My Labor Story

It looks like I spoke too soon Sunday night. My sisters, Robin and Kim, took me for a nice long walk that evening after having dinner at my parent's second home. We went uphill and downhill for about 2 miles. By the time I arrived home, I was exhausted, and sad that I wasn't having any contractions.

 

I woke up around 3 am to roll over and instead had my water break. I woke Perry up to let him know - he was SO excited! So excited he couldn't go back to sleep, so I sent him in to work instead for a while. After showering, I was able to get a little nap in. Hunter joined me, and then JP soon after.

 

The morning progressed with no contractions so I had Robin come over to help me take the boys to daycare. Then I went home to gather up a few miscellaneous things before Perry arrived home to take me to Labor & Delivery.

 

As soon as we checked in, I had Perry take one final pregnancy photo of me.

Here I am, 38 weeks and 1 day pregnant. 13 days left on May 13, 2013. I hope she doesn't have too much bad luck!

 

After testing me to make sure my water broke, they admitted me to Labor & Delivery and began hooking me up to monitors. Because it was now 9 am and I still wasn't having contractions, they started me on Pitocin to get my contractions started. Two hours later, my doctor came in to check my progress. In doing so, she felt a bag and asked if my bladder was full. I went to the bathroom before I left home, so I told her it didn't feel like it, but it could be. And that was that.

 

She came back in around 1pm and thought I was looking a little too comfortable so she had the nurse up my dose of Pitocin a bit more. Perry and I both sleep through the afternoon. He was a trooper, especially since he had been up since 3am. Aside from napping, we were both extremely bored. We even walked around for a bit.

 

My doctor was on call all weekend and had been at the hospital since Friday afternoon, so she was set to leave at 3p on Monday. (I don't blame her!) I was passed to the new doctor on call, another female. Super nice! I liked her too! She checked my progress when she arrived. She also noticed the bag and determined that it wasn't my bladder, but my water. (Which was why I had been in such good spirits!) I had what they call a high membrane leak, where my water broke at the top instead of the bottom. I warned them before they broke the bag that with my last two, I was told I had a ton of water. Clearly they weren't listening because both the nurse and doctor were shocked at the amount of towels they needed.

 

Once they ruptured my water, I could immediately feel contractions. I went from a 1 on the pain scale to a 6 in about 5 minutes. My goal was to have the baby without medication, but because of how quickly the pain hit, my body couldn't handle it. I have a pretty low tolerance for pain as it is, but I became super hot and nauseous. After an hour, I gave in had an epidural. Once it kicked in, I went from a 9 to a 5 on the pain scale. With the boys I couldn't feel anything. I could still feel with this one, and I liked it a lot better. It helped with pushing because I could actually feel pressure.

 

I had the epidural in for about ten minutes before I was fully dilated and ready to push. She was out in one contraction. And it happened slow enough that I was able to watch  her be born. With the boys, the cord was wrapped around their neck and they just needed to get out. Overall the experience was a ton better than with the boys, despite sitting around in labor for 8 hours before anything constructive happened.

We welcomed baby Charlotte (Charli) Gail into the world at 7:25pm on Monday, May 13, 2013. She weighed in at 5 lbs 15.5 oz and measured 19 inches long.

She is such a little angel!