(This is more for my own journal, so if you're not interested in reading this whole thing, just scan for the bold to get the main points!)
June 12th,
I had another doctor's appointment and was really hoping to show some progress from the previous week. I recalled to my doctor that I had some strange pains on Thursday night that kept me awake until 4:30am. I finally just took some Tylenol and I was able to sleep. However, I was still dilated to a 1. "It's a stretchy 1, if that makes any difference!" she told me.
Wed. June 13th,
I was trying really hard to have a productive day, but it was just getting to be pretty difficult to move comfortably and keep Canon happy. I decided to take him swimming that morning...hoping that it would tire him out enough to take a good nap. It worked!! :) I remember texting Mark as I was going down for a nap that I started the dishwasher but I'd get to the hand-washed dishes later. Then I mentioned I was really feeling it that day.
He replied, "It would be nice if Cadence came early, but it would be a whole lot easier on me if she waited until your mom gets here!" My mother wasn't scheduled to arrive until June 21st. I responded that I could wait longer, but some days are worse than others, and I'd probably need to complain about it a few more times. Then I went down for a short nap.
By the time I got out of bed at 3:45PM, I was having contractions. They generally weren't hard and really painful, but there was major discomfort. I didn't know if it was Braxton Hicks or the start of labor. All I knew was that I never had contractions like that with Canon, and that I had to consider the fact that she's either coming now, or I'd be suffering through those contractions for days until she did come (yuck!).
That evening I took Canon out to the playground, where I continued to have contractions. Trying to walk across the courtyard to get the mail as a family was a slow and difficult journey. I called my mother at 9:00PM to ask how her labors were...did she have contractions for days? Well, by 10:45PM my contractions were consistently hard and 10 minutes apart.
June 14th
At about 12:15AM I called Mark's cousin Michelle to let her know that it was the night we' be going to the hospital. She had agreed to come tend Canon if the baby came before I mom flew in from Chicago. I wanted to give her the chance to come then to maybe get a little more sleep at our place, or I could just call her when we were leaving. She chose the latter. As I paid close attention, my contractions jumped from 10 to 5 minutes apart. I would have a hard one, 5 minutes later it was a shorter less intense contraction; then 5 minutes later have a hard one; then 5 minutes later a mini-contraction; and 5 minutes later a hard one; then another hard one. So I called Michelle at 1:43AM to say we were getting ready to leave.
As we drove to the hospital I called my parents to let them know since my mom was planning on flying to Utah to help me out, and her plane tickets were scheduled for the 21st. We checked in and were waiting in the labor/delivery triage area for quite a while. At 2:45AM I was 80% effaced and dilated to 3 centimeters. They were waiting to see if my 2 centimeter progress from Tuesday was from those contractions or just over the course of the 2 days. So, they made me stick around that triage area for a couple hours. My contractions kept coming, and at 3:45 they were about 3 minutes apart. At 4:00 I was at 4 centimeters. I felt like they were keeping me there forever...still never notifying the doctor that I was even there.
At 4:50AM I was moved to the delivery room. Finally, they started to act like they believed I was really in labor. Most of the time I was there they wanted to just wait and observe. They wanted to make sure that I was really progressing and not going to need to be sent home. By 5:55am I was dilated to 4.5 and had requested an epidural. I hadn't gotten any sleep, and I was tired of dealing with pain every other minute or so. At 6:20 the epidural was administered, and it was a huge relief. I still felt the back labor, and I wished I could just put a pillow under my lower back and make it stop...but it wouldn't have done anything. The pain was from the pressure the baby put on my spine.
At 6:53AM Dr. Jericho asked if I wanted get the process moving a little faster by breaking my water. Of course!! By all means, go ahead and break it! At that time they inserted a monitor to measure my contractions. Because it was a VBAC, we had to make sure that my contractions weren't too hard, or else it might put too much stress on my scar. Everything was fine there though. I was also dilated to a 5.
Just about an hour later, at 8:00AM, the nurse checked me again. "Whoa!" she said. "I was expecting to find you at a 5.5 or a 6!" My thought was, "Oh, please don't say that I went back down to a 4 or 3." She said I was at a 9.5 or 9 3/4. "You're just an anterior lip, really!" It wasn't long from there. At 8:25 I was fully dilated. She asked me to do a practice push to see how much control and sensation I had with the epidural in place. Apparently I did a really good job because she said I was "going to be a rock star with this!" I could still feel each contraction on the upper part of my belly, which I thought was really strange. I guess the epidural only functions up to a certain point. I thought that meant that I was going to get to start pushing now. Nope! The nurse said that in her experience, you can either push and push and push, getting exhausted; or you can wait and push later, taking the same amount of time. So, she had me wait to push until 9:20AM. With each contraction she counted to 8 as I pushed. Each contraction had 2-3 pushes worth of time. Each push was productive, and the nurse had me get the baby most of the way down the birth canal before having the doctor come in. I think it was a total of 8 contractions' worth of pushing when the baby was out.
Not too long, and because of the epidural, it didn't hurt too much. Her head came out, and Dr. Lister suctioned out her nose and mouth. They thought I was going to get away without tearing, but then Cadence stuck her arm out. I gave one last push and she was out. At 9:59AM Cadence was born. I only had 2 minor tears to stitch up. I remember when they placed her on my tummy (over the gown) I started crying. It wasn't because she was a girl, or because it was my new child...it was because I was so relieved and happy to know that our prayers had been answered. We had been praying for months for me to have a good delivery, and that the baby would be healthy, and that it would be a successful VBAC. AND IT WAS!!
Our little miracle was 6 lbs. 13 oz. and 20 inches long.
Just about an hour later, at 8:00AM, the nurse checked me again. "Whoa!" she said. "I was expecting to find you at a 5.5 or a 6!" My thought was, "Oh, please don't say that I went back down to a 4 or 3." She said I was at a 9.5 or 9 3/4. "You're just an anterior lip, really!" It wasn't long from there. At 8:25 I was fully dilated. She asked me to do a practice push to see how much control and sensation I had with the epidural in place. Apparently I did a really good job because she said I was "going to be a rock star with this!" I could still feel each contraction on the upper part of my belly, which I thought was really strange. I guess the epidural only functions up to a certain point. I thought that meant that I was going to get to start pushing now. Nope! The nurse said that in her experience, you can either push and push and push, getting exhausted; or you can wait and push later, taking the same amount of time. So, she had me wait to push until 9:20AM. With each contraction she counted to 8 as I pushed. Each contraction had 2-3 pushes worth of time. Each push was productive, and the nurse had me get the baby most of the way down the birth canal before having the doctor come in. I think it was a total of 8 contractions' worth of pushing when the baby was out.
Not too long, and because of the epidural, it didn't hurt too much. Her head came out, and Dr. Lister suctioned out her nose and mouth. They thought I was going to get away without tearing, but then Cadence stuck her arm out. I gave one last push and she was out. At 9:59AM Cadence was born. I only had 2 minor tears to stitch up. I remember when they placed her on my tummy (over the gown) I started crying. It wasn't because she was a girl, or because it was my new child...it was because I was so relieved and happy to know that our prayers had been answered. We had been praying for months for me to have a good delivery, and that the baby would be healthy, and that it would be a successful VBAC. AND IT WAS!!
Our little miracle was 6 lbs. 13 oz. and 20 inches long.
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