I went to see Dr. Boydston on Wednesday and I was dilated 4 cm, 80% and -2. I had dilated at 3 cm two weeks before, so we were both surprised that I hadn't gone into labor. She offered to strip my membranes and then we discussed a possible induction. She felt that it wouldn't be much harder labor since I had a "favorable cervix". The idea of induction sounded so tempting because then I didn't have to stress about calling someone in the middle of the night. Troy said it was up to me so on Thursday morning I called the Dr. Office and scheduled an induction for Saturday 7 am.
Later that day, Troy said that he was nervous about the induction and he had been praying that I would go into labor before that.
I had been feeling contractions, though they were painless, all day long and losing parts of my mucus plug.
We did a family date to Villa and I did two miles on the elliptical before we spent some time in the splash pad area.
That night around 9:30 I went to bed and soon felt something that resembled a real contraction. Troy was on the phone with his mom. Around 10 pm, I felt a painful contraction so I got up to brush my teeth and brush my hair, which Troy found strange. The contractions weren't very frequent so I was still wondering if this was actual labor. Troy joked and asked if I wanted to stimulate some contractions, I was having enough pain that I didn't find it funny. Finally, I told Troy that I think I was in labor and soon after that I started shaking uncontrollably. My contractions still weren't very frequent but we decided to call Missie. She arrived in 10 minutes or so. I have no words to describe how grateful I am for her willingness to show up and come and sleep here. We headed to the hospital around 11 pm. According to Troy, we got there at 11:15.
It definitely made a difference when I would hold my belly up and once we were in the car, I had two serious contractions on the way to the hospital so I was confident that we weren't going to the hospital for nothing.
We had to go through the ER entrance as it was after hours and the hospital was very quiet. I got to the triage and as usual, they were very calm and slow to process everything. Since I wasn't in crazy pain, it didn't bother me, more so, just amused.
I gave a pee sample, changed into the gown and they put monitors on me. Then I was checked and found to be at 8 cm, 90% and 0. They paged Dr. Boydston and we waited. Soon the labor nurse came to get me and I was wheeled to the birthing suites. She asked what I wanted to pain control and I said I was planning on doing natural and she said it was good since I probably wouldn't have time for epidural.
From the time, we got to the birthing suite and got IV started and everything set up, things are hazy. At one point, Dr. Boydston came to check me and break my water. I was at 9 cm at that point, which it felt like it had already been a long time. I ended up getting up and standing for most of the labor because I was hoping that it would help Little Moose come down. I rocked back and forth and Troy would put pressure on my back and hips. I would repeat "faith over fear" and "relax" and "come on Little guy" over and over again. It was very painful and time seemed to stand still but I was managing my pain.
I kept leaking the amniotic fluid and I kept pushing for a second here and there hoping to feel the pressure of pushing Little Moose out.
Finally I got checked again there was just a tiny bit of anterior lip left. This was a flashback for Aleksi's birth where it took a long time to get through the last bit of labor and how painful it was. I think this is what really scared me and I started to lose my control.
Dr, Boydston was hanging out in the room with me pretty much the whole time. She would talk to me and rub my back. When I vocalized that I didn't think I could do this, she had my lie on my side in the bed to try to help the rest of the cervix go away. It was so painful. I was whimpering at this point and squeezing Troy's hand. Then we flipped to the other side and waited few contractions. I finally felt some pressure and she checked and we were good to push. And I think I pretty much started pushing right away. I felt so much pressure and I just couldn't stop it. People started coming into the room but I just closed my eyes, I literally yelled like a primal jungle woman and I came out within a minute. Once I started pushing, it was so much stretching that I couldn't stop but also I just needed the pain to stop and once I felt him slip out and Troy said "he's here" or something like this, I just sobbed.
I kept looking at Troy and he kept saying "you did it" and I sobbed with the relief of being done.
Little Moose was purple which is common for Colorado babies. He seemed so tiny but people commented how big he was. I was in a sort of awkward position to hold him as I was still delivering the placenta and he felt so slippery.
These labors that start so manageable and I get to the hospital and I'm so close to deliver the babies and then it takes few hours and it gets so painful.
Of course I don't even remember the pain anymore. Troy ended up hanging out with us for an hour or so and then he went home so Missie could go home. Plus I figured it would be good for him to get a good night sleep while I wouldn't be sleeping much at the hospital.
Since Little Moose was a big baby, they kept checking his blood sugars and it was really important to feed him every two hours. This made things a bit exhausting as he was a sleepy baby and didn't have much interest in eating.
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