The most awesome part of labor is that I finally went into labor on my own Friday (Halloween) morning, when we would have gone into the hospital and had him induced the very next day. I had seriously lost faith that it would happen and was just bouncing around doing stuff, happy enough to know the end was near. Well Matt and I both slept terribly on Thursday night, and had also gone to bed late. Around 6 or 6:30 in the morning we threw in the towel and started watching tv in bed when I noticed I once again had period-like cramps. And they continued for more than an hour and were a little more painful than usual, but my whole body definitely wasn't feeling so great. We debated whether or not Matt should go to work, and he did for a little while. But as I continued to not feel good and when he checked in I was still having contractions, he came home after just a few hours.
Our birthing class talked about "planning a special activity" to pass the time during the first stage of labor. Well I accompanied Matt on an excursion in the bouncy red truck to get metal tubing for a roll cage in the race car. Is that us or what? By the end of this event I was feeling worse, and went home and took the dog for a little walk to keep things going.
I had tracked down my mom at work-she was planning to head up early the next morning and she told her boss she had to go and left Mt. Shasta right away to make it up for the big event. Matt's mom showed up early afternoon and hung out with us until the rest of the troops arrived (Matt's dad and my mom). By the time we had ordered some food for them (I was hungry, but trying to eat lightly-toast and such), Doug was timing my contractions and I was really stopping what I was doing and using concentrated breathing to get through them. I talked to the midwife and she was excited for me that things were happening on their own and joked that she was going to take credit for the natural labor start being due to her really good stretch job the previous day. I told her I totally give her credit-happily!
We went into the hospital right around 8pm, which is exactly when were supposed to show up for the cervical ripening anyways, what a coincidence!
Bets had been placed on how far dilated I was-Matt and I were both just hoping I was at 3cm, and wouldn't have to pace the halls before getting a room. But I was ready to do that at the hospital versus home by then anyways. My first check revealed we were at 4 cm!!! After spending a little time rolling around on a birthing ball, Matt and I headed into the little room with the tub for me to soak in. Which was awesome, and I did feel like it made a difference in the pain for me. The only downside was how hot the little room was (without fan). So I ate a grape popsickle and lots of ice chips while Matt put cool washcloths on my face and neck. I stayed in for about an hour, and this got us to about 6cm.
At this point, I was in some definite pain, and found the "slow dancing" type movement with Matt the most helpful so I could try to continue relaxing through the contraction so that I could just let them do the work they were trying to do. But I was ready for a little help so that I could keep relaxed in the name of progress. Since I had reached my goal of 5-7cm, I accepted an IV shot of Fentynal which made me sleepy and relaxed. It didn't necessarily take a lot of pain away, but the relaxation helped us progress and get a little rest so that when it wore off I was ready to accept an epidural. I had waited a little on this because I didn't want to loose mobility, but then I was ready to just hang out in bed.
The anesthesiologist placed the epidural quickly, but as the nurse had me keep switching sides to lay on (in an effort to get Tyler to turn because he was posterior) I mentioned that I still felt the contractions, and they were painful enough that I had to still use focused breathing to get through them. The anesthesiologist came back to turn the medicine up a little, but I could still feel everything on the right side only. The nurse seemed to think I had a lot of mobility left because it was relatively easy for me to switch sides. So the anesthesiologist got to come back again, and injected some extra in the tubing and then feeling was all gone in the middle and just severe pins and needles in my legs (but not painful). This made the exam telling me I reached 10 cm about an hour later (after I finally got a little sleep) pretty unfelt to me. My water still hadn't broken on its own, and it was hanging at a much lower station in the pelvis than Ty's head, so they broke it and I heard a GIANT gush of fluid.
When it got to the point that I could feel pressure again through the meds, we started pushing, and wow did the pain come back, but I didn't keep pushing the little button I had to up meds because I didn't want to be unable to push effectively or move my legs for getting into different positions.
Well pushing ended up taking about 4 hours before Tyler finally made his entry into the world. It was long, it was exhausting, I was starving and have never been so thirsty in my life even though I continued to take sips of water and juice. I threw up several times, and felt totally delerious for most of it. Tyler's head got stuck in my pelvis because it seems it turned a little again and wasn't at optimal angle. Did I mention I had tons of fun back labor throughout the day? It was amazing to finally look in the mirror and see a little bit of his hairy head and feel like I was finally getting close. We ended up with a new midwife and nurses at 8 in the morning for shift change. The first people we had were awesome, but the change brought in new energy that we all needed. They put me in all kind of positions and had a lot of encouragement on where to concentrate my pushing until we finally got him out. It was so weird when they flopped him up on my chest, this grumpy little baby is actually mine? Upon first glance at his features I was VERY surprised to see that he does look a good deal like me, which I was not counting on at all. I was very excited to see all his hair (which after seeing it clean and dry is a sandy light brown, like Matt's, not a darker brown like mine).
He checked out ok upon first arrival and during the three checks by the pediatricians. He had very slight jaundice and has developed a newborn rash which the pediatrician says is normal and will go away in a few more days.
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