SHE's HERE! - Part 2 - Labor

When we got to the hospital, we went up to the Labor and Delivery floor, and they took us to our Labor and Delivery room. Then we waited for our nurse.

The Nurse - It felt like we were in high school. And this girl was too-cool-for-school to talk to us. SO WEIRD! She really wasn't too interested in getting-to-know-you chit chat. She always seemed to be on the defense. She just seemed very I'm-the-nurse-you're-the-patient. Her attitude was a bit of "*I* do this everyday and know what's going on, so you just need to do what I tell you." We really should have asked to switch out for another nurse (but I guess the hospital was having a TON of peeps come in that "waited till after the weekend", and so they were pretty "booked").

Changed into a gown, got in bed. Nurse hooked me up to the IV. Monitored my contractions for a bit. SHE measured my cervix to be 3-4 cm dilated and 70% effaced. Hmmm... Well, I guess it ended up being for about 4 hours (but it went by quick). Our doctor actually had a family emergency up North, but was able to stop in and say Hi. The doctor actually wanted to get me on Pitocin at about 11am so that maybe she'd be able to get there (before heading north) to deliver the baby. But I wanted to hold out. The doc said we could walk around a bit, so we made two rounds around the floor, and some "steps" onto a stepping stool. At about 12:40, I decided to start Pitocin and got it going at about 1pm.

The contractions started becoming closer and more regular, but not unbearable. It was actually pretty cool listening to my HypnoBabies tracks and getting through the contractions. I would actually almost fall asleep between contractions because I was so relaxed!

It started getting "harder" as the contractions became stronger. I changed positions a couple of times that seemed to help at first. Sat on the exercise/birthing ball, stood and rocked with Tim...
The nurse checked me at one point...7 cm dilated.

After "rocking" with Tim a bit, and trying to find another comfortable position (like squatting), it was probably about 3, 3:30ish. The contractions were really strong. It just felt like really STRONG cramps right in my pelvis. I started feeling like I needed to pee... or that I needed to poop. The "cramps" were getting so strong that I decided maybe I should get the epidural. The nurse checked me to see how far along I was... she had a hard time determining... it was either 9cm...or gone. She called the doctor the see what she wanted to do, and I think (if I remember correctly), the doctor said I could start pushing if I felt the need.

I tried pushing on my side for a little bit, and then on my back. It was hard to do! Pulling my legs back, pushing through the contractions. The nurse yelling push push push... Some of the contractions were easier than others... some of them, the pushing felt good... some of them were so tough that I really didn't know how I would get through it.

It was a really interesting sensation... at one point, the nurse called the on-call doctor in, and other nurses. Ugh... maybe it's too close to the event for me to be thinking-back on all these things. :) Taking a break now.

SHE's HERE! Part 1 - Going to the hospital

Monday - Memorial Day. Tim had work off, so we all had a nice long weekend. After going for some Chinese food in Chinatown with some friends, we headed home, relaxed, then ran to Target to pick up some things. On the way home, Tim made a comment, "I hope she doesn't come at 3 o'clock on the morning. I'd be exhausted and wouldn't be able to drive you to the hospital," (or something like that... he was teasing). He also expressed slight sadness that Baby Girl wasn't born yet, and how he might need to go into work the next morning.

We stayed up until about 10:30pm, then headed to bed. Tim fell fast asleep real quick. I was in-and-out until about 1:00am. I'd get hot, I'd have to pee, I'd get thirsty, I'd get hot, reposition... I'd fall asleep for an hour here, an hour there. At one point, I noticed that my contractions were pretty frequent, so I finally got up and started noting the times. I was having slight (and non-painful) contractions about every 2-3 minutes apart. I also noticed some slight leakage that felt like it was NOT coming from my pee hole. :)

From about 1-ish to 2-ish, I kept a record of the time and started gathering extra things together in case we had to go the hospital. I also got on the internet to checkup on some work HR stuff, and to read my cousin's blog about HER recent labor and delivery.

It was close to 3am, and I thought how funny it would be if I woke up Tim and it was time to go the hospital (since the comment he made earlier). But then I decided that if it were a "false alarm", he'd be EXHAUSTED the next day if he had to work. I remembered reading in lots of my books (and online forums) that it's best to "labor" at home for a bit, and THEN go to the hospital. I was feeling really tired, so I decided to get back into bed and get some sleep. (Plus, I guess if my water HAD broken, I would REALLY know by laying down for a while, and THEN getting up.)

Tuesday - We both woke up at about 6ish. Tim mosied around for a bit, getting his work laptop ready and making some phone calls. He came over to crawl into bed with me and noticed my pad of paper with my contraction times written on it. I told him that I didn't know if my water had broken or not, but was thinking that it hadn't yet. He wanted to call the doctor...I didn't. But he did anyway. He called her at about 7ish, and JUST as he was hanging up the phone, it felt like the baby KICKED my belly (with a slight "pop" sound), and I felt a river of warm fluid running through my body towards the exit. Woah! I hopped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. It took us a little while to get a hold of the doctor again, after which she told us to head to the hospital.

We hit a little morning traffic, but made it to the hospital in great time... so fast, in fact, that the nurse assigned to us wasn't there yet. So we got another nurse (whose patient hadn't arrived yet). What an INTERESTING nurse (interesting, in this case, was NOT a very good thing). :)

Back

Oh how i would like a chiropractic adjustment right now! :) My upper back just feels like it needs a good "pop".

Here I am lying on the couch (with my belly hanging between the couch and ottoman) so that Tim could try and press on my back to "pop" it. It didn't work.

Since it won't "pop", I try and stretch it out as much as I can...it'll help for a little bit.

Food food food

Tim always loves the strangest pictures of me. Here are some that he took a week or two ago when he brought some hamburgers home for lunch. They are HUGE burgers from a shop just down the street... huge and messy!

I guess I was getting sauce all over my face (thought I can't really see it).

Lovely... :P

Widget Moment

Again, just capturing my sidebar widget so I'll have it in my blog-book (when I eventually get around to making it).

Wedding

Last Saturday--a day before hitting the "safe zone" (meaning 36 weeks)--our friends got married. It was nice to REALLY get out of the house and go do something. :)

It was a really good wedding... the bride was gorgeous! Here are the bride and groom "at the altar" of their Methodist church:
*Note: The organist was a Korean girl... she played well, but was off-tempo a LOT! ESPECIALLY for the bridal song at the end! Maybe I should practice my organ... I hear you can make buko-bucks playing it...

Here I am outside of the church after the ceremony:
(Look how huge my belly is!!!)


We then headed over to the reception. Here's my place setting:

Here's the bride and groom entering the room:

After lunch, the bride and groom made their way around the room. Isn't her dress beautiful?

It was quite refreshing to attend such a traditional reception. (With so many people not wanting to have a "traditional mormon reception", you end up attending some very interesting "non-traditional-mormon" AND "non-NORMAL-traditional" receptions.)

The wedding ceremony was also very nice.

36 Week Appointment

STATS:
135 lbs
Uterus measured 35
90% effaced
3 cm dilated

SO:
My doc was like, "Well, would you like to go the hospital to be monitored?"

We came home instead. She said that I didn't look like someone in labor, so just wait until my contractions begin to get more intense. (While waiting in the waiting room for about an hour, I measured some of my contractions... they were about 10 minutes apart... but I didn't measure how long they lasted).

My sister is hoping and hoping and HOPING that the baby will stay in until Thursday so that she can be there for the birth... but I guess we'll see if we'll even make it through the weekend. :O HOW CRAZY! :)

We stopped at A&W afterwards to grab some grub.