I realized the other day how abruptly my pregnancy blog came to an end. The last entry was August 24th and we had Monroe on the 25th. It all happened so fast, that I never really got a chance to tell you all about giving birth to Monroe.
My Pregnancy Blog
Caution: The tale to follow is not for the squeemish. I am totally open and honest about the whole thing! Just telling ya!
When we left off...my parents had come for a visit and were leaving that day (which was a Monday). My induction date was scheduled for the next Monday. I had gone in for my Dr.'s appointment, and Terri had done an exam, hoping for a little thinning of the cervix, so that my induction wouldn't be so hard. Well, she found that I was dilated to a 2 at that point. That seemed super exciting to me, but I knew that a person could sit at a two for weeks. Later that day, I did lose my mucous plug (i know that sounds disgusting, but it's what happened).
Well, anyway, that night we had some friends over for dinner and throughout all of dinner I was having contractions that were about five minutes apart. I really started thinking it was the night, but I didn't want to be the lady that has to be sent home from the hospital because of false labor. I got on the internet and found that if the contractions go away if you lay down or change position, then it is false labor. So I laid on the couch, and sure enough, they went away.
The next morning, I felt fine and realized, that it must have been a fluke. Around 9am, the contractions started back, but I had a hard time timing them. They continued throughout the morning, and into the afternoon. I calmly told my boss, but told her not to get excited, because it was probably nothing. She had me call Mark's boss that works in my building (he used to be a Med. Tech) and ask him how to tell if you were going into labor. He told me I probably wasn't, but really needed to start timing. I called another friend, who had just given birth a few months prior, and she gave me the same advice. I started writing down each time the contraction started and by around 4pm I realized that they were consistently 4 minutes apart. I called Terri (my midwife) and she said to come on in for an exam, just to see what was up since I work just a few minutes away from their practice.
After a quick exam, she was surprised to find that I was dilated to a 6! She told me to go home, get my bag and meet her at the hospital. This was a shock to say the least. I hadn't even packed a bag yet! I asked her if I could go back to work and finish up a few things there. She told me I had 10 minutes there:)
I called Mark and told him the news. He seemed so flustered. He cracked me up. He headed home to start packing for the both of us and I ran back to the office. I told everyone goodbye, changed my voicemail and my out of office reply on my email, and I headed out. I think everyone was as shocked as I was.
After I got home, I helped Mark pack up. It was so hard to think clearly of what I needed to bring. We tried our best to remain calm and stay relaxed.
It just happened to be rush hour on our way to the hospital:) Oh well...it gave us a chance to call/text/facebook anyone and everyone with the news. Monroe was about to make her appearance!
We got to the hospital around 6pm. I guess all the babies got together and decided August 25th would be a great day to make their entrance, because the hospital was at capacity in the OB wing! They actually put me in a storage room for the first few hours:) Well, "storage room" sounds much worse than it was. It was a former patient room, that had been changed over and used for storage. I changed into my gown and hopped into bed. I make it sound like I was so light on my feet at 38 weeks pregnant:). I think actually Mark had to help me get into bed:) Terri arrived, I met my nurses, and they hooked me up to all the monitors and the whole process began. To be honest, I think the worst part of the whole night, was getting my IV. The nurse had the hardest time and kept having to stick me again and again. Then blood shot out all over my arm.
I was dilated to a 7 when I arrived at the hospital and my contractions were coming strong. They were strong, but nothing like I had seen on TV. I thought I was going to be yelling and screaming and wanting to hurt people. It was more pressure than pain at this point. Terri told me that she was going to be breaking my water. I had never really thought about how they break people's water until she pulled out this horrible looking metal hook. I have to be honest, this frightened me, but although it kind of hurt, it wasn't that bad. The bad part was the amount of fluid that came out. Terri said she hadn't ever seen that much amniotic fluid. It just kept flowing and it continued flowing periodically for the next few hours. I had to have my linens changed 5 times and my gown changed twice. Sitting in amniotic fluid made me itch more and made me start to shake from the cold. They had to get me blankets because my whole body was shaking so badly. Mark thought this all was pretty amusing:)
They gave me pitosin to help speed up the process. Terri stayed with us the whole time. It was so nice because we just chatted and I got to learn all about her family and her career. I was dilated to an eight now, and I was feeling the contractions, but they weren't killing me. I felt a little like super woman. I remember thinking, "What's all the fuss about? Having a baby isn't hard." At this point, I looked at Mark and said with confidence, "I think I can do this without an epidural".
Literally two second later, I had the worst contraction ever. I looked at Terri and said, "Let's see about that epidural."
I didn't realize how long this story is...I'll give you a break and continue this later.
