Peter's birth story

I woke up around 11:45 Saturday night (September 4th) when my water broke. Being so early and in the middle of house projects--stuff like getting vinyl siding on the house and the nursery painted and carpet laid, I was in denial. I got up and kept trying to convince myself that I had just peed everywhere. Hah. Around 12:30am, I had my first contraction, which wasn't too terrible. It wasn't comfortable, but I could deal. From the beginning, they were 4-5 minutes apart and at least a minute long. After four or five of them, I woke Sean up, then hopped in the shower. After all, I had primer all over my legs from working on the nursery!

Sean went into panic mode and started throwing things into bags, since we didn't have anything packed. He called the OB on call, and then she called me back after I got out of the shower. She told me to go ahead and head on in to get checked out. In the seven miles from our house to the hospital, I had four contractions. They were starting to get way more painful, and way more frequent. We also saw two live possums in the road, which Sean said was a good sign.

Got to the hospital (and left my cell phone in the lobby bathroom!), got checked in, and the baby's heart rate was up a little, and so was my blood pressure. She laid me flat on my back and LEFT ME THERE! I was super ticked by that point. So I hopped up and threw up (because it wouldn't be the end of my pregnancy if I didn't).

She finally got around to checking me at 3am, after we had been there for around 45 minutes. I don't think she was really expecting me to be that far along, since at my appointment on Thursday, I was 1cm and 70% effaced. Well, I surprised her, because I was already 90% effaced and at 5cm. I asked for some IV pain meds, but they wouldn't give me anything until they got fluid in me since I was so dehydrated, and since the baby's heart rate was still a little fast. They did finally move me to a room though.

Once I got into my room, I couldn't move. Even turning my head made me want to throw up. Around 3:30am, I told Sean I couldn't handle it, that I needed the epidural. All I really remember is saying that it hurt and I wanted to cry, but I couldn't. I literally had so little fluid in me that I couldn't produce tears. Honestly, I probably could have handled everything with just some pain meds if I hadn't been so dehydrated and could have moved around. The relief was pretty immediate, although it didn't take all the way. I could still feel contractions on my left side, but they weren't as bad. Instead, I just shook uncontrollably through them. At one point, my nurse checked the monitor, and they were lasting for two minutes at a time. Then I threw up again. :)

Around 4:45am, DH asked her when I should be checked again. She told him that I needed to feel some pressure first. I looked at her and said, "Uh, I have been for awhile..." Guess I should have mentioned it earlier. She gloved up, and her eyes got really wide. I was totally ready. She called the OB, and then went to the bathroom and to get a cup of coffee. The OB got there within a few minutes, and informed me that baby had hair, and lots of it. At that point, I was getting a little freaked out. This was supposed to take longer!

I pushed for 1.5 hours. It wasn't anything crazy, except I apparently have a weird inner tissue band that neither the OB or nurse had ever seen before. It held him in place kind of tightly, so I had some trouble getting it stretched out. In the end, I had one small tear on the outside that didn't really need any work, but that inner band tore in three different places.

Anyway, at 6:25am, I asked if they thought I would have a baby by 7am. The OB said she gave me 'til 6:30. The nurse guessed one more push. She was right. He came out waving his big old hands (everyone remarked on them!) and spreading his legs wide! I got to hold him for a minute, then they took him because he was breathing so fast. They finally decided that it was fast, but not dangerous and gave him back. Sean then got to hold him, and decided on his name.

I'm still in awe!