(sorry - really long post, probably too much information, but if I don't write it here I probably won't write it down anywhere)
Pre D-Day (Delivery Day):
I went to my appointment on the 20th, and was still at a 5 (I'd been that way for over a week). Dr. B and I talked about my options. She was supportive of me waiting to go into labor on my own (my due date was the 25th), however she was also concerned that once baby did decide to come, he would come very, very quickly. We live about 40 minutes from the hospital, and she worried I'd be having a freeway delivery (especially if baby came during rush hour). She asked if I wanted to be induced and after weighing it out in my mind - baby on the freeway vs. baby at the hospital - I decided the induction would probably be best, and we scheduled it for Friday.
The next day and a half were an absolute emotional roller coaster. I wanted baby to make his entrance on his own, yet I was scared of not making it to the hospital. I liked the idea of having a relatively "controlled" delivery, but I felt like I was cheating somehow. Seth, as always, was my strength and comfort.
D-Day:
We woke up bright and early and dropped Hazel off at Seth's aunt's house (Grandma H would be by later to pick her up). I was still a bit of a nervous wreck. And I think Seth was a little antsy too, we ended up at the hospital close to an hour early. We headed over to the mall and hung out with the mall-walkers (it was 8 am). I am grateful for that hour I had with Seth, we talked and joked and he helped me forget my fears.
We arrived at the hospital and the nurses went right to work. They started a very minimal dose of pitocin around 10:15am. As the pitocin kicked in, I began to feel mild contractions. I then realized I'd been feeling contractions all week, I just didn't recognize them...whoops! Dr. B wanted my contractions to be in a pattern before they started my epidural, and she wanted the epidural in before she broke my water, because, well...she knew it would go quickly.
Within a few hours the contractions were coming regularly and relatively close together.
The anesthesiologist arrived just before 1 and gave me my epidural. I must not have been in as much pain as I was with Hazel (definitely not) - because I didn't have the strong desire to kiss the anesthesiologist. Because I wasn't in much pain, they started me on a very low level of epidural goodies.
Dr. B came back in soon after and broke my water, they had stopped the pitocin when I got the epidural, and she didn’t want to start it back up because she needed to go do a C-section on another patient. Seth was glad to see that my water was nice and uh, clear.
(Hazel’s definitely wasn’t - TMI? Oh well!)
Baby was determined to arrive, and I guess my little body was also determined, so I kept up the contractions on my own. Dr. B had warned me (several million times) that once he decided he was ready to come, the contractions would get very intense and things would go very quickly.
Well…thankfully I held out while she did her surgery. Around 3:45 the contractions started to get intense, and I was now cursing the lack of strong epidural. When they decided to ramp up I got a little scared. I remember looking at the clock at 4:03 and thinking holy smokes – this HURTS! That is when I started watching the clock, breathing and counting. Each contraction would last about 60 seconds, and there was maybe 30 seconds in between.
Dr. B had the anesthesiologist come back to give me a little extra epidural kick. However, I am not sure that 10 minutes is enough time for it to kick in, I told the nurse that I really wanted to push and Dr. B came right back in. The pain was um, strong. She told me to push on my next contraction and I sure did. Oh, sweet mercy, it hurt. I panicked, I pushed for over two hours with Hazel, (but the pain wasn’t this intense until the very end) – and I just thought to myself, how on earth can I deal with this pain for the NEXT TWO HOURS?? Dr. B, the nurse and your dad were my biggest cheerleaders, she told me to give one more good hard push… his big bowling ball head came out. But not his shoulders. (Darn baby!). Deep breath and another gigantic push and wow. There he was.
Purple, slimy, crying and perfect. 4:28pm.
Perfection.
(Seth later told me that Baby came out with a WHOOSH of high-powered water, apparently there was still a LOT of amniotic fluid in there with him…didn’t know I’d provided an Olympic size pool!)
I held baby while Seth cut the cord and then the nurse took him to clean and measure him. Dr. B stayed and talked to me for quite some time, she talked about her own experience, and how scared she’d been to bring a second child home, how the first adapts so well, how your heart just grows and grows to love more, and she got choked up. It was so wonderful. Yes, I had been scared of labor and delivery, but I’d also been so scared of how Hazel would react.
Our conversation was the perfect ending to an overall enjoyable delivery.
