Lucas's Birth Story

I knew I was going to go early. After I got sick I was hoping not to, but at 38 weeks I was laying in bed asleep. Stephen came to bed late that night around 1:00 I kinda woke up when he got into bed, so I turned over to fall back asleep, but as I did, I got a little wet. I've never really leaked urine before so I wondered, but it was only a little bit, and I didn't want to fully wake up to go to the bathroom, so I ignored it and fell asleep. An hour later at 2:00 am I couldn't ignore it anymore, plus I really had to use the restroom. I got up, and after I went to the bathroom there was another big gush of water that went into the toilet. My water didn't break with Zander, so I wasn't quite sure what to think especially since I still had a few weeks to go. I was still stick, by the way, I had a bad cough and was congested, etc... I went back the bedroom and told Stephen I thought my water broke, but I hadn't felt any contractions. I didn't know what to do. Should I wait to see if I start contracting? Should I call my midwife? Do I need to go to the hospital now? I had no clue. I tried walking around the house for a while to see if I could get the contractions going, but no luck. I called the midwife on call to see what I needed to do. She told me if I didn't start contracting then I needed to go the hospital between 7:00 and 8:00 so I could relax and get some rest. Of course I couldn't sleep well knowing my water had broken and the baby would soon be coming. I was still concerned about having no contractions. I got as much sleep as I could, but about an hour and half later I started having mild contractions, but nothing I really needed to breathe through yet. They were about 40-60 minutes apart, so he wasn't coming any time soon.

I got Stephen up at 7:00 and told him we needed to drop Zander off at Rachel's and head to the hospital. Paula, the midwife called to see if I had left yet. My midwife Julie, was out of town that weekend; I was pretty bummed. She told me at my appointment three days earlier NOT to have the baby that weekend. I was sure I wasn't going to, but surprise! Anyway, we stopped at McDonald's for some breakfast on the way to the hospital. I was starved. Good thing we did because I wouldn't have gotten to eat until dinner time after delivering the baby. We got to the hospital and saw they were having some sort of fun run type event going on in front of the labor and delivery building, so there were tons of people walking around the hospital inside and out. I got out of the car with another gush of water. My pants were soaked through as I waddled my way up to the third floor. I was kind of embarrassed, but not, because, hello, I'm having a baby!

I was still really sick with that bad cold virus, so having a natural birth was out of the question at that point. I asked for an epidural. Delivery went pretty fast. They started me on pitocin and I just couldn't handle the contractions because I couldn't breathe and coughing HUUUURT during a contraction! I was only dilated to a two and I had the anesthesiologist come give it to me. I couldn't get it fast enough! Stephen went home for about an hour or two to mow the lawn and clean my pants and get some things I had forgotten in my bag, so he missed all the epidural stuff. When he got back I had dilated to a four after an hour. we waited another hour and I was at a six. The midwife had been called and was making her way to the hospital when a few minutes later I was fully dilated! I had to wait for her to get to the hospital before I could push. That's about long she was there for--catch the baby and stitch up a little tear.

Lucas was born at 2:22 pm. His birth was so easy and quick with the epidural. He was really purple when he came out and they handed him to me. He was SO tiny! Stephen cut the cord as I held him for a while until they weighed him and everything. He was perfectly healthy and Stephen and I were so excited to meed him! I couldn't wait for Zander to meet him either.

Zander came to visit the next morning to meet his little brother.