On Tuesday I got my membranes swept. I had attended my best friends wedding, was 3cm dilated and ready to try anything, desperate times right?
The sweep was painful. I'm sure the doctor knew she was dealing with a wuss for delivery as I shouted "ouch! ouch! OUCH OKAY ALREADY!" at the top of my lungs, I'm sure she prayed for the epidural when I did go into labour.
I left the office hoping for the best that afternoon, I had some cramping and what-not, took Easy to the park and tried to do some walking.
Later that night I started having contractions.
Because I was induced with Easton, I really had no idea what to expect from them...they hurt, but I could talk throught them. They continued through the night but I was able to have a shower and do my hair, I was just excited that this was it, and couldn't sleep! I also took my last "tummy selfies" at 39 weeks pregnant exactly! I just knew my body was getting ready to meet my guy!
When easy woke up a few hours later, we took him to my sisters house and headed to the hospital. At this point the contractions were consistently 5 minutes apart and painful. ( in reality, I had no idea how much more painful they could and WOULD get)
When I got to the hospital they hooked me up to the monitor and checked me.
3cm dilated still.
uh...WHAT?
The nurse told me I would need to go walk the halls of the hospital for an hour and see if any progress could be made, or else they we're sending me home.
I paced the halls of the maternity floor frantically, stopping to breathe through contractions every 5 minutes, surely these bad boys had to be doing something! They HURT!
An hour later I was back in the bed getting a check, optomisitic that we could get this show on the road, I mean, come on! I did my hair and everything!
"I'm sorry, your only 3cm still... You need to go home and come back if the contractions get about 3-5 minutes apart"
She then proceeded to tell me that this could take days to happen...
Uh, days?
It's called prodromal labour. Labour that is as aggressive and painful as real labour, but doesn't produce any change to the cervix.
I went home, distraught, and fought through contractions into the afternoon. I took a Tylenol, hoping it would do something.
Eventually, I fell asleep.
I woke up with a sore back and no contractions. After almost 12 hours of contractions steady and strong, my labor had stopped and I was no closer to a baby then I was yesterday.
Needless to say I was devastated, exhausted, defeated.
My poor sister kept Easton until bedtime while I laid in bed and moped.
Later that night the contractions started up slowly again. I cried to (poor) T, about how I couldn't do this for days! What we're we going to DO?! He consoled me that night with movies, a homemade stir fry and cups and cups of ice to chew on.
This round the contractions were BAD.
Like, they were "mooing level" as T would call it. I would hold his hand and curl up in a ball or roll up onto my knees and breathe through them, rocking my hips back and forth.
Now, when I say "breathe" I mean, I would act like I was blowing out one million birthday candles at once, followed by an "ouch" for about a minute.
Into the middle of the night I fought these contractions. I timed them relentlessly, but got distressed when they never got less than 5 minutes apart, like the hospital said before they sent me home.
I told T to go to sleep as I rotated between a warm bath, the floor, the bed, leaning on the table to try and ease the contractions. By about 2 am I lost it. I burst into tears like a little baby. I woke T and told him I couldn't do it a second longer, we needed I go to the hospital and get me pain meds to deal with this "false labour" and this time it couldn't wait until Easy was awake.
We called my poor sister again, and she came over to sleep on our couch until Easton woke up for the day. We told her we would be back in a couple hours, as we were really only going to get a shot of morphine (which I had declined earlier… stupid me)
We got to the hospital and T dropped me off at emergency between contractions "that ones done? okay great, i'll park the car and try to be back before the next one"
I walked in and there was a line at emergency. great. I assumed there was some sort of "pregnant lady rule" as I walked up to it, They have to let me in soon, so I didn't give birth right there or something... right?
As I walked up to the line I noticed that the girl in front of me was pregnant… and the one in front of her, and the one in front of her? woah. good.
within minutes another woman in labor was behind me in line, looking as surprised as I was.
eventually they got us all up to the labour and delivery ward. I had one of the last beds available. literally, a nurse told me that after they checked me in, they had to leave women labouring in the emergency department because there was a pregnant lady "boom" that night.
I explained my situation, about being sent home and in what I assumed was still false labour and if she could please, um...
GIVE.ME.DRUGS.
She checked me and I almost (or maybe actually did) cried when she informed me that I was 6cm!! I guess sometimes the contractions don't need to necessarily be that close together to get stronger and more productive!
this was it! at around 230am we were being admitted and I was having this baby!
They took me to a delivery room and got me all hooked up to machines and whipped that epidural into me like, super fast! I was so pleased. That man is getting a christmas card.
The doc popped in and broke my waters (gross) and the waiting started. The epidural made my blood pressure plummet and I got a little sick and almost passed out at one point, but other than that, T curled up on a bench and I layed on my side and we both fell asleep for the first time in 2 days.
The nurse came in an hour or so later and told me that the epi had basically stopped my contractions and they administered a little bit of pitocin to get things going a little more, like I cared, I couldn't feel anything!
At around 6am I told the nurse I was feeling a little weird. I wasn't sure how to explain it, but it felt like my epidural was wearing off, and I didn't like that one bit. She checked me and told me I was 9cm, a little pressure was normal. I will note here that she did NOT top up my epidural… which I was not happy about (jk… but really)
I asked if I could roll over, because I was getting a bit uncomfy. she helped me manoeuvre the wires and cords and I rolled to my other side. A minute or two later my doctor came in to check me out.
She immediately said "oh, your 10cm, rolling over must have done it, here, hold these" and passed me my own legs to hold onto. I looked at Taylor who was now sitting up and rubbing his eyes and told him that unless he wanted to miss this thing, he better wake up and get over here! it was happening.. and FAST!
When I had E, I had so much epidural in my system I literally couldn't feel ANYTHING while pushing. I think I was expecting that again… but I was wrong, it was PAINFUL a tad uncomfortable. (this is where I give huge shoutouts to people who don't have epidurals…HUGE shout out… seriously)
when my next contraction came we were all set up, I pushed and made some progress. when the contraction passed, I asked if I could keep pushing… If I could feel this, I did NOT want it to last long. my doctor agreed, and about 3 minutes later, at 6:14am my little man came out and was placed right onto my chest.
He was here!
I was holding this big-ol' baby in my arms, he was finally here! I gave him a once over and noted instantly my favourite things:
1. He was big and fat!
2. he had his dads nose, which is adorable
3. he had blonde hair! (we still can't figure out where this came from, no newborns in either family have been born with blonde hair!)
I held him and snuggled him and only looked up when the doctor said "you okay dad?"
I looked at T and he was white as a sheet. for some reason this delivery took a bit of a toll on his stomach and he was NOT doing well. the doctor ordered him to sit and sent a nurse to get him a juice. T told me later that when he saw the nurse come in with juice he thought it was so nice that they had brought me juice! - Followed by some embarrassment that it was for him. I think it just all happened so fast! the nurse and the doctors joked with each other with stories of dads who had passed out at births, she had seen men to worse, I am so glad T was so supportive the whole process, he deserved a juice.
we stayed in the delivery room a few minutes, They kept him on my chest for a long time, and I was secretly dying to know how much he weighed! when they did finally weigh him, she announced that he was 8 pounds 13 ounces and 3/4… rounded up to 8Lb 14oz! and 22 inches long! He sure beat his 7Lb 11oz 19 inch long brother with those stats! AND he did a lot less damage. hardly any actually. I felt, and still feel really good and recovered.
They moved us into a room and the love went on from there. before anyone came to visit we got to spend a little one on one time and name the baby a name we have loved for a long time. Hudson Taylor.
T got to give him his first bath (his favourite thing to do)
When family started coming, we got to introduce Big Easy to his new little bro. He patted him on the head, kissed him, and then climbed off the bed to get into no-good. and lots of it.
since the hospital, Easton's favourite thing to do is pet and kiss the baby. he comes up to him all the time and smiles and pets his face… sometimes gently. He knows the baby is here to stay, and I think he's okay with it.
I had this big plan to try and latch Hudson to me in the delivery room, try and let nature take its course, and it worked! kind-of.
Breast feeding has been my biggest fear this pregnancy.
Things started off okay, but slowly we realized that nursing wasn't going well for hudson, or me. He was too tired to nurse and it was difficult for both of us. The nurse noted that she thought she saw a "posterior tongue tie" and sent a referral for a lactation consultant to come see me the next morning.
The first night was nice, they came in and took a few blood glucose tests, because he was a week early and almost 9 pounds, but he checked out okay.
The next morning I saw the LC - She tried to correct Hudson's latch with little success, she sent me home with a shield and a referral to a more specialized lactation consultant. that appointment is this Friday. Its been a teary battle ever since the hospital on the breast feeding front, but I won't get into that right now, but this should give you an idea of how I'm feeling "sigh"
by the next afternoon, we were discharged to go home!
I took some better pictures in the hospital with my camera, but haven't had a chance to get them off my camera yet! upcoming!
Since we have been home it has been a flurry of family and love. Things have been busy to say the least, but busy in the way that we have had constant help. CONSTANT. someone has relieved me every day at least once to have a nap, or a shower, or a good cry (again, breastfeeding)
Were happy. Were a family of 4 and loving every second.
Welcome, Hudson.
xx - r
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