This is the Labor and Delivery story about Easton. Some may not care about these details but I'm afraid I will forget, so this is really for my memory.
It started the night before, on the 23rd, all had been as normal as it had been with my pregnancy. I went to work Monday and worked my 8 hour shift with no problems. It was a normal night at home too. We ate dinner and watched some TV. I decided I would update my blog with some overdue belly posts and nursery pictures, while Kevin went to bed. While I was updating the blog I noticed that I was having some, more intense than normal, braxton hicks contractions. I had been having these for weeks now so I didn't think much of them. I finished up blogging with just my 38 week belly post left to do. I figured I would just take my picture the next day and post about it then. We had scheduled to take our tour of the new women's facility at Brookwood and I had my 39 week appointment the next day also.
I went downstairs to head to bed (about 9:30pm) but couldn't quit focusing on how intense these "braxton hicks" were. I laid in bed and tried to sleep but those "braxton hicks" were keeping me awake. I was always nervous that I wouldn't know when I was in labor. The good thing was that I knew braxton hicks are inconsistent and sporadic with their timing. So just to make sure I pulled up the contraction timing app from my phone and started to time them. It seemed like they just happened to be every 10-12 minutes. That's funny because braxton hicks have no rhythm. I was afraid to admit to myself that this might be actual labor. It was 10 days before my due date. I also didn't want to wake Kevin up for a false alarm. I wanted to be sure. So I called the doctors office (11 pm) and it just so happened that my doctor was on-call. I told her the situation and she told me to wait at home until they were every 5-7 minutes. So back to the bedroom I went. I continued to time them and realized that by now they were every 7 minutes. I decided, this must be it! So I proceeded to wake Kevin up. I would shake him and say his name and all I got out of him was, "OK, I'm up I'm up" (with a half asleep voice). I did this for several times until he FINALLY woke up. I said to him, "I really think you need to get up! We might need to go to the hospital." I don't think it quite clicked with him. He slowly got out of bed and went to the laundry room to look for his clothes. He thought I was waking him up because it was time for him to go to work. Once he realized what was going on he kicked into overdrive. He was running around the bedroom throwing last minute things into my bag and his. (oddly enough he had just packed his bag before he went to bed). We ran out of the house with the car seat in tow. Guess we were going to be taking our own tour of the new women's center.
On the way to the hospital Kevin informed me that he had been having trouble sleeping the past few nights and that he chose THAT night to take a sleeping pill! Ha! That's why I had so much trouble waking him up! To add to it, we were caught by a train on the way to the interstate. (by the way, why do the trains pick 11:30 pm to run through Pelham?! Or anytime I'm in a hurry to get somewhere) On top of that, after calling my parents to tell them, Kevin called his parents. It just so happened that his dad had to go down to the beach for business for 1 night only. (Kaye didn't go just in case E was born) He left his phone downstairs to charge and went upstairs to sleep. Also Kevin's mom had her phone charging next to her bed, but on the floor where she couldn't hear it. So needless to say we could NOT get in touch with either of them. Kevin called probably 30 times each! He left messages for them both and we continued to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital at about 12 am. We got checked into our L & D room. I was already 2-2 1/2 cm dilated from my doctor's appt on Jan. 17th. I was 3-4 cm when we arrived at the hospital. Once it was confirmed that I our boy was coming that day, I called the girls at work to say, "Im having a baby today and won't make it to work." haha! We finally got in touch with Kaye and she couldnt believe that she had missed so many phone calls. She came to the hospital and She, my mom and Kevin were with me during Labor. Tommy, on the other hand, still wasnt answering.
I told the nurse that I didn't want to be a hero and have a drug free birth but that I wanted to see how far I could go before getting the epidural. She gave me Neubaine to take the edge off of the contractions. She told me it would feel like I had had a couple of margaritas. Well, it felt more like I had had a couple of pitchers of margaritas, and it didn't take the edge off. I was dizzy and nauseated! yuk! I was able to hold out until 6-7 cm dilated before getting the epidural. The contractions were just becoming so frequent and getting more intense. The needle for the epidural didn't bother me. I didn't even know he was poking me. The worst part was having to sit hunched over the bed while having contractions! Once the epidural was on board (and the Neubaine too) I began feeling very sedate. It was almost like I couldn't remember to breathe because I was so sedated. They had to put the O2 on me because they said my O2 stat was low, not the baby's. About an hour after giving me my epidural my water broke. Not long after that we started pushing. It only took about 5-6 pushes and our baby boy was born!! The little man who had been kicking me was finally out and on my chest! We did skin to skin for about 45 minutes. It was AMAZING! He was so alert and relaxed. Once Easton was born, Kevin's dad still not there, Kevin sent him a text message with a picture of E that said, "Im here, Where are you??" lol!
Afterwards we headed up to our actual room where all of our family got to come and see our newest addition. Overall Pregnancy, Labor and Delivery were quick and easy for me. I hope I can say the same later in life for the second go around. =) What an AMAZING experience to say the least!! Definitely the most wonderful day of my life!
