Okay, so I know it has been over a year since I posted. I am still not 100% sure I will be a faithful poster, but there are some things I wanted to have record of about these early stages of motherhood. I'm afraid if I don't write them now, they will evacuate my brain along with everything thing else. (This "mom brain" thing is real, guys.) So, here is the story of my sweet baby's birth.
By the time my due date came I was getting a little stressed out. Besides all of the normal, "I'm so tired of being a whale" reasons, I had been on bed rest the entire 3rd trimester due to having constant contractions every 3 minutes. FMLA regulations only required my employer to hold my job for 12 weeks. That meant that by my due date I had exactly one week left where I had insurance, so while initially I was really against being induced, I was starting to come around to the idea. I went to the doctor on my due date (Monday, March 24th). My usual doctor was out of town, so I had to see someone new doctor- Dr. Hinton. After talking over my situation, we decided to go ahead and schedule and induction for that week.
This meant that I was to check into the hospital Wednesday night at 5pm in order to be induced early Thursday morning. As I mentioned, induction was not something I was super excited about. (Except I have to confess that the type-A planner in me was secretly thrilled that she knew exactly when the baby would arrive.)
Upon arriving at the hospital and getting checked in, the nurse gave me a pill to finish softening me. At this point I was only dilated 1cm. She was initially supposed to administer one pill when I got there and another at midnight so that I would be ready for the pitocin the next morning. I don't know if it was because I had already been contracting for three months or if it was just plain old divine intervention, but that pill made my contractions intensify pretty quickly. The second pill would not be necessary. For the first couple of hours my contractions were still bearable. I also had some family visiting me, which helped to distract me. By around 10pm the pain was getting pretty significant, but I just figured this was normal and I would still probably not be in "real" hard labor until the following afternoon. This started to worry me a little because I hadn't planned on getting an epidural, but I knew there was no way I was going to be able to sleep with the amount of pain I was in.
I expressed my concern to the nurse, and she acknowledged that my contractions were pretty rough for having just had that one little pill. Plus, they were coming every minute. She decided to check me again around 11pm. I had progressed to 2 cm at this point. Sharing my fears that it might be a long night, she gave me something to help me sleep. There would be no sleep. From that point on, my contractions were just intense. I kept making them check me every 20-30 minutes for the rest of my labor, and sure enough I would be dilated another centimeter. Even though I was progressing, I was panicking because I guess I was in denial that I was in actual labor and thought I still had hours and hours left, so I informed the nurse that I had changed my mind and would be wanting the epidural after all. Unfortunately for me in that moment (as I look back I'm so happy about the way it worked out), the anesthesiologist was in a c-section and could not come administer the epidural. Around midnight I think I finally faced reality. I was dilated 5cm at this point. I called my dad in Little Rock and told him I thought I might be having the baby kind of soon, so he should start driving. While I was on the phone with him, my water broke. The rest of my labor is all a painful, wonderful blur. The nurse was still hopeful that the anesthesiologist would make it, but she tried to give me something in my IV for pain management. It did nothing except make me super loopy (especially combined with the ambien they gave me earlier). The anesthesiologist did not make it. In fact the doctor barely made it! She essentially finished the c-section and walked into my room to deliver Ezra. After about 20minutes of pushing and the best coaching you could hope for from my amazing husband, I had my baby at 1:29am Thursday, March 27th. Ezra Holden Lee came out screaming and alert. He was and is still the best thing I have ever done and the most perfect sight I have ever laid my eyes on.
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