Birth Story:

I had a BAD cold since Thurs. the 23rd and it was NOT fun to be huge and coughing, so I felt miserable. I was coughing pretty hard on Sat. nite, and sometime during the nite I felt a few really sharp pains in my stomach. Well around 9am Sun. I felt fluids leaking out of me every time I coughed. Keep in mind that I was drinking TONS of water to help with the coughing, plus I already had a lot of pressure on my bladder, so I really thought I was peeing every time I coughed. My husband was supposed to go to work an hour away, but I really thought it was pee so I gave him the OK to go. Well about 15 min after he left it occurred to me that maybe it was my water that broke, but I was so stuffed up and couldn't smell anything so I couldn't tell. I called Justin and told him he better come back because maybe my water broke. I wasn't having any contractions or anything, but my doc said to go to the hospital and have them check to see if it was my water. I took my time getting there, I took a shower, packed my bag (which should have been packed a few weeks ago), and waited for Justin to find someone to cover for him at work. So we got to the hospital sometime after 11am. It was my water, but I was only at 2 cm and wasn't in labor. They told me if it was my 2nd or 3rd baby they would have me walk around for awhile to try to get labor started, but since it was my first it could be hours and they didn't want to wait because of infection risks. So they recommended starting pitocin to induce labor. I didn't really want to do that because I heard it makes your labor a lot worse and I didn't want to get pain meds, but I also didn't want to be stuck waiting all day and need it anyway and drag things on. So I agreed to it and they started pitocin at 2pm. About 5-10 min later I started getting mild contractions about every 2 min. They weren't terrible, so I used a TENS unit during them and was doing fine. We walked around the halls til about 3pm with the TENS and they kept getting stronger and stronger so I had to stop and hold the wall during each one, but I was still doing ok with breathing thru them and using the TENS. At 3 I was getting really miserable so we went back to the room and I was still using the TENS and I tried the birthing ball but I was having a really hard time dealing with the pain. And this whole time they were still every 2 min and I was hooked up to the IV, so I had to hurry up and pee in between contractions, which was difficult because my stomach was so huge and I didn't want to get the IV tubes in the toilet. I had to wait out a few contractions on the toilet seat because I didn't finish in time. And let me tell you it was miserable when I had coughing fits during contractions!! At about 4 pm they checked me and I was about 4 cm, so I was ok with the progress because they said typically 1st time moms dilate about 1 cm per hour. So they told me to expect the baby around 9-10pm. I decided to get in the jacuzzi at 4 because I thought it would help me feel better and more relaxed. I couldn't have been more wrong because as soon as I had a contraction in the water I was in AGONY!! I just started screaming bloody murder during each contraction and all I did between contractions was talk about how this was definitely going to be an only child (and I honestly believed I wouldn't change my mind!) I begged for the epidural around 4:30 (even though I swore up and down that I wouldn't get one) because I was thinking there was no way I could make it another 5 hours with this pain! So they called the anesthesiologist to get it ready. I got out of the tub at 4:48 and they checked me and I was at 6 cm. At 5pm my doc came in just to let me know she was on her way to deliver a baby at a different hospital, but she should make it back in time to deliver mine (because they were thinking 9 or 10 pm). Well she checked me and felt a head, so they told me it was too late for the epidural because it was time to push! We had decided to wait to find out the gender, but my doc knew what I was having. So as I was getting ready to push she says "this will be the 3rd girl I delivered today" then she remembered that we didn't know and tried covering for herself by saying "or it could be the 1st boy today, I just said girl because I have girls on my mind". It didn't register with me when she gave it away, but it kind of ruined it for Justin (and he was the one who wanted to wait to find out). Anyway, they had me start pushing at about 5:10 and she was out by 5:18! She would have been out a lot faster but it took me awhile to cooperate with the pushing! And I screamed even worse than the contractions, I probably made them all deaf lol! I only needed 2 stitches, and the doc said they were only superficial tears but she was stitching them just to be on the safe side. Anyway, I was so surprised when they told me she was a girl (even after the doc blabbed) because I was POSITIVE she was a boy!! They even showed me but it took me a second to believe it because I was convinced the boy parts were still hidden by the cord! And it shows how easily I forgot the pain because as soon as it registered with me that she was a girl, I immediately started talking about how I wanted a boy the next time :)