My labor story

It has been five weeks (as of last Sunday) since I gave birth to Emmory, and I realized that I haven't recorded the story yet of how it all happened. Everybody knows that every mama loves to share her labor story, and I wanted to write mine down before I forget things about it, because there are probably things I have already forgotten (which may be a good thing, haha). So...mine begins on April 24th, 2009, it is a Friday and Mark has a baseball game in Landrum that night, so my mom, mom-in-law, and I decide to go up there a little early to look around the town, because I had heard it was a cute little town with cute little shops. Before we left, I had a fairly big nesting spurt, I was dusting everything in our bedroom, moving the furniture around, getting underneath the bed, etc (I was concerned about our room because that is where E was going to be sleeping at first), and then after we got back, at ten or eleven at night, I was back to cleaning. All afternoon while we were in Landrum I was having fairly frequent braxton hicks contractions, I could feel my uterus tighten and harden much more often than I ever had before, and it continued during the game. Later that night after we made it back from the game without me going into labor, and after I had stopped cleaning (by my husbands request) Mark and I were sitting on the couch and I told him I was going to go into labor during the night. Now I am definitely not one of those people that gets those "gut feelings" and then are convinced that is the way it is going to be, I didn't even have a guess as to whether Emmory was going to be a boy or girl, but for whatever reason I just knew I was going to go into labor (actually I guess the reason was the events described above). Mark laughed and when he went to bed he told me, sarcastically, "wake me up when you start having contractions". I could not sleep and laid on the couch watching tv, and from about 12-2 Emmory was moving around inside of me non-stop like crazy, he had never moved that much for that extended period of time before. I finally got tired enough to go to bed, however I was restless all night; I just felt strange. Then, at some point in the early morning I started to feel something, but I tried to ignore it and keep sleeping. However I couldn't ignore it for too long, and at 7:28am when I felt what I thought was a contraction, I looked at the clock to see what time it was, laid back down, and waited for it to happen again. I felt it again, looked at the clock, and it was 7:38. This happened two more times, each time ten minutes apart, so I sat up and woke Mark up and told him. I was soo hopeful that this was the real thing, because I was scheduled to be induced that next Tuesday morning and I really wanted it to happen on its own. I didn't want to get too excited though in case it wasn't what I thought it was. However the contractions kept coming at regular intervals, so we started to prepare for it being the real thing. Mark left to take care of a few quick errands he needed to, I woke my mom up and told her, did some laundry and other tidying up, and tried to eat and relax. At some point during the day the contractions got a little closer together, but then the got farther apart again, although when they got farther apart they got stronger. Meanwhile my mom had packed food for herself and Mark for the hospital, and packed a bag for herself to bring, and set it all by the door. I mention this because I will always remember us getting ready, thinking we were going to be going to the hospital soon, at least in a few hours, but that is not what happened. The contractions just would not get closer together, and time kept ticking by. Finally around 5pm Mark and I decided to go for a walk (our 2nd of the day) and the contractions got closer together, about 6 minutes apart, and stronger. When we got back I decided to go out to the backyard and keep walking around, because I did not want the contractions to slow back down again. I walked around in the shade (it was pretty hot that day), and then when I would have a contraction I would sit in the rocking chair and rock, and txt Mark and let him know. He was at the computer timing the contractions, and after doing that for about an hour, they were 5 mintues apart the entire time, finally we could go to the hospital! We left at 6:30pm, totally excited that this was finally going to happen after waiting all day! When we got to the hospital and the nurse checked me to see how dilated I was, I was only 3cm. I was very discouraged because I thought, if it took this long to dilate three cm, this is going to take forever! Well it turns out I was right. The doctor decided to admit me, but the labor just continued to progress really slowly. I don't think being stuck in a hospital bed with the annoying fetal moniter strapped around me helped, thankfully I convinced them to let me move around in the room every once in a while, and every so often the nurse would come in and have me get hooked back up to the moniter to check Emmory's heartrate. When I was able to move around I got to sit in a rocking chair when I would have a contraction, which for whatever reason was the most helpful way for me to cope with the contractions. When I got checked again, I think around 11 or 12 that night, I was only 4cm. The nurse told me that the doctor planned to start me on pitocin the next morning, and that I should try and get some rest because it was going to be a very long day tomorrow. She suggested I take a sleeping pill, which I was hesitant about, but Mark thought it would be a good idea, so I ended up doing it. The sleeping pill did help me relax a little and I was able to sleep for a few hours, I would just wake up during each contraction, then doze off in between. At some point during the night the contractions got too strong for me to be able to sleep through, and thankfully during that time I got a new nurse (the first nurse I had was neither helpful nor friendly, and she blew out my vein when she put in my IV, but that's another story) and she was very helpful and told me if I wanted I could move the rocking chair next to the fetal moniter so that I could sit there the entire time without having to get back in the bed. I labored in the rocking chair for a while, and then at 6am the nurse checked me, and I was 7cm! She told me she could ask the doctor if he would let me not get the pitocin if I didn't want it, since I was 7cm. I didn't want it so she asked and he said I didn't have to have it. A few more hours passed and the doctor came in to check me, and I was 8cm. He also broke my water as it hadn't broken on its own. A few more hours passed, it was around 11am now, the contractions were very frequent and intense, I had been feeling it in my lower abdomen, around my back, and down my thighs the whole time, and I was definitely very, very tired and worn out. I made it the whole time up to this point without any pain meds, my husband was an incredible coach and the breathing really did help get me through it. Suddenly, with one of the contractions, I felt the urge to push. The nurse saw my face during it and knew that's what was going on, so she came over and checked me. When I felt the urge to push I was so relieved, I thought, I've finally made it! Well, when she checked me, I was still only 8-9 cm. At that point I lost it mentally. I had labored in transition for over two hours and hadn't even dilated 1 cm. At this point I really wanted an epidural. I decided to wait it out a few more contractions just to make sure things didn't progress really fast, as after the nurse checked me she had me empty my bladder because I hadn't in a very long time. While I waited it out I had them start the fluids for the epidural in case I decided to get one, so I wouldn't have to wait a long time once I decided to. Once I got the needed fluids in me, I still didn't have the urge to push again, so I got the epidural. This was definitely one of the hardest parts of the labor, because in order to get the epidural I had to sit up on the edge of the bed and be completely still the entire time, while I am having intense contractions that are basically one on top of the other...not an easy thing to do. I basically had to blow air out of my mouth to keep myself still while a needle was going through my back that could possibly paralyze me if I moved. Thankfully it went well, I didn't move nor get paralyzed, and the epidural worked really fast, once I laid back down I didn't feel another ounce of pain, and it was the most wonderful thing in the world! However I did end up getting nauscious and throwing up twice during the rest of the labor, I'm not sure if it was from the epidural or from the labor, because they say nausea is a sign of being in transition. Anyways, the labor continued to progress slowly after getting the epidural, (big surprise there), and after a few more hours the nurse started me on pitocin so I could get to 10 cm and push this baby out already. She was really nice and gave me the most she could in the fastest time she could, because she knew it had been a LONG couple of days for us. Finally, 3 hours after getting the epidural, I was 10cm and was able to start pushing. I was so thankful for having the epidural because with the high dose of pitocin I was having MONSTER contractions, but I had no clue unless I was looking at the moniter. Once I was able to start pushing I was determined that I was going to push this baby out as fast as I could, since this was the one thing about the labor that I could kind of control, and everything else had taken forever. Thankfully, the time between the first push with the nurse and when the doctor caught Emmory was only 30 minutes, the only part of the labor that went faster than the average first time childbirth. Emmory William Steenback was born at 2:20 pm on April 26th, weighing 7 lbs 12 ozs, 21 1/2 inches long. It was definitely one of the most exhausting, painful experiences of my life, however it was also THE MOST incredible, amazing experience of my life. And for those of you who have not yet experienced this but are going to in the future, this may make you feel better...a few days after Emmory's birth I was wearing a tshirt from college from my basketball team that said "I survived The Master's College woman's basketball preseason conditioning", and my dad commented that now I need a shirt that says, "I survived labor and delivery"; I stopped to think about it and said, "actually I'd rather go through labor and delivery again than preseason." I think that would make my basketball coach feel good too, haha.
Well that's it...whew this ended up being long, but hey that should be expected when the labor is 31 hours long!