labor of love - take two

i have a terrible memory. i really do. so i made it a point that before i went into labor with eli, that i would keep track of everything as best i could with what was happening at what time. i wasn't able to keep track quite as well this time around, but have a basic gist of how things went down. so here we go -

monday i had a doctors appointment. dr blumenfeld said i was 2 to 3 centimeters dilated and didn't think i would make it till my due date. at this point in time i had been feeling painful braxton hicks contractions for a couple of weeks now.

tuesday the bh contractions continued. today i wondered if i really knew/remembered the difference in feeling in braxton hicks and actual contractions.

wednesday i felt like the waiting started (because i finally felt somewhat ready)... wondering when this little guy was going to come.

thursday i felt the difference between the contractions and knew i was feeling the real thing. they were very infrequent so i didn't think anything of them during the day. that night before i went to bed they started coming every 10 minutes though so i got in bed thinking i could be in labor. i woke up about four hours later to back pain so bad that i had to get up and walk around for a while. but still no consistency with timing.

friday was the original day i wanted to have the baby. so all day i wondered if i would be lucky enough to have him today.

4:30ish pm - i started getting contractions that were frequent enough that i started glancing at the clock, and they were about 10 minutes apart... but they were no big deal at this point still.

5:22 - things seemed more serious so i started writing down my contractions that seemed to be around 7 to 8 minutes apart.

8:21 - started being about 6 minutes apart.

8:42 - crippling, consistent contractions 2 minutes apart. unfortunately we waited till now to finish the last minute things to throw in our hospital bag... i know, what were we thinking.

9:30 - got in the car to head to the hospital.

9:40 - got to the hospital. they gave us a wheelchair to help me up to the labor and delivery... unfortunately the way wasn't well marked in the new building so just like last time, it took us a few wrong turns to find where we needed to go... which believe it or not, is even more irritating when you are having contractions every two minutes.

10:00 - got to the room, got dressed, and got hooked up to the monitors. was checked to see how dilated i was, and was at a 6 (to which one of the nurses said "no one ever makes it to being 6 cm dilated in santa monica without an epidural). the anesthesiologist was in with someone else so i had to wait for him to get done with her before he could come in with me.

10:30 the anesthesiologist came. while he was working on me the contractions were so intense that i had the overwhelming feeling that i needed to start pushing... or i guess i should say i couldn't really help but push... but kept fighting the urge as best i could while wanting to die because of the pain. i think my eyes had been closed for about 20 minutes at this point... which i guess is a side effect of mine while experiencing intense pain.

10:40 - while he was in the middle of giving me an epidural the nurse had to check how far along i was considering i was feeling like it was time, and said i was already dilated to a 10. they continued with the epidural since he was already part way done, and my doctor wasn't there, and i needed to not be pushing (since really, i couldn't help it) till my doctor got there.

10:50 - done with the epidural.

10:53 - my water broke. and tanner who was a couple feet away heard a little pop when it happened.

10:55 - started feeling the sweet, sweet numbing feeling of the epidural.

11:15- doctor showed up and the room was about finished being prepped for the delivery. i don't know what exact time i started pushing. he had me do my first push, and when that was done (what, 8 counts/seconds later?) said in his thick israeli accent, "okay, one more push and the baby will be here" and with that, i pushed once more and...

11:25 pm -our tiny baby isaac arrived. seeing him lye on my chest was such an awesome feeling. i felt love for him immediately and couldn't help but think how blessed i am.

i am so glad everything went so smoothly during labor. the nurses did tell me however that i need to get to the hospital next time much sooner or i'll be having the baby at home. i have always wished i could be strong enough to have an all natural delivery, and its sort of annoying that i was so close! that if only my doctor was able to get to the hospital a little earlier i would have been able to do it drug free... but oh well. and plus, two pushes... thats probably going to go down as my quickest baby delivery considering i don't know how you can improve too much on that. i sure am lucky.

labor of love

i guess its time i shared my labor experience.

sunday i started feeling braxton hicks contractions pretty often while at tanner's grandparents house. i knew they couldn't be the real thing, and they were totally irregular so i didnt think much of them.

monday i went to the doctor and he told me i was two cm dilated. he also gave me the option of getting induced that next wednesday, but i said i wanted to wait, and i got freaked out that wednesday was only two days away so i wanted to wait.... little did i know that wednesday would be the day anyways. braxton hicks continued.

tuesday i decided for fun to start timing the bh contractions. they went through stages of being consistent, but never stayed that way for too long. i was able to meet tanner for lunch that day at cpk off of 3rd street, and then we went to victoria secret to get me some pj's that button up the front, and stopped by locitain to get me more hand lotion. for one of the first times i decided to take a nap that day. i wasn't able to fall asleep, but im still greatful i was able to take some time to lye down and rest. that night i was looking through some old pictures, and i saw a picture that i took when i was 20 weeks pregnant. i remember back at this time i was so proud of my little bump and couldnt understand why everyone else couldnt tell i was pregnant. now looking back, i was obviously still little. so for fun, i put on the same dress (around 7:00 pm) and took this picture at 39 weeks, 2 days.
the reason why i look so tired in this picture is cause i was : )
8:00 pm i starting have a constant, incredibly intense pain in my back, and kept on getting really bad cramps. i thought this was odd, but didnt say anything to tanner cause i figured that it probably wasn't anything (even though i was trying to hold back the tears already cause it hurt so bad.... and hey, we were watching the season finale of american idol).
9:00 pm tanner and i went on a walk around the block. we were wondering if this was the real thing. deep down i felt like it was, but kept saying it couldnt be because my contractions came so suddenly and with such sudden intensity.
9:15 pm we start timing contractions. they are consistently about 3 1/2 minutes apart. over the next couple hours i had a few that were 6 min apart, and a few that were more like 2 min apart...at first i tried to use that to convince myself this couldnt be actual labor... but they kept coming.
10:45 pm i got in the tub to see if the warm water would help. it did for a couple minutes, but the pain was still killing me regardless.
12:00 am tanner gave me a blessing.
12:10 am we were in the car on our way to the hospital. tanner called to warn them that we were on our way. i was worried that the hospital was going to send us back home because i felt like my contractions were becoming more uneven...i felt like they were coming every minute or two.
12:30 am i was dressed in my hospital gown and in our room. they hooked up the different monitors to check my contractions and the baby's heart beat. they ask if i want an epidural, i said yes. they check to see how dilated i am. 2 cm. i felt upset that i am in all this pain and my body hasn't made any progress. over the next couple hours i realized why i felt like my contractions were uneven. instead of having one contraction, a break period, and then another contraction, i was having four to five contractions back to back, with one short break, and then another four to five. i wanted to die.
2:20 am i finally got an epidural. luckily i started feeling the numbing immediately.
3:00 am the nurse turns out the light and tells us to try to get some sleep. unfortunatly, i couldnt. it was a combination of knowing i was going to have this baby within the next 24 hours, the nurses walking in and out, and all the noise the different monitors were making. i was worried about how tired i would be when i had to push and hoped i could muster up the energy when the time came.
6:30 am tanner gets up to go to the bathroom. i was glad cause i had wanted him to wake up for the past couple hours. he noticed the paper that showed the level of my contractions has changed. it seemed as though they had essentially stopped. this was incredibly dissapointing, and i was waiting for a nurse to come in and say that they were either going to break my water or start pitocin.
7:50 am a nurse comes in and re-adjusts my monitor belt that was tracking my contractions. we now see that the only problem was the belt shifted, and that i had been having full on contractions all night. they were going to wait till my doctor got to the hospital to check how dilated i was to see what the next move should be...but they didnt think the doctor would be in for a while so...
8:00 am tanner went to go get a bagel at the cafeteria.
8:05 am my doctor came in and checked me. he said that my water had already broke (how i wasn't aware of this i have no idea...it will always be a mystery), that i was fully dilated and ready to push, and that the nurses should prep the room immediatly. i panic and call tanner to tell him to get back now.
8:15 am tanner is back and i start to push.
8:27 am baby eli is born in only 12 minutes of pushing. he came out with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck so i wasn't able to hold him right away but after they made sure he was okay, sort of wiped him up and wrapped him, i was able to hold him. i couldn't believe that this was my baby. he is beautiful. i loved him instantly.