Well after walking 2.5 miles Thursday night and having a few hours worth of contractions around 8 min apart before bed we get up Friday morning and Chris says "let's go to the hospital today". Okay, I was all for it, only problem was I hadn't had 1 contraction ALL night long or at least not one that was strong enough to wake me up. So I said well lets go walk the mall a bit and then we will call the doctor. So we both called out of work and when mama got here we made our way to the mall. We walked for 2 hours and I was hardly having contractions, but since I had had a few I called the dr. When I told them that I was dilated to 4cm the previous Wednesday they told me to just go ahead to the hospital. So to the hospital we went...
When we arrived around 10am they put us in triage the nurse checked me and guess what! Still 4 cm and 50% effaced....Really?? Okay she checked with the dr. and he told her to have us walk (MORE!!!) for an hour. So walk we did, and oh it was painful I could feel her dropping and pressing down, I was having contractions that were actually strong enough to make me stop walking. When our hour was up, I was 5cm and 75% effaced so they admitted me! Evidently they won't keep you unless you are at least 5cm, so that last hour really worked for us! My theory was because I didn't have any pants on while walking the hospital. My maternity pants I think were creating support so that my belly was lifted while I was walking. To put it all in a nut shell, I should have been walking the mall with no pants on all along...
They got us in a room and so it all began. I was having very regular contractions by this point, they were long and strong but not unbearable so we were just hanging out enjoying the birth process of our second (and sadly probably last) child. I would say that we hung out for a few hours and the dr came in to check me, still at 5cm he went ahead and broke my water. I was so scared, my water broke on it's own with Addie so I was nervous that it was going to be painful (right I was in actual labor and yes I was worried about pain) of course he did come in with this long plastic stick thingy so what was I to think? It wasn't bad at all, I didn't feel a thing until the water started flowing, and flow it did so much so that it not only soiled the bed, ran off the side, but also soaked the dr.'s pants! So turns out that I had a lot of water, funny though that I carried it all in my belly as opposed to my extremities like I did with Addie. Good thing that all he had to do was go to the OR and get another pair. It was a really weird feeling because after he had released all of my water it felt like I wasn't even pregnant anymore, aside from the contractions and all the labor going on that is...
Ok so when he checked me before he broke my water he thought he had felt the umbilical cord so he wanted to make sure that it wasn't in the way before he did so, turns out it was just her hand trying to push his away (she still does that BTW). He moved her around so that she was just head down and didn't have her hand up anymore and then went ahead with the water. Not long after that did the real painful part begin and boy did it! I am talking my contractions were one on top of another with maybe a 20 second pause in between each one, finally I was ready for the epidural, I couldn't even sit back because they were so strong on top of one another. They were way harder than I remember Addie's being.
Anesthesiology came in and I have to say all the stories that we had been told about how bad epidurals were and all the problems people had had with them, both of mine went off with out a hitch! I am very thankful for that because that was the part of labor that I was most worried about with both girls. Within minutes, I was feeling very good, I think I even got a bit of a nap in.
Contractions were still very strong and consistent, the epidural didn't effect them at all. The Dr. came in a bit later confidant that we would be very close and I had only gotten to a 5.5... I felt so bad! He seemed so disappointed that I wasn't further along! They had been watching us on the monitor and had thought the same as I did about labor not really slowing down. Anyway, he started me on Pitocin, the nurse called it a Whiff of Pit, basically they give me the lowest possible dosage and see if it works. She started it and the next thing I knew I was at a 7! She then told me to call her if I felt pressure like I needed to push, no sooner had she left the room I started feeling that pressure! But I didn't wanna call her for a false alarm, so I just held on. When she came back to check on me she asked had I been feeling pressure, I said yes so she checked me, jumped up and said lets have a baby! Guess it wasn't a false alarm after all! 5 minutes later I was pushing, 5 pushes after that and we had a baby! I only pushed for 16 minutes, which was a breeze compared to the hour and a half I pushed with Addie. I would never have guessed I was birthing a bigger baby than the first!
I feel that this birth was a lot more personal than Addie's, first of all when Addie was born there was Chris, and two nurses in there while I was pushing and the Dr. showed up right when it was time to get her out. The lights were high and bright. With Cara the lights were low and it was Chris, a nurse and the Dr. the whole time, very personal and relaxing. With Addie the nurse that was helping me push was watching the TV the whole time, which really stressed me out, with Cara everyone was in tune to her and I. Both were amazing though and I wouldn't trade them for the world!!
Ok so Cara, was "corkscrewed" in, meaning he literally had to twist her around to get her out of me. She also had the umbilical cord wrapped around her face, which really freaked me out and still kinda does! She however is just perfect! Truly another miracle baby, a gift from God!
