I had mentioned in my 39 week update that I thought I was going into labor early on Mother's Day. It ended up being really bad Braxton Hicks contractions. I went about the day as normal, although I was more tired than usual. Around 10:55 pm on Mother's Day, I had this horrible pain in my back and lower stomach. The doctor had said that I would be able to tell what real contractions were because they would hurt really bad. Well this one was definitely one of those. For the next hour, I timed how far long my contractions were and the amount of time between them. The contractions lasted anywhere from 45 seconds to 1.5 minutes, with between 4 and 6 minutes between.
By midnight, I knew it was time to head to the hospital. I woke up Brett and told him this was the real thing. We finished packing our bags and took out Piper, who was so confused. I felt horrible leaving her, but I knew we had to get to the hospital. The nice thing about going into labor in the middle of the night was there was absolutely no traffic on the two lane road we had to drive on to get to the hospital.
Upon our arrival and registration, we were put in a triage room. This is the first of three rooms we would see while at the hospital. To my disappointment, I was still 1 centimeter dilated, which I had been for almost three weeks. Brett thinks the nurses didn't think I was in labor. They hooked me up to fetal and contraction monitors and watched me for the next 3 hours. By 4 am, I was 3 centimeters dilated. They moved me to the labor and delivery room.
I know a lot of people who opt for a birth without any pain medicine. I am not one of those people. By the time they moved me to the labor and delivery room, I was asking if there was any pain medicine I could have. They gave me some medicine in my IV, but prefaced it by saying it may cause hallucinations. Boy, did it ever. Within a minute, I was in a daze and could hardly open my eyes. The pain was definitely less intense. I think I may have gotten a little sleep, but I don't really know (remember I hadn't slept in over 24 hours because I went into labor early in the night).
At 6 am, they came to check me again. I was 4 centimeters. I could now get the epidural. They ordered the epidural for me and administered it around 7:30 am. It took some time to kick in, but when it did, it was glorious. No more pain. I could only feel the hardness in my upper abdomen during a contraction.
I was relaxing until all the sudden, the nurses came in my room like a swarm of bees. There were probably six or seven that rushed into the room. All I could gather was I had two contractions at once and Henry's heartbeat dropped to 67 bpm. Thankfully, they were able to move him around until his heart rate returned to normal.
Within 2.5 hours of the epidural (by 9:30 am), I had gone from 4 centimeters to 9.75 centimeters. The nurses were in touch with the doctor because I had progressed so quickly without any help or medicine. As I watched the contraction monitor, some of my contractions were so strong that they wouldn't even register. I was told that I couldn't push yet because I still had 0.25 centimeters to go. The nurses looked to gravity to do its job on getting me to 10 cm. I stayed at 9.75 centimeters for almost 3 hours.
By 11 am, my epidural was wearing off. The anesthesiologist administered a second dose, which kicked in right about when I was told to start pushing, which was around 12:15 pm. Because I didn't go to any classes, the nurse was able to coach me through how to push. I did 7 rounds of 3 pushes for 10 seconds each. By that point, Henry's heartbeat was dropping into the 60s again so they got out the vacuum and vacuumed him out. Henry was born at 12:38 pm.
There was our little cone head, head full of hair, little boy. I was relieved that he was alright, but I didn't cry. Brett told the nurse that after witnessing what he did, there is no way you can deny God, the Creator. The nurses whisked Henry away to get him cleaned up before I could see him. Brett had to tell me what he looked like. He measured at 7 pounds, 0.5 ounces and 21 inches long. Basically, perfect.
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| Our little guy after his first bath. |
Unfortunately, I obtained three tears during the process. I lost quite a bit of blood, and it took about 30 minutes to stitch me up. While they were doing that, Brett went to share the good news with his parents, who arrived 10 minutes before Henry was born.
While the epidural wore off, I found out that I had a fever of 100. An hour after I took Motrin, the fever had risen to 101.4. It was decided that I would be on two antibiotics for 24 hours. To be sure Henry was fine, they drew some blood from him. Man, was that heart-wrenching hearing him scream as they squeezed his foot. After I was able to walk, they transferred me to the room I would be staying in for the next two days.
Henry was up for almost 5 hours after he was born. I should have realized then that he wouldn't like sleeping. Hindsight in 20-20 I guess. The nurses kept on telling me to rest when he was sleeping, which wasn't often. Even if I wanted to rest, there were people coming in my room probably every 30 minutes to switch my antibiotics, draw more blood, give me food, run tests, or just to see how I was doing. The hospital we were at keeps the child in the room with the mom unless the child is having health problems or needs some newborn tests. To say the least, it wore me out.
My parents made it to the hospital the day after Henry was born. My mom and Gail, my mother-in-love, just gushed over Henry. Brett's and my dad were pretty excited too.
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| Grammy |
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| Papa |
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| Pops and Nana |
Because I was on antibiotics through my IV, we had to stay until Wednesday morning. I was so ready to go home and see Piper. People told me I wouldn't miss her, but I missed her something terrible. When we got home, Piper wasn't sure what to think of Henry. She actually stayed away from me for most of the day. It broke my heart. Now, things are great with Henry and Piper. More on that later though.
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| Our family |
I hope you enjoyed reading about our Henry John's entry into this big world. Be on the lookout for more pictures and posts about how we're doing.
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