Fast and Easy, pretty much
Monday, September 12th, 2011That explains Laura’s birth story. Two months ago today went like this…
I’m not sure when my labor with Laura actually started. I had contractions that I thought were real in the middle of the night/early in the morning on Sunday/Monday that woke me up every hour or so. So, on Monday morning when I got up, I told Fred that I was having contractions and that he should probably call off work (we both assumed that since my labors were pretty short with both boys that this one would go quickly too). His summer job is at an adventure camp with middle school kids. They take the kids to different places each day, like to Portage Lakes to canoe or different parks to mountain bike or things like that. It’s not a job he can just leave in the middle of the day. After he called off and we got the boys off to the baby sitter’s, my contractions stopped. So we took the morning and did some errands and had lunch, just Fred and I. My contractions didn’t come back all day. So we went to pick up the boys. And I cried, because I really thought that I was going into labor. I couldn’t believe I was wrong! This is my third pregnancy and I was wrong. It was embarrassing. But my contractions had stopped by 9 a.m. and didn’t come back until early Tuesday morning again.
Until around noon on Tuesday, I had contractions off and on. I didn’t pay too much attention to them though, because I was still upset about the day before. By 1:30 p.m. though, I knew it wasn’t going to be long; they were coming between 10 and 15 minutes apart and were pretty strong. We put the boys down for their naps and I went to take a shower. My contractions were coming closer together so after I got out of the shower I called my ob office. The nurse told me to come in to the office before going to the hospital, just to make sure I didn’t rush there for no reason (though I was pretty sure this was the real deal this time!). So I told Fred we needed to get the boys back up (they weren’t sleeping anyway). We went to the dr’s office first, where I was promptly told to go straight to the hospital (I was 5 cm dialated, 100% effaced and having strong contractions about 5 minutes apart). So we took the boys to the babysitter’s and then went back home, because I needed to finish packing my bag (which Fred gave me a hard time about, but really, it didn’t take me long).
I got my bag together and we got in the car. As we got to the intersection for the first main road out of our neighborhood, we remembered they were doing some construction on the road, which was limiting traffic to one lane. And a few days before, we had sat at the intersection for over 20 minutes waiting for the traffic controlling construction worker to wave us through the intersection. So Fred rolled down his window and shouted to the flagger, “My wife is in labor!” and the guy gave him a funny look, so Fred said “I’m serious!” and the guy spoke into his little radio and waved us through. As we were passing the construction, I swear I heard guys talking on their radios about “she’s in labor” One guy tried to get Fred (who was going a little fast) to slow down. I just couldn’t believe we had really just used that excuse.
We got to the hospital at about 3:30. Fred was rushing around and didn’t even want to wait on the valet parking attendant, so he found me a wheel chair, helped me out of the car (my contractions were every couple minutes by now) and parked me there while he parked the car. A nice older woman came over to wheel me out of the way and asked me if this was my first. I wasn’t really in a state for small talk, but I told her this was my 3rd. She said “good luck and God bless!” And then Fred came back, ready to wheel me in.
When we got to the labor and delivery check-in, the nurses already had everything ready for me, so I was given my bracelet and a paper to sign then Fred and the nurse wheeled me back to a room. I was pretty disappointed when I noticed the labor room they brought me to didn’t have a tub. I really attributed being able to labor in a nice warm tub to my success of going through labor with both boys drug free. So I asked the nurse if a room with a tub was available. She was a little surprised, I don’t think she had ever assisted in a birth in which the tub was used. She seemed a little nervous, but let me switch rooms anyway.
So in the room they but in the IV block (which I was not happy with), just in case I needed it later and started filling up the tub. Then the nurse checked me and said I was at 8cm. So from about in about an hour and a half, I had dilated 3cm. With the tub all full, I climbed in. I was only in there maybe 15 minutes before I felt like I had to push. So I told the nurse I was ready to get out. Then she kind of panicked because the doctor still wasn’t there. He wasn’t even in the hospital. She tried to get me to wait for him to check me one more time before starting to push, but after a few minutes, she just decided to check me her self. As she went to check, I had a contraction and she decided I was ready.
I started pushing just as the doctor came in the door. I think I pushed through 3 contractions and Laura was born. The doctor literally came in just in time to catch her. And I guess, according to Fred, he really had to catch her, because I pushed so hard she kind of shot out. By this time, I had barely been in the hospital for an hour!
Afterwards, they hooked me up to an IV (which had I known was an option I would have declined, it wasn’t necessary) and let me cuddle my itty bitty baby girl for what seemed like forever (in a good way!). With the boys I had been shooed out of the delivery room after an hour. I think I spent 3 hours there with Laura. So much different to have a baby during the day than in the middle of the night! The labor nurse was great, she never left the room while I was in labor. Then after Laura was born, she gave us a little homemade knit hat with a little flower on it. She said some of the nurses made them for newborns, but I had never been given any for the boys. Overall, I was really blessed to have yet another easy, fast labor!
Oliver was liking the strawberries more than the water.
