Gabes Birth Story

Well, I am finally getting around to writing out Gabe’s birth story. I have been doing such a bad job of blogging these past few weeks. I have all these things that I think about that would be fun to post, but by the time that 9 o’clock rolls around each evening, I am so tired I just fall into bed. I am really going to try and do better though. Really really  I digress though, back to the matters at hand. Here is the story of my little man’s birthday 

June 23, 2009
7:00 am – I woke up and went to the bathroom, because I pretty much had to pee every ten seconds at this point in my pregnancy, and I lost my mucous plug. Nick was in the shower, and I told him what happened. I told him to go ahead and go to work, because it could still be a couple of days to a week, and that I would call him if anything started to happen. I had one contraction before he went to work, but that was it. I was thinking it was going to be awhile.

In the meantime, I got Hannah up and we got dressed and showered, and ready to go run some errands with my mom and sister. At this point the contractions were 20-25 minutes apart, so I figured it was safe to go get some milk and run to the post office. On the way to the post office, the contractions suddenly changed to 7-8 minutes apart. I got the mail, but went straight home after that.

9:00 am – I decided to call Nick at work and tell him that he should probably start thinking about heading home. I told him it wasn’t urgent and he didn’t need to speed or anything, but that I was sure this was the real thing. Lucky for me, my mom and sister were with me, and helped keep Hannah entertained. Once Nick got home, they took her to the park to play, and we promised to call with updates.

10:30 am – The contractions were now 5 minutes apart and I decided to call the Dr. to see if we should head to the hospital. We live 40 minutes away from where we had Gabe, so I wanted to be safe. The Dr. said to go ahead and start going to the hospital. We farted around a bit, Nick got his bag packed and we loaded everything up and then headed to the hospital.

12:00 pm – We get to the hospital and get into a room and the nurse checks and I am 4 cm. I was excited, because I hade been “a good 2cm” 4 days earlier at my Dr. appointment, so I felt even more sure that this was it. The nurse said that they would check again in an hour to see if things were progressing.

1:15 pm – The nurse comes in and checks again and says that I am still at 4 cm. I was disappointed, but at this point contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and pretty uncomfortable, so I still thought I was in labor. The nurse proceeds to tell me that they will probably send me home, because I didn’t make any cervical change, and that you are not technically “in labor” unless you make cervical change. When the nurse leaves the room I tell my husband that I am SURE that this is the real thing, and if they send me home I am going to kill someone!!
I decided to ask if I could get up and walk to see if that would help move things along and the nurse said that was fine. Nick and I walk the halls for 15 minutes before the nurse makes me go back to the room and says that she will check again at 2:30.

2:30 pm – The nurse check and I am 5-6 cm. HORRAY!! I wanted to tell the nurse “I told you so” but was able to contain myself  At this point I was getting very uncomfortable and I told my nurse that I would like my epidural please. She then tells me that I must have a low pain tolerance, and that they would need to start my IV and get some labs first. I sort of wanted to kill the nurse when she told me my pain tolerance was low, but I again controlled myself, and said that was fine.

The nurse came in to start my IV and missed on the first try but got it on the second, and also drew some labs. She said that once the lab work was back, that they could get the epidural started. She came back a little while later and told me that the blood had clotted that she had drawn, and that they would have to draw it again before the epidural could be started. GRRRRR!

3:30ish – The CRNA came in to start going over paper work for the epidural, and we were still waiting on labs. Once I signed my life away the CRNA told me that she felt by looking at me that it wasn’t going to be much longer and that she would take me word that I was a normal healthy person, and go ahead and start putting the epidural in. I wanted to kiss her!!

3:45 pm – The epidural is in! I am starting to feel some numbness, but can still really feel the contractions. All the sudden my water breaks. I called the nurse and she came in and checked me and I was 9 and a half cm. I was excited, but also scared, because I could still really feel the contractions.

4:15-4:45 pm – I suddenly started to feel really intense pain and a lot of pressure. I tell my husband to tell the nurse. She checks and says I am fully dilated, and I tell her that I am really feeling like a want to push. She asks me to try and wait, so I did my best. Once the Dr. gets there and says it’s a good thing they didn’t send me home. NO KIDDING!! I push 7-8 times. Luckily at this point the epidural has kicked in enough that I can push relatively pain free.

4:46 pm – Gabe is born! He cried right away. They put him on my chest and I fell in love. 