Well, by 7:45 AM, my contractions seemed MUCH closer together - like 3 or 4 minutes or so. Um, strange.... isn't early labor supposed to last sometime... you know, take a walk, do household chores to keep your mind off of things, time your contractions every once in a while so that you're not constantly thinking about it while your waiting, waiting waiting? Apparently not for me.
I took a shower, got out, started timing contractions and they were 3 minutes apart.
Wasn't I suppose to time the contractions and go to the hospital when they were 5 minutes apart, lasting 45 seconds or longer, for more than an hour? I tried to get stuff together as much as possible - the last minute stuff like my cell charger - in between my 3 minute contractions while waiting for the last few minutes until 9:00 when my doctor's office opened. (I mean, I could have paged them, but it was almost 9, and I hadn't been in labor THAT long, right?)
Well, off to the hospital they sent me. I arrived at about 10:00 and after my check in and examination, they determined that I was 3 cm dilated.
Sometime in the early afternoon, around 1, maybe, they broke my water. Dr. Feldman was already at the hospital (helping to deliver his 2nd grandson!) so he was able to break my water.
My contractions stayed pretty consistently 3 minutes apart, the whole time I was there. I felt like I never really had a break. My labor and delivery nurse told me that I needed to relax through my contractions, like a rag doll - not tense up or fight them. So I basically made myself lay limp, like a noodle, and kept thinking "rag doll rag doll." One ting that was difficult for me, though, was even when the contraction subsided, I could still feel it, and I didn't want to "give in to it" and make me be tense - so rather than taking time to prepare for each contraction, or "get ready for it," I just sort of stayed in my "meditative" state. However, this meant that it was too hard to pull myself out of it to ask for things like ice chips or rags, which I wanted. Luckily, Grant was able to ask me pretty often and anticipate when I might need those ice chips - because I probably didn't really speak to anyone for awhile so I imagine people around me were feeling pretty helpless.
In the delivery room with me were Grant, my mom, my sister, Grant's mom, and for much of the time, my dad.
At about 3, my contractions started lasting longer and stronger.
I remembered thinking "How am I going to do this naturally if the contractions are this bad now? How will I survive that transitional phase with the last three centimeters?" After a few of these, I started to get scared that I wouldn't be able to do it, and started mentioning epidural to Grant. As we had discussed previously, he stayed really positive and encouraging, and told me I could do it. Some of the contractions were so strong, though, that I couldn't stay "in my zone" and had to react physically to them, which really didn't help.
The nurse checked me at almost 4 o'clock to encourage me. I debated in my head - if I am at an 8, or maybe a 7, I can still do this...
Apparently, though, what "they" say is correct - when you start feeling like you can't do it and need the drugs, you're almost there - and I was - I was at 9 cm, ready to push.
The baby warmer was turned on and it felt like things were happening very quickly, so I was pretty excited. However, pushing was very, very hard for me. I pushed for 2 hours and 45 minutes. I just seemed to be making very little progress. I don't know why - if I was doing something wrong, if it was the size of the baby, or what was happening. My nurse, Kristen Serna, who had been with me from the beginning, stayed 45 minutes past her shift to be with me - I think even she was surprised that it took me so long. She was awesome giving me tips to help - for example, she gave me one end of a towel and my sister the other and had me pull on the towel while pushing to help me make my pushes more effective.
My birth plan had said no episiotomy unless necessary, but at the very end it was necessary. It probably would have sped up the process if I had one earlier, but Dr. Feldman was really going all out to respect my birth plan in every way possible. I did end up getting one, though. When Baby G was finally ready, the cord was wrapped around his neck twice, so Dr. Feldman had to quickly clamp and cut the cord and unwrap it. Then Baby G threw in another kink and had shoulder dysplasia, which basically meant his shoulder got stuck (which I think is when I got the episiotomy.)
However, healthy and strong, Geoffrey Walter Benedict entered the world at 6:46 PM on February 20th. He was 9 pounds, 1 ounce (causing me to say "oh shit!" - my only utterance of bad language during the whole procedure, apparently!) and 21 inches long.
I am so grateful to Dr. Feldman. He has been so supportive all along of how I wanted to have this baby. He did everything he could to follow my plan. Yet his expertise and experience guided him towards making sure that Geoffrey and I were safe and healthy. I am also very grateful to my nurse Kristen, for staying with me throughout the entire delivery, and for being so supportive.
In retrospect, one thing I would have done on my birth plan was specify which things were most important to me - for example, the episiotomy, prior to labor, I would have preferred not to have- but I really didn't care either way - it wasn't as important as, say, my desire to not have a C-Section. Had I specified in my birth plan which of my desires were less important, I may have had the epsiotomy earlier, which may have sped things along.
One thing Grant and I discussed, though, is that if I HAD gotten an epidural, I may not have been able to push him out., and would have needed to go to C-section. This is something that I'm going to talk about with Dr. Feldman.
After delivery, Geoffrey came straight to me and we had skin to skin contact while Dr. Feldman delivered my placenta and stitched me up. They weighed and measured Geoff and wrapped him all up, and gave him to Grant, his daddy, to hold. Then Grandma, Nonna, Aunt Tammy, and Grandpa Bob got to hold him for a few minutes as Dr. Feldman finished.
Then everyone left except for Grant, the lights were dimmed, and he and I got to spend a precious hour with Geoffrey. Geoff got to breastfeed, and Grant was able to comfort me as I continued to come out of the haze of labor. The time really helped me calm down and sort of phase back in to reality. My new reality. I am a mom now. My Geoffrey is so precious.
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