That Monday night I started having contractions. They weren't too bad at first,but uncomfortable enough to wake me up during each one. I continued to have contractions for the next four days! I labored with Zander for five days until I couldn't take it anymore. All day Tuesday the contractions kept coming and even more so that night. I kept track of them so I would know if and when I needed to call my midwife and head to the hospital. They were five minutes apart for four and a half hours that night, but started to slow down by 3:30 am. I stayed up until 6:00 that morning and they still continued throughout the day and into Wednesday.
These contractions were nothing like I was expecting. I had A LOT of back labor which made them even worse. I practiced my breathing while I laid on my back or got on my hands and knees and rocked back and forth until they passed. Every contraction lasted right around a minute, but several times throughout I'd have one that would last for two minutes. I called mom because I was in pain, but it felt like nothing was happening, so I became anxious and SO frustrated that all I could do was cry. Mom made me feel better, as always, as best she could. Thursday afternoon the contractions started to get super intense, so I decided to bake some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to try and take my mind off things....it didn't work. It was a good thing Stephen came home because I had to have him finish baking them so I could go lay down. We went to bed that night, but I got zero sleep. The contractions got worse, even so that I had to pee during every one of them so I kept having to get up and go to the bathroom about every other one. I kept telling Stephen that I had to get an epidural because I couldn't take the pain anymore.
Friday morning arrived after another sleepless night and they were as strong as ever. I had Stephen call Julie, my midwife, to see if I could go to the hospital and tell her I needed an epidural. Julie wasn't on call so he talked to the other midwife who told him we needed to get to the hospital right away. I couldn't get there fast enough. I thought I was going to die and the baby would come before we reached the hospital, but we made it and lucky for me I was already dilated to a seven so I decided to stick with my original plan and deliver unmedicated.
I got into the labor and delivery room and immediately got in the bathtub. Ahhhh, it felt so good to soak in the warm water. I was in there for about an hour before I had to get out and get checked again. I was at a nine plus. Almost there! Julie arrived to see if I wanted my water broken, but she had another patient who was also ready to push, so she left me for an agonizing hour to deliver the other baby. She finally got back and broke my water. I was so sleep deprived I felt a little delirious as to what was going on. I certainly didn't have the strength I needed to push this baby out. The pushing was the hardest part. I had no idea what I was in for. The worst contractions came after my water broke and then it was time to push. I didn't know how to push and Julie was trying to tell me what to do but I was confused at first and in too much pain to fully understand what she wanted from me. I only pushed for 10 minutes which felt like forever. The head came first and Stephen and the nurses were all cheering me on. I still had the shoulders and I pushed and pushed all while screaming and yelling. I was almost there. I pushed what I thought would be my last, but he was still in there! I was so confused, so I yelled at Julie to GET HIM OUT! And one more push he was lying on my chest. I couldn't believe it. I did it! All the nurses told me how brave and strong I was for going natural, and how impressed they were with how calm I was during my contractions.
Stephen cut the cord as I stared at my little boy and cried. Stephen was a great support and helped me as best he could to endure the pain. He was very hands on, and surprisingly the only thing that he struggled with was watching them put the IV in my arm. After the placenta was delivered Julie kept pushing on my stomach/uterus as blood gushed out all over the floor. More and more came out until Julie had to either give me pitocen or a blood transfusion because I wouldn't stop bleeding. My uterus stopped contracting to stop the blood flow. After that I found out that I did tear quite a bit--I had a third degree tear which took about an hour to stitch up. I was beyond exhausted. I couldn't stay awake, but the nurses kept coming by every so often to push on my uterus to empty out the blood, and that hurt. I went into recovery to finally get some sleep.
I took full advantage of my 48 hour stay at the hospital as did Stephen--he stayed the night with me both nights even though we wouldn't get too much sleep. I was recovering quite nicely.
Dad's first time changing his diaper
I gave a chocolate cigar to Stephen as soon as Zander was born to celebrate him becoming a father like they did back in the day, haha I love this picture!
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