On the morning of the 19th, I had a scheduled doctor visit at 8:30. I had just planned on taking the girls with me, hearing that it would be a few more days and taking the girls to Sharee’s house while Scott and I attended our baby shower at his work. Plus, we had planned to have a special “last time as a family of four” and decorate for Christmas that weekend. But when I got up around 6:30, I noticed that I was having pretty consistent contractions. I went ahead and got ready and when Scott got up, mentioned the contractions. He was not convinced ;). As the morning wore on and I got the girls ready, I started feeling really uncomfortable. I convinced Scott that he should at least follow me to the appointment just in case, so that he could take the girls for me if she sent me to the hospital. And if not, he could go on to work. I told him that I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the baby came today. He still wasn’t convinced.
So once we got to the doctor, he stayed with the girls in the waiting room while I went back. When the doctor came in, I told her, “I’m pretty sure I’m in labor.” She said, “well, let’s find out”. When she checked my progress, sure enough, I was dilated to a 5!! Halfway there! She decided to hook me up to the machine that monitors contractions before sending me to the hospital just to make sure I was close. I texted Scott that I would be in there for 30 minutes or so and he decided to take the girls to eat breakfast in the hospital cafeteria. At that point, poor guy STILL didn’t believe me and texted our moms that he didn’t think it would happen today. Stinker ;).
After what seemed like an eternity of sitting on an uncomfortable table and having really uncomfortable contractions, my doctor check the machine and told me we’d be having the baby today!! She went to fill out my orders and I called Scott to tell him it was go time. He was shocked! I guess he didn’t realize I knew what I was talking about! So he and the girls headed over to L&D and waited for me to get there. He also called our parents so they could hit the road as soon as possible. The sweet receptionist walked me over and the first person I saw was one of our friends from church…he and his wife had just welcomed their own little guy on the same day! We had joked our entire pregnancies that our boys could have the same b-day, but I don’t think we believed it would really happen. SO fun! Once I got to the room and was able to tell the girlies “hi”, reassure them that I was okay and get them excited about brother’s birthday, we said “goodbye”, and Scott took them to Sharee’s house for the day. I missed them for sure, but didn’t worry about them a bit while they were with their “other mother” ;).
At this point, it was about 10:00 and the nurses were doing all the initial paperwork, setting up my IV and getting us ready to go. The first thing I said to my sweet nurse was, “I’m ready for my epidural just anytime”. Ha! She assured me that he’d be around soon but that I had to have one IV full of fluids before he could give it to me anyway. Man, was I ready when mr. anesthesiologist walked in!!! He did a good job and I felt relief pretty quickly. Scott had missed the epidural this time, but I knew he wouldn’t mind. He’d just be glad I felt comfortable by the time he got back. And I was thankful he’d come with me that morning after all!!
When he got back, we laughed about the shower we’d be missing, called several friends and family and just waited. It was fun to talk about the two times we’d been there before and think back to the days that Emerson and Hayden were born! We were so excited! And he LOVED watching my contraction monitor and telling me, “ooh, that was a big one!”.
My doctor came in around 1:00 to check on my progress and we’d made it to a 7. Good news! But my water still haden’t broken, so she did that and told us she’d be back in a few hours. Scott decided to go grab some lunch and by the time he made it back, I was starting to feel some pain. My parents arrived pretty soon after that and I tried to mask my discomfort, but they could totally tell I was hurting. I asked Scott to go get the nurse, because I had been pushing my epidural button as much as I could, but was feeling a LOT more than I ever did with the girls. (I never felt a thing during either of their labor/deliveries). Sure enough, when the nurse came in to check on me at 1:45, I had dilated to a 10 and was ready to push! She called the doctor, but it took a while for her to get there. In the meantime, I was hurting pretty bad and really had to concentrate on breathing through the contractions. Scott was wonderful and let me squeeze his had to death as we waited. I was REALLY ready to push by the time the doctor got there around 2:30!! Our little guy joined us just only a few minutes later (after only a few pushes), and I got to experience a LOT more pain during his delivery than I ever planned to! At the time, I was not too excited about it, but already looking back, I’m glad I got to feel as much as I did ;).
Stay tuned for Part 2....
