Labor/Delivery Story...Finally!!

Most of you know that on February 9th, 2009 I went in for a non-stress test to make sure Nadia was still doing well in my belly. I was 41 weeks pregnant that day. I went in for the test and everything looked great. The nurse asked if I was feeling any contractions (I was, but just barely) because there were some registering on the machine. After I went home I ended up having contractions on and off for the rest of the day. I kept wondering if I was really going into labor…and I told Jonathan I hoped Nadia would wait to come out until after dinner because I was trying a new recipe in the crockpot and it was smelling sooo yummy. Anyway, the contractions weren’t regular and we went on with our day and I got to eat my delicious dinner! During the night I continued to have contractions on and off, which kept me awake most of the night. Jonathan left for work that morning and then a couple hours later I got up with the girls and got them breakfast. My contractions intensified and were really close together (less than 5 minutes). I called Jonathan at work and told him what was going on so he decided to come home. When he got home I took a shower (to help with the pain) and we decided I should go to the hospital. We packed up the girls and dropped them off at Sarah’s house and were on our way.

At the hospital the nurse hooked me up to the monitors and my contractions all but went away. They monitored me for about an hour and I barely had any contractions the entire time. And when she checked me I was still only 1cm and 75% effaced (just like at my last checkup). I was dumbfounded because all morning I had intense contractions less than 5 minutes apart. The nurse called my midwife and she (the midwife) suggested walking the halls for an hour…I readily agreed. As soon as Jonathan and I started walking the halls, I started having INTENSE contractions about every 2 minutes (I’m not kidding…it started as soon as we started walking the halls). I decided to just keep walking through them (stopping when I needed to), so we could see if I would make any real progress. It was a LONG hour. When I went back to get monitored again I told the nurse about my contractions. Then I laid down on the bed to get the monitors put back on, and the contractions went away again. The nurse told me if they went away when I laid down it probably meant I wasn’t really in labor. I told her I better be in labor with the painful contractions I’d been having! When she checked me again I had dilated about a ½ cm and I had thinned out a little more. Hooray…progress! She called my midwife, Margo, and Margo thought I was probably in very early labor and said I could go home to labor if I wanted to as long as someone was with me…so that’s what we did. I thought since my contractions stopped when I laid down that I could get some sleep because I was really tired. We got home around 12 noon and I laid down on the couch to get some sleep…and wouldn’t you know my contractions started up again with intensity while I was laying down. CRAZY! We stayed home for about 3 hours before I decided it was time to go back to the hospital. When we got back to the hospital the nurse checked me and I was 4cm dilated and 90% effaced and they checked me into a room. I didn’t want to lay down yet so I walked around the room, took a shower, and sat on the toilet (this actually really helped a lot!). After a couple hours passed I was so tired and in so much pain, I was ready for some time in bed and some stadol. I was 6cm at that point. The nurse brought me some stadol and I was able to rest/relax between contractions. This labor seemed harder than with Liberty or Leila. I was so tired and the contractions were so intense. Jonathan, my nurse and Margo were so encouraging. I’m so thank for for all of them. I had some more stadol when I was 8cm. Eventually I got to the point where I felt the urge to push, but I was only 9cm. I stayed like that for a bit and Margo thought I needed to empty my bladder, so I tried not very successfully to that. Then we decided to break my water. I stayed at 9cm for a while longer and then finally I was able to push. For some reason I feel like I didn’t do a very good job this time around…it was almost as if I was having my first baby again. It didn’t take very long to push her out, though. Just her head came first (with Libbs and Leila their whole bodies flew out when it was time to push the head out), so that was different for me. Nadia’s cord was wrapped around her neck…thankfully it didn’t do any damage. Margo put Nadia on my chest and I breathed a sigh of relief and knew every second of the pain was worth having my beautiful baby girl. So…that’s my story, pretty much. Sorry it took so long to share it.

Hopefully now I will be able to blog a little more regularly. The adjustment to three kids hasn’t been too bad in my opinion, but I definitely have less free time than I used to. Also, I just haven’t been feeling like myself this time around. I know after I had Liberty I went through that emotional roller coaster of crying randomly and such…with Leila I didn’t go through much post partum stuff at all. This time around I’m not super emotional, but I’m having a hard time getting back to my normal self again, if that makes any sense.
Well, that’s all for now...thanks for reading!

Oh yes...I'd like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Gramps today :) Love you!