Labor Pains

There were a lot of ideas running through my head for Lane's birthday blog today. Lane's story about being born won the coveted spot. I don't plan on leaving anything out so be prepared if you really don't want to read about how it all went down(at least what I remember)!

It all started on Thursday, March 10th. That morning I had a Dr. appointment. The little pipsqueak was 2 days overdue and I had high hopes that the Dr. was going to say 'Wow you've made great progress this past week. He should come any day!' What I heard instead was 'You haven't changed at all in the past week. You're dilated only half a fingertip...but anything could happen.' I then went home and proceeded to write an official eviction notice for Lane on Facebook.

Fast forward to 10:36 p.m. I woke up with the wierdest pain but figured it was stomach pain. There was no way that I was going to stay awake so back to sleep I went. Unfortunately I was up every 30-40 minutes with the same uncomfortable feeling. To answer your question...I had no idea I was having contractions so I did what any perfectly rational person would do and went to work Friday morning.

I was exhausted and had no idea labor had started so I went about my normal day. It took until 10:30 a.m. for the idea of contractions to pop into my head. The timing between them were anywhere from 20-35 minutes so enough where the 'idea' of contractions was pretty fleeting and left my mind as quickly as it arrived. Mark and a co-worker of his came into the bank at 11:30 a.m. to drop off Mark's paycheck (Mark later informed me that Justin told him 'I bet you have a baby this weekend. She looks horrible!') The day keeps truckin along and the pain keeps getting a little stronger. Work's done so I headed home and thought I should probably inform Mark what was going on. So I told him 'I've been having this wierd pain off and on all day.' Mark asked what they felt like then proceeded to get the labor/delivery book from our birthing class to read up on how they explained labor pain. What do ya know??!?! It matched up but the contractions were still about 20 minutes apart and I was told to not call until it was 5-7 minutes. The pain started to intensify enough where I had to stop moving. That didn't work very well when I was trying to do laundry and clean up the house! At around 9 p.m. I decided to try to sleep but that wasn't going to happen. I curled up into a ball every time a contraction came so I knew that Mark wasn't sleeping well with me in bed. At 10:30 p.m. I decided to lay in the recliner in the living room because the contraction time went down to 7-10 minutes. Friday night included NO sleep whatsoever.

Saturday morning at 6 a.m. Mark wakes up for work and asks 'Should I go to work or not?' So I call First Nurse for their opinion and they tell me 'It sounds like they are contractions and you can go to the hospital if you want buuuut we really suggest that you stay home until 5-7 minutes. You'll be much more comfortable at home.' I tell Mark to head to work and I'll call him if something crazy happens. While Mark is at work I walk to get the mail and the weather was not ideal. 40 mph winds and about 40 degrees. Under normal circumstances, I would've never walked outside but I was determined that walking would help me feel better. It didn't. During this time my mom also called and asked how I was doing. My response 'Oh I'm fine. The doctor told me that nothing has changed.' All the while trying to talk through contractions. Some people might call me crazy but my goal was to not call anyone until we were checked into the hospital and knew for a fact that a baby was coming. Mark finally gets home about 12:30 p.m. and the contractions keep getting a little stronger but the timing is still 7-10 minutes :( I try to lay down at 10 p.m. and at this point I can't tell if the contractions are getting longer or they're getting closer together. I swore that they lasted at least 90 seconds long and at 10:20 I finally call First Nurse and say that I'm at the 7 minute mark and think that I need to head to the hospital. We talk some more and she is about to put me on hold to talk to the labor/deliver floor at the hospital when I tell her that it's a 25 minute drive for us to the hospital. Her response 'Oh!! Well then you need to leave now. I'll take care of everything else.' So off we went.

Hospital check-in took forever. We got there at 11 p.m. and everything was finished at about 12:15 a.m. The nurse informed me that my contractions were 2-5 minutes apart, my water hadn't broken but it was ready to pop and there was no way that they were going to send me home. The nurse we had was amazing and got the epidural in at 12:30 a.m. The anesthesiologist was going to head into surgery so my epidural had to happen right away (it was a good thing too because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get it). Wow it felt amazing. We were then told to relax, the pitocin would help push things along and to let them know when I felt the need to push. The midwife broke my water at 2 a.m. because they needed to insert Lane's monitor directly since the outer one wasn't working very well. Fast forward (literally) and hour because of daylight savings time so a minute later the time is really 3 a.m. At 4:15 I tell Mark to get them because I can't take this much longer. They come in saying that they were just getting ready to check on me because the monitors showed a major shift in Lane. The midwife takes a look and all she said is 'Oh wow his head is right there so you can push whenever you want.'

Then the time comes and the midwife tells the nurse to grab one leg and Mark to grab the other. Yup you read that right. Mark wasn't a spectator...he was a participant! I push a few times then feel the sharpest pain I'd felt in a long time. I must've winced really, really bad because she asked 'Did you feel that?' 'Hell yes I did!!!' Come to find out she gave me an episiotomy (which Mark informed me later that she literally took a razor and cut me open). 'Oh I'm so sorry, you're narcotic pain killer must not've kicked in yet.' I pushed for 7 minutes and Lane arrived at 4:55 a.m. I think God gave me a quick delivery since I had contractions for 49 hours before heading to the hospital. Time to stitch me up...at a later point Mark also informed me that I was stitched up with literally a huge fish hook!

Next is really a blur. It was almost as though everything was moving really fast and in slow motion at the same time. All I remember is the midwife pushing on my stomach to make sure everything is out and then having Lane put on my chest. The only specific thing I remember is Lane sucking on his thumb literally within 30 seconds of being put on my chest...this kid was destined to be a strong sucker. Oh and that Lane came out with the umbilical cord wrapped around his arm and head. Within 1 hour I was walked to the bathroom and also specifically remember peeing so much that I asked the nurse if something was wrong. It had been months since that much liquid came out of my bladder :)

The end result was the birth of my proudest moment so far in my life. Mark was so proud that within 4 hours of Lane being born he said 'I could have more.' Slow down buddy, slow down. You didn't just push a 6 lb. 13.5 oz. kid out of your vagina.