Well, Garrett didn't exactly have the dramatic weather to make his appearance in like William did, but he certainly found another way to make his arrival a memorable one. Thursday morning (the 19th), Darrell and I went in for my weekly OB check-up. At this point I was two weeks overdue based on the due date calculated by my ultrasound, and twelve days overdue based on the due date calculated by my last menstrual cycle (although I was only five days overdue based on the somewhat arbitrary date of February 14th that my OB kept referring to). During my exam my OB shared that I was dilated to 3 cm (major progress from the previous week!) and that he stripped my membranes to help "speed things along", but he still wanted to move forward with scheduling an induction just to be safe. So he suggested we schedule one for the following morning. Darrell and I were majorly caught off guard, but, like always, trusted his judgement. So it was decided that we would arrive at the hospital at 9 am on Friday the 20th and get this baby out.
Since William was at a friend's house for the day, I spent the rest of the afternoon running some errands (aka walking around as much as possible) and mentally preparing myself to have a baby the next day. We went about our evening as normally as possible--dinner at 515, playtime until 7, bath and bedtime (for William) by 8. Shortly after seven I started noticing what I thought were contractions, but they were very intermittent, so I wasn't concerned. By 830, I was certain that I was having contractions, and downloaded an app to start tracking them. Even though they were still pretty spaced out, Darrell and I decided that the best course of action would be to take William to my parent's house, just in case the contractions intensified overnight (funny side note--I had actually suggested taking William to my parents for the night as soon as we found out about the induction so we didn't have to worry about getting him there in the morning, but Darrell thought it would be nice to put William to bed just the two of us one last time and I agreed). So we finished packing William's stuff for the next few days and Darrell left around nine to take him to my parents.
By the time Darrell left my contractions were close to five minutes apart. The "golden rule" from my doctor was to come in after contractions were five minutes apart for an hour. Since it seemed that we might actually reach that mark before my scheduled induction, I decided to finish getting our stuff packed while Darrell was gone so we could get it loaded in the car that night. When Darrell got home around 930, my contractions were averaging three to four minutes apart and getting fairly intense. We debated how long we should wait before going in--after all, I'd only been having contractions for an hour or two--but we figured that even if we arrived at the hospital and I wasn't fully in active labor they would probably still admit me since I had an induction scheduled for the following morning. And besides--by this point I was getting pretty ready for my epidural.
So around 1000 we headed to the hospital. Since it was after "normal" hours, our options at the hospital were to either go in through the ER or park in the parking ramp and use the skywalks to get to Labor and Delivery. Darrell is pretty familiar with the hospital campus, and since "baby wasn't coming out this minute" (ha! little did we know...) he decided that we didn't need to bother with going through the ER. So we parked in the ramp and made our way to L&D (side note--wheelchairs are not very comfortable to labor in. I almost wish I had walked. Almost). We got to L&D around 1015 and as we expected, once they realized I was the induction they had scheduled for Friday morning, they skipped the triage piece of things and took me straight to a room. I started asking for the epidural almost immediately, but they wanted to get my IV and the fetal monitor started first. Once they had me situated they checked to see how progressed I was, and one of the last clear memories I have is of the nurse telling me that I was 9 cm dilated and that I was going to have to get this baby out all on my own.
Darrell tells me that as soon as the announcement was made that I was already at 9 cm the room took off in a flurry of activity. They brought in the resident OB, and when he checked me again at 1030 I was fully dilated with a "bulging bag of waters". Apparently at one point the nurse (who--for the record--was great) was asking about the pain and if I was having any dizziness/blurred vision, to which I responded no. Darrell called me out on my answer, telling me that I had to actually open my eyes before I could answer a question about my vision. I'm pretty sure that was the first time I opened my eyes since the nurse told me I was 9 cm and not getting an epidural--and I don't think I opened them again until Garrett was born.
My OB made it to the hospital by 1045 (and dressed for the occasion in suit and tie--the nurses apparently joke that he must sleep in dress clothes because regardless of the time of day or night that's always what he shows up in for a delivery), and promptly broke my water (which apparently had some meconium in it, but thankfully Garrett didn't need any breathing assistance or time in the NICU from potentially aspirating on it during delivery). I'd been given the green light to start pushing prior to that--the resident stayed in the room and they had the on-call OB available at a moment's notice--but until my water was broken I never really had the urge to push (or if I did I was too blinded by the pain to care). But once they broke my water it was all hands on deck and I was basically ordered to start pushing with the contractions. Darrell tells me that I pretty much sucked at pushing through the first few contractions, but with some help from him and the nurse I calmed down (slightly), managed to take a few deep breaths, and delivered Garrett at 10:56 PM--a mere 36 minutes after being admitted.
I'd love to say all sorts of great and wonderful things about my natural labor and delivery, but Darrell would totally call me a liar. I was (apparently) using plenty of language my mother would not approve of (and rather loudly, as well), and I know that I resorted to begging for an epidural on more than one occasion (as well as asking my OB to just "pull" the baby out). However, I do feel a certain amount of pride for having made it through the ordeal (not that I really had a choice...), and can honestly say that my recovery has been pretty much a breeze. Given the choice, though, would I do the natural delivery again? Hard to say. I guess time will tell if/when we decide to add another child to our clan. For now, we're perfectly happy with our two boys--dramatic arrivals and everything.
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