She's finally here!
She took her sweet time, arriving 8 days late. I had been having false labor contractions randomly all week long. For 1/2 the day on Thursday and all day on Friday I was taking Black and Blue cohosh to help start my labor. I also had a pregnancy massage on Thursday along with taking multiple walks every day. Nothing was working! I was expecting my labor to start in the middle of the night like it did with Taegen. Plus I'd read that a really high percentage of labors start during the night. I woke up saturday morning depressed that I hadn't gone into labor that night. I actually didn't feel any type of contractions at all. We decided that since nothing happened that night that Jon would take Taegen up to the ranch with him for the day. His actual words were "You aren't going to go into labor during the day so we might as well go up to the ranch and get something done".They left around 9 and I started cleaning. I started feeling contractions but didn't think anything of it. I was walking around being pretty active and figured they'd just go away as soon as I sat down. When I was done cleaning I started working on the quilt of my moms clothes. I had set a goal to have it all sewn together before the baby came, so I figured now would be a perfect time to finish it. The contractions continued. They didn't get any worse or closer together so I continued to ignore them. I got in the bath and read my book. Now that I had calmed down and was relaxing I was expecting my contractions to stop...they didn't...YAY! I wanted to start timing them before I called Jon to let him know. I timed 1 then Jon just happened to call to check up on me and see how I was feeling. "Well, since you called I guess I'll tell you now. I've been having contractions all day. I don't know how far apart they are but the last one I just had was 8 minutes apart". Jon's response..."Wait, are you serious? You really think you're in labor? You're not playing a joke on me are you?" He almost didn't believe me. I reassured him that I was not joking and that I was in fact having contractions. I told him to stay up there since there was nothing he could do down here and they were still far enough apart that it was still going to be a while. I just tried to relax, watched some tv, painted my toe nails, etc.
They came home around 5 and Jon's parents came by to pick up Taegen. We hung out at the house while I timed the contractions. Around 7:30 they started getting pretty bad. Averaging around 5 minutes apart and over 1 minute long. We decided to leave for the hospital at 8. We sent out text messages to family members and off we went. The pain was getting pretty bad and I could tell it was going to be back labor again :( That was one thing I was hoping would be different. Back labor is terrible!
We got to the hospital and got hooked up to the machines to be monitored for an hour before being admitted. The nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 4. This was great. news since with Taegen I didn't progress past a 4 1/2 on my own. The next hour felt like it would never end. I was having a hard time moving in between contractions. Moving positions would cause me to have another contraction. So I tried to stay in the same position. Ugh that was terrible. Then I started getting sick to my stomach during and immediately after each contraction. This is when I knew it was going to get really bad. I started throwing up after the contractions. Next came the shaking. I say shaking but I really mean like uncontrollable convulsions. The nurse said shaking is normal during transition, but I was only at a 4. Then my contractions started getting really long. It started as a regular contraction, starting then slowly getting worse, then would come back down but wouldn't stop. The weaker part of the contraction would continue until another one came. I was not getting a rest in between each one. Some of them were 3+ minutes long. She came back in after an hour and checked me. She thought that since I was shaking so bad that I might be in transition already. (7+ centimeters dilated) I wasn't. But I had progressed to a 5 which meant I was going to be admitted. YAY! I was really worried that I wasn't going to progress on my own like my labor with Taegen. Luckily that wasn't the case this time. I had told the nurse that I was going to do a natural labor so she was getting me set up with a room that had a laboring tub in it.
I was eventually able to move myself into the wheel chair and off to my room we went. We got there and after getting all set up again she checked me again before letting me get in the tub. I was now at a 6. I was hoping that the tub was going to help ease some of the pain. I tried to get out of the bed to walk over to the tub and I literally could not move without having a super long contraction. I feel like it took me 10 minutes to walk 10 ft. I finally got into the tub and it did help calm my shaking but thats about all it did. It didn't help me relax or ease any of the pressure/pain I was feeling. So the only benefit was I wasn't shaking near as bad, but I was still throwing up and having really long contractions.
After about 4 hours of this misery I decided I couldn't handle it anymore and had the nurse call the anesthesiologist. This was a really hard decision for me. I really really wanted a natural birth this time around. I felt like I was giving up, like I had failed. I had told myself that if my labor was under 10 hours than I wouldn't get an epidural. That I would make myself hack it out for at least that long. I had made it almost 40 hours with Taegen without an epidural, I could make it at least 10 this time. I guess it just goes to show that you can't really plan anything when it comes to labor. Maybe if I wasn't shaking so bad or if I was getting a break in between contractions I could have stuck to my goal. But I felt between the shaking, no breaks, back labor, throwing up and my inability to move I just couldn't go any longer. I'm saying this because as I think back on it now I still sometimes feel like I gave up so I have to reassure myself that I made the right decision, which I know I did. It's just easy to forget.
The anesthesiologist came in around 12:00 and got me squared away. I felt the numbing needle/medicine this time and it was rather painful. I didn't feel any part of it with Taegen so I wasn't expecting to feel any pain so that took me by surprise. But it really wasn't that bad. The pain I was in from being in labor was still way worse. I was also a little afraid that something would go wrong because I was shaking so bad. But he did an excellent job despite my lack of control of my body. The epi didn't stop my shaking but everything else stopped. RELIEF! I was finally able to relax a little. She checked me again and I was at a 7 but since I had the epidural my contractions had slowed down. She gave me pitocin to help but we soon realized the baby didn't like that. Her heart rate was dropping after each contraction instead of during. The nurse explained it like the baby was getting mad at how hard my uterus was having to work. So she took me off the pitocin and my contractions started back up again on their own. My blood pressure got down pretty low (86/48 at it's lowest point) but I wasn't feeling woozy or anything so it wasn't too dangerous.
My nurse came in and checked me at 3:00 and said I only had the anterior lip left and it was time to call my doctor. She said not to get too excited yet because he had to drive from Hurricane so to try to relax still. Neither me or Jon got any sleep and were just anxiously waiting. Dr Worwood got there by 3:30 and they started setting everything up. I still had some control of my legs which was nice. My left leg was more floppy than my right so I wasn't quite able to move my left without some help. But my right left I could almost move on my own. I could also feel pressure and if anyone touched down by my vagina. But I couldn't feel contractions or any pain. I liked it this way so much better than being completely unable to move.
I started pushing at 3:30 and 3 contractions later at 3:47 she was here! And yes it took my body 17 minutes to have 3 contractions. We literally waited almost 10 minutes in between the first and second contraction. It was really weird. We were just hanging out, "patiently" waiting. Dr Worwood even commented on Jon's wedding ring. It was quite strange.
She was immediately put on my belly and we got to snuggle with her for as long as we wanted. They waited to cut the cord until it stopped pulsing and we just got to enjoy our new daughter! Everyone was guessing on how much she was going to weigh, more or less than her brother who was 8lbs 2 oz. 21 inches long. She looked really chubby so we guessed more. And we were right...
Ellie Rae
8lbs 9 oz. 21 inches long.
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