Delivery Day

Baby Will finally joined us on Monday, October 22.  That stinker was six days late, and had us all very anxious to meet him.  We tried everything to get labor moving, starting when he was 2 days late.  I don’t think any of it did anything, other than make me tired!

I started having contractions around 5pm on Sunday, but the timing between them was not showing any patterns.  Some of them were 20 minutes apart, and some were 5 minutes apart.  I was waiting for them to be 5 minutes apart, and last for one minute, for one hour, like we learned in class.  We were watching the Steelers game and decided to call the midwife to see if I should come in, because on occasion, the contractions were very close together.  She encouraged me to come in, and lucky enough for Billy, it was half time, and the waiting room at the hospital had a big screen TV with the game on.  The triage room did too, so we were able to see the Steelers get a W.  Priorities, people.

Upon admission, I was 5cm and I was able to move to the Labor & Delivery suite.  They made me lay down in the bed to monitor the baby which was, what I thought the most uncomfortable position to be in, when each contraction came.  I only had to be in bed, with the monitors for 15 minutes every hour, but it was still felt awful each time I had to lay down.  The pain became increasingly worse and I was vomiting frequently.  I wanted so bad to deliver without drugs, but after nine hours in the hospital and only dilating two more centimeters, I asked for the epidural.  Once I made the decision, I wanted the anesthesiologist there STAT.  

When they stuck the needle in my back, they put it in too far and explained to me that I would have a chance of severe headache the next day.  At that point, I did not care because I was pain free in the moment.

Fast forward 6.5 blissful and painfree hours later, it was time to push and our baby was delivered after 45 minutes of pushing.  It was the best moment!  I couldn’t believe he was finally here, and thinking back, it seems a bit like a dream and a blur.  I’m glad we have some pictures, so we won’t ever forget it.

On our way out, to the recovery room, Billy told the nurses that we would be back in 10 months.  They said they were surprised I did not punch him on the spot!  Oh…he thinks he is funny!

What the anesthesiologist predicted, came true and I had a migraine-like headache the next day.  They came back to do a blood patch, where they put my own blood in my back to clot the leak.  It helped for a day or so, but I was back to the hospital later in the week to have the procedure done again.  I mean, who doesn’t love needles in their back?  These complications seem minor compared to the awesomeness we have experienced in the past week and they by no means overshadow any of joy we have, now that Will is here.

So there is the birth story…with a little extra.   I will try to write more later, or later this week with some of the funny stories and pictures.