June 22, 2006 is the day I gave birth for the first (and only, as of now) time. Here’s how it went: I woke up at 6:13 am to think I had peed on myself (honestly, it didn’t even occur to me at that moment that it could be my water breaking!) I was just thinking, “what the hell? I was just up to use the bathroom 2 hours ago!” When I got to the bathroom, it hit me that my water had broke. I had been told that labor usually starts within about 12 hours of your water breaking, so I wasn’t expecting anything immediately. However, my first contraction came at 6:18 am. It wasn’t really painful, so I expected it to be a while. Dawn called the OB, who said to come to the labor and delivery floor. It didn’t seem urgent, so I showered (it somehow seemed important at the time that I not go to the hospital with unshaven legs!) while Dawn called our friends in [a suburb on the opposite side of the city we live in] who were going to take Olivia. I started having stronger, but not unbearable, contractions in the shower. They were still about 7 minutes apart. We left to drop off Olivia and head to the hospital–forgetting in the excitement that the freeway interchange was a mess of construction AND it was rush hour AND the southbound exit we needed was closed. I directed Dawn to take some exit I knew nothing about hoping we could cut across and go east to I-43. While we are wandering lost around some industrial area, my contractions suddenly become VERY painful and about 3 minutes apart. We decide to scrap getting to [above mentioned suburb] and then back to [western suburb in which the hospital is located] and go directly to the hospital with Olivia. Luckily, we have amazing friends. L couldn’t fit their kids car seats and Olivia’s in her car, so her partner left work in the middle of a meeting to come to meet us at the hospital to pick up Olivia. While Dawn waited downstairs with Olivia, I went to labor and delivery. They set me up in my room and hooked me up to the monitors for the mandatory 20 minutes. They confirmed that I wanted a drug-free labor and I just kept thinking, “I’ll be better when I can get out of bed and walk around”. That wasn’t to be, though. My worst case scenario happened and I had to stay in bed on the monitors because Owen’s heart rate wasn’t changing with contractions like they should have been. Meanwhile my contractions were 2 minutes apart and hurt like hell. I was all alone (I don’t recommend this!) and scared to death something was wrong with the baby. I asked the nurse several times for an epidural. She tried to deter me, saying let’s wait until Dawn’s here and see if that helps. Dawn walked in the door as I was having another contraction and I said, “It’s not helping…I want the epidural!” They agreed and I got the drugs shortly. I was worried before about getting the drugs and being loopy, but getting the epidural didn’t really hurt much at all. Seriously, within minutes I was a whole other person. I called my mom on the phone and called my friend, A, who was planning on being at the birth. From then on out, I laid in bed and chit-chatted with Dawn and A. It was quite pleasant, actually! My midwife came to check my progress at about 12:40pm and I was dilated to a 10 and ready to push! As they helped turn me onto my back to push, the monitors all started going off like crazy. My midwife was saying to get me back on my side and the nurse was running to my side. I was amazingly calm but the look on Dawn’s face was total panic. I ended up having to push while lying on my side because this happened each time they tried to move me to my back. Because of my epidural, I couldn’t really feel contractions well, so the nurse was watching the monitor and telling me when to push. She must have gotten distracted because all of a sudden A (also a nurse) was saying, “Don’t you think she should be pushing? She’s having a contaction!” At 1:24 p.m., Owen took his first breath of air. They wiped him off a bit and brought him up to my chest. After the cord stopped pulsing, Dawn was able to cut it. A left shortly after and I politely sent the nurses away for an hour so Dawn, Owen, and I could bond. They obliged and came back later to weigh and measure him. When all was said and done, he was 7# 5 oz. and 20″ long.
We’ve come a long way, baby. I can’t imagine life without you, my little guy.
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