for us, and I realize that THIS is our new reality.

Enough of that, let's get to the good stuff. This entry is for those of you whose guilty pleasures include all of those TLC baby shows that go into gory labor details. But, as usual, let's start at the beginning.

As my other entries have indicated, we were so clueless about when little Zayd was going to arrive. I had basically accepted the fact that I would make it to my due date (which is tomorrow, by the way) possibly later, when on Friday, September 26, my doc said I was no more dilated than the week before. She warned me about the big rain storm coming in that weekend, and said "it may happen." Yeah yeah, I thought, and I was prepared to return to work for another week and even ask to be induced on the following Friday.

So the next day comes around like any other. We slept in, ate a good breakfast, relaxed. Then, out of nowhere, emotional breakdown: I was overwhelmed with emotion. I'm not sure what the cause, but I think it went something like this: I just wish I knew when it was going to happen, sniff sniff. I just hate the uncertainty. I would like to schedule an induction, so I'll know, but I don't want to push it if he's not ready, sniff sniff. I'm just tired of being pregnant. Well, we worked through that... eventually. We got ready and went out to walk in the mall, have dinner and go to a movie with my parents. Nick and I walked like champs in that mall, because I was determined to make something happen! Then we went on to dinner at Firebirds. We laughed, ate a ton, and I was feeling great! My parents, also determined to make something happen, made us all walk from the restaurant to the movie theater, and it was super muggy. At this point, I am starting to feel some pelvic pressure, but I thought I was just getting a little sore from the walking. We went ahead and watched Love Happens, and I was feeling contractions the whole time. Honestly, in my mind I wanted to time them, because they felt awfully close together, but still not painful. So, I thought nothing of it, just more Braxton Hicks. On the way home, we talked about stopping for ice cream, but we didn't pass a McDonald's, so we said forget it. I walked in the door and told Nick I was really feeling the pressure. I could barely walk at this point. I sat down on the ottoman and started researching what it means to have pelvic pressure at 38 weeks and had just read that one lady's water broke after feeling incredible pelvic pressure, when "POP" (and I mean, I heard it pop), there goes my water (good thing we didn't stop at McDonald's). I won't get into any more detail, but that is a feeling I will never forget. For some reason, I was saying, "what do I do? I don't know what to do." But we called my parents and the doctor and were on our way.

So, this happened at about 10:30 p.m. on Saturday. We arrived at the hospital at 11. They got me hooked up by 12, I was still about 1 cm dilated, and they offered to start the pitocin now, or wait until morning. My dad answered that for me, and said, NOW. So, we started that at about 1 a.m. Then, the pain started. My parents left, and told us to call them when he was ready. I tried to distract myself with some Golden Girls, but the pain was getting pretty bad. Around 2:30, the doc said that even though I was only 1 cm, I could have the epidural. I agreed, wholeheartedly. At 3:00 a.m. I became the happiest girl in the world. I give it up to all of you women that go natural, but the epidural was the best thing that has ever happened to me in life, ever! So, now life is good again. Within an hour or so, I was 4 cm, and 20 minutes after that, I was 8 and1/2 cm dilated... Go time! We called my parents and started preparing for the big event. I think it is notable that from the moment the nurse said I was 8 and 1/2 cm, until after the baby came, my husband did not sit down. I started pushing around 5:00 a.m., and my sweet baby came into the world at 5:53 a.m. I was overcome by emotion as was my husband and my mom. It was a very sweet moment that I will forever cherish.

After this experience, I believe in a few things: 1. Walking can and will put you into labor 2. Increased barometric pressure can and will make your water break and 3. A good indicator of how labor will go for you is how it went for your mom/sister (both my mom and my sister's water broke at 38 weeks with their babies).