Two weeks before little Ollie was born, I was dilated to a 2 and 50% effaced, and my doctor knew that I would have my little boy at any time. Well the next week came along, it was a Monday, and I was then dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. My doctor told me that it would be anytime now and that he did not think I would make it to my next weeks appointment the following Monday, however, there was a 50/50 chance I would make it to that Monday. I had been having contractions every 5 minutes at this point, and we even had almost gone into the hospital the Saturday before as some of the contractions I was having were hard to breath through. So hearing I most likely would not be pregnant for another week gave me false hope. Day after day came for the next week and my contractions which had progressed from 10 minutes apart to every 5 minutes just started to diminish. It was so disappointing and I hate admitting this but I was not wanting to go into church that following Sunday and teach my nursery kids... just the idea of running and chasing crazy 3 and 4 years olds did not sound appealing and was not especially for how pregnant I was. So that night I came to the conclusion I was going to be pregnant FOREVER! I knew that I was going to have to go to my appointment in the morning, and I remember calling my mom and telling her that I was going to beg the doctor in the morning to strip my membranes so that I would no longer have the pain I was experiencing in my hips. Well 3:30 AM rolled around and I got up to go use the restroom as had become routine in the past few months and afterwards I just laid in bed frustrated that my contractions were going nowhere. Well I started to notice that my contractions were getting stronger and that they were starting to get closer together like they had the previous week, and since those led to nothing I decided that I would go to bed as I had my appointment in the morning anyways. Well I was unable to go to sleep, as just the thought and feeling persisted in my mind of anticipation very similar to the anticipation of the gifts from Santa as a kid Christmas eve. So I started to time the contractions it was about 5 AM and they were about 5 minutes apart and about 45 seconds long. But like I said my contractions the week before did not progress and died off so I assumed that was the case this time, and I was not really going into labor.
So I waited till Kasey got up, and I told him we would go to the appointment and that I was not able to sleep as I was having tons of contractions and they were getting stronger. A this point Kasey started to help me time the contractions while I got dressed and ready for the day, and all of the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. So Kasey and I quickly head out the door to my appointment and there we were. I remember walking in and just mentioning that I thought I was in labor. Dr. Glenn did not measure my fundal height or listen for baby's heart beat he just did a pelvic exam and I was 4 cm dilated and 100% effaced. He asked if we had our bags in the car, to which we responded that we didn't because we lived down the street, and then he asked how far the contractions were apart, to which we told him about 5 minutes. He then told us to go home and grab our bags, and continue timing the contractions and then to come back to the hospital and check into labor and delivery.
So that is exactly what we did. Now since going into labor is completely unexpected we did not plan ahead for Chief... and we could not leave him at home for days without someone coming to take him out or feed him, luckily we had 2 savior's to help us with Chief. Kasey's brother Korlyn was able to go to our home and wait till a pet sitter named Sarah came and picked up Chief from our home to take to her house. Seriously such a life saver! She even dropped him back off to our home when we got home from the hospital.... I mean what pet sitter does that, she seriously is awesome! But we grabbed our bags and went straight to labor and delivery where they put us in room 522 and told me to get in the very flattering butt showing gown, and then hooked me up to monitors to check on Ollie's heart rate and my contraction levels. After an hour I had only dilated half a centimeter, but since I had a lot of bloody show and my doctor called they checked me into the hospital.
I was 37 weeks and 6 days pregnant so they did not want to give me pitocin into my iv drip, (thank goodness because I did not want pitocin). But since I was not progressing very fast and my water had not broken, they called Dr. Glenn who then said he would be over to break my water for me. I was not sure about that but when he came about 2 hours later, and brought the white pick to pluck my bag of waters I felt like I should trust him. Well I am glad I did.
Time continued to pass and because they broke my water, my contractions started to be closer together and a lot stronger. I was at 5 cm by this point and was hoping that my contractions would move me along a lot faster. During this time I remember Kasey doing homework, coordinating with his job, and studying for a test.
My contractions continued to get stronger and I started feeling a lot of pain in my legs, so I asked them to put the pain meds in my IV drip as I was going to try and go through labor without an epidural. I got really sleepy and droopy when they gave me the meds, and it was nice because I was able to rest for another hour. They came in a checked me and I was then dilated to a 6, and the medication started to wear off. I had no back labor pain, and all the pain was in my legs and hips, and luckily the pain in my abdomen was not too bad. I think my gall bladder pain was way worse abdomen pain but the pain was pretty similar for me. But really the pain that got me was the pain in my legs that would get so bad I couldn't get myself to breath or move even though I knew moving would help with the pain.
So I called in my nurse ( she was 9 months pregnant and her due date was in 4 weeks) and asked to get more pain meds into my drip but by the time she got back, I had decided that if I was going to be in labor for another 12 hours I could not deal with the pain that long... so I asked for the epidural. Now I was so scared that the epidural would do something to paralyze me or it would cause me to stop progressing sending me into the operating room to have a c-section, and the anesthesiologist thankfully assured me it would be okay and that if anything it would help me relax so that labor could progress faster. I then sat on the edge of the bed and they put the catheter in my back and I did not really even feel it. My nurse was so right when she said that the IV in my arm would hurt a lot worse, because it did.
I then felt the epidural working and it made it so I could not feel anything from the waist down except for a tingly feeling in my left foot. I could not move my right leg at all! It felt too heavy. From here on out I just remember resting and halfway hearing the TV which was tuned into FOX news talking about North Korea bombing South Korea. I fell asleep most of the time and the doctor would slip in or the nurse, and then at 6 pm they did a routine check to see how far I was dilated, and I was dilated to a 10.
Now I did not have any urge to push because quite frankly I could not feel anything but my left toes. and minutes before I had pushed my button for more medication because I felt pressure in my pelvis which I though was the medicine wearing off but it could have just been my only indication of my urge to push. So the nurse paged my doctor who happen to be an assisting surgeon in a c-section, and Dr. Glenn just said to wait an hour to see if my body pushes the baby down naturally so that I would push less... they had an official term for it but I forgot. Well, my nurse decided that with how my body was reacting, that she would wait half an hour and then determine if we should start to push or wait another hour. So the nurse came back after half an hour and we decided that we would try and start to push. She then instructed me to grab my legs and push, and I did just that, With my first push his head appeared and then as I relaxed it of course sunk back into my pelvis. The nurse was thinking that it would take a few more contractions before Oliver would crown... but it only took 2. At that point she told me not to push anymore but to hold him in while she tried to hurry and find doctor Glenn whom she had already paged to let him know I was pushing.
Thankfully he left the c-section he was helping out with early and showed up, and the nurse soon followed and was so glad he came because she could not find him and was worried he would not make it... but he did! I then pushed through another contraction and out popped his head. I thought that oddly his body would soon follow and be easy out like all the videos I have seen but it was not. So here I was sitting waiting for my baby and he would not come out... I remember dr. Glenn saying something like wow these are the most stuck shoulders I have ever seen.
I then heard my sweet baby boy cry. Oliver James was born March 31, 2014 at 6:49PM. His cry was so beautiful and sweet. He weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 20 inches long. He had a horrible cone head and the poor thing was bruised and has been bruised for several weeks. Poor thing had the alien syndrome. He has 10 fingers and toes and was perfect and IS perfect in every way. They placed him into my arms and it was the sweetest thing when he just looked up at me. I think I was simpering just because I was so happy. It all happened so very fast and I seriously was shocked... I thought it would be a lot longer. I only pushed for 25 minutes and the day had seemed to fly by. We are so happy to have our baby boy!
