By October 29 I was sick of being pregnant. At 39 weeks and zero sleep I asked my OB to strip my membranes, which got me to 5 cm. I was sent home to "walk the baby out" and I would surely have it that night...
Except I didn't.
No I got to the hospital and at 5 cm and contractions 2-5 minutes apart I was sent home.
Oddly enough I was having contractions but not feeling them. Go figure.
Either way I went back to see my doctor the next day, she stripped my membranes again, wrote orders so labor and delivery had to take me, and then said she'd be on her way to break my water.
Tired, puffy, and ready to get the baby out.
Jeremy was ready to get the show on the road, but with a definite something happening I could have backed out entirely. Nerves.
Eventually I got back into my room, had a nurse come in to place a saline lock, and was set up for labor.
Which might I add whoever the angel nurse was that put in my saline lock that I can't remember her name, she was magical. I was terrified of getting the IV placed and when I asked if she was in she was done. Day and night to my last one. I didn't even feel this one. Plus! It gave me the freedom of movement I felt like a traditional IV didn't give me. I act nearly paralyzed with the tubes attached to me the entire time.
I highly suggest going into L&D around brunch when the nurses have had a ton of coffee. That 5am shift change crew I had with Harrison had zero patience for my fear of needles.
Fast forward, my doctor came in and broke my water at 11 am. My lovely nurse did something I didn't have last time that I thought was genius, she put those big ole hospital panties on me with a big ole pad... zero leaking. I could wander the room and not have fluid leaking all over me all day!
Natural labor was completely different from an induced labor. The pain was managable. The only difference, all those Webster Method Chiropractor appointments apparently worked. I had mentally prepared for another back labor, I brought comfort measure items for back labor... I suddenly had an anterior baby.
Labor was much lower and my beloved tennis balls didn't do much to comfort me. Instead I bounced on my yoga ball and did hip circles, had the hubby do light touch massage during contractions, and used the horse lip thing from Ina May Gaskin.
Those all worked like a charm until I hit transition. Then, for two whole contractions I couldn't figure anything out. My face was going numb from the raspberry blowing horse lip technique. It still wasn't as bad as the induced labor, but wholly molly that kid dropped down and life changed.
About that time my nurse walked in, saw the situation, and knowing I was wanting an epidural, but not too soon, she said she'd get that going and rushed back out of the room.
This is what I didn't expect though. When I had Harrison my epidural was a dream. I felt nothing. I didn't even have the desire to push. Which you might think isn't so great, but for a posterior baby that 4 nurses were taking turns attempting to turn... it was just what was needed.
Time time, something didn't work.
While getting the epidural it hurt like a beast, and suddenly a nerve was hit. I felt like I was being electrocuted in my left leg, and it happened twice. I could only sob and yell. I could barely explain the pain I was feeling. Then when I was done and laid back I had this drunk feeling and the epidural had moved much higher than it had with Harrison and I had the shortness of breath feeling.
The initial epidural gave me the relief I needed because within an hour I dilated from 7-10. So clearly I wasn't relaxed enough. My OB also tossed in a "wiff" of Pitocin, which sped that up as well.
Then pushing came... and the epidural had failed me. I had my mother push the button again, I couldn't even get that far. Nothing.
It did nothing.
Starting at 5:30 I began pushing out a baby with a pain/pressure sensation I hadn't felt before. And wasn't prepared to feel. It was so uncomfortable that all I could do was close my eyes.
Which showed how my doctor very much changes with the situation. With Harrison everyone was very low key, not this time. When I got to where I was my eyes shut the entire time and could barely take another deep breath my doctor and nurse got serious. They counted, they tried to refocus my attention, but what finally made it seem like the end was near was when my OB put on her face mask.
The end seemed in sight at that point.
Every so often I could feel Jeremy trying to comfort me. It was comforting, but I still wanted to escape and in my mind closing my eyes would get me out of the situation.
Suddenly I felt (actually felt unlike like my last birth) the head, then the shoulders slide out. It was such an odd sensation.
And at 5:58 pm (the exact same time Harrison was born) Elliot made an appearance.
I opened my eyes long enough to see boy parts coming up and over towards my chest. I was so dead tired I couldn't even muster up excitement.
It was more of an "Oh it's a boy, I'm going to close my eyes again."
It took a few minutes before I really had any energy. Everything from the past 30 minutes was so draining.
After skin to skin Elliot was finally taken to be weighed and have all his little tests done, weight was good 8 lb 7 oz. But his blood sugar wasn't, upon repeatedly being tested it kept coming up short, but he was showing no symptoms.
The idea of sending him to get an IV was tossed around and luckily an older nurse suggested just hand expressing colostrum and feeding him with it... even though he came out of the gate trying to nurse and had nursed.
So we hand expressed.
Or I should say, at this point my mother had returned with my number one and a cookies and cream shake form Chick-fil-a and I was being milked like a cow while I drank a milkshake... still in the delivery room.
Hand feeding to get that blood sugar up.
It was quite the event.
Thankfully we only had to have 4 more blood sugar tests that night and after nursing a few more times he was perfectly fine. Praise the Lord!
While labor was seamless and uneventful, pushing and that first two hours after were something else. Something I wasn't expecting at all.
