A birth story.

Alright.  It’s been two weeks.  I think it’s about time I shared my story with all the people who (don’t) read my blog.

I am an extremely lucky person.
My pregnancy didn’t even start getting unbearable until the last week, and thankfully, I was out of school and out of work for Thanksgiving break.  And it wasn’t even completely unbearable physically.  I was just a little sore.  Mostly, I was just tired of being pregnant.  I wanted my waistline back and to be able to sleep on my stomach again.  I wanted to be able to put on my own socks and shoes without contorting my body into some weird yoga pose.  I wanted to be able to hold my little boy in my arms instead of my pelvic cavity.  His hiccups were getting pretty annoying.

I got a little anxious and I felt selfish and whiny and the worst thing I did was keep that to myself.  My boyfriend is amazing, and I know exactly what he would have said if only I had told him how I was feeling.  He would have made me feel 150% better, but I pretty much avoided telling him the majority of my feelings during my entire pregnancy because I didn’t want him to think I was being selfish.  I didn’t want to get on his nerves.  So if there’s anything you take away from this story, just know the people who love you won’t think you’re a bad person when you don’t feel like your old size 3 self, no matter what your crazy size 8 self makes you tell him.

My due date came and went, and my not-so-scheduled induction date was still kind of up in the air since my doctor is quite popular and everyone wants their baby in time for the holidays.  I had regular contractions but nothing that ever made me want to load up the car and head to the hospital.  I tried walking around the block every day and eating spicy food once in a while, but it felt like nothing changed and I only got more impatient and frustrated.

On Monday afternoon (11/30), while I was trying to finish a term paper on Thomas Hobbes and King Charles II, I received a call from my doctor’s office telling me to come in to the hospital the next morning at 5:30 am for my induction!  I was so excited and nervous that I pretty much gave up on that paper (still haven’t turned it in) and I couldn’t even bring myself to focus on Facebook, let alone trying to get things ready for the next morning.

I went to bed at halftime during the Monday night football game, knowing I’d need all the energy I could get for the next day and also to enjoy my last full night of sleep before our little one arrived.  I was woken up at 2:30am by another phone call from the hospital saying that there wasn’t a room ready for me and that I just needed to wait for another phone call.

Easier said than done.  Pregnant ladies tend to get a little cranky when they’re not allowed to eat, but I tried to stay asleep as long as I could instead of getting up to think about food.  My mom kept coming in telling me I should call the hospital to see if they had a room ready, which seemed counter-productive to me since all they would tell me was to wait for them to call me. But I called anyway around 10am to ask if I was allowed to eat and they said no. :(

About an hour and a half later, they called back and said they were ready for me, so Andy and I packed up the car and drove to the hospital.  The events that followed would make more sense in bullets:

• 12:00pm Arrived at the hospital and began paperwork.
• 1:30pm Settled into the room. (2cm dilated, 75% effaced.)
• 2:30pm Started on the smallest dose of Pitocin to induce contractions.  Met with the anesthesiologist to talk about the epidural but I still wasn’t sure if I needed it.
• 2:45pm My doctor arrived to break my water.   She also told me that I could ask for the epidural whenever I wanted, but she recommended that I wait until I was 4-6cm dilated.  (2.8cm dilated, 75% effaced.)
• ?:??pm My nurse told me that my doctor was across the hall doing an emergency c-section and that when she was done, she’d come check my progress.  I was slightly uncomfortable by then and was probably wondering about that epidural, but I wanted to wait for my doctor to tell me how dilated I was.  She never showed up.  Another one of her patients gave birth (screaming bloody murder down the hall).  My nurse gave me 1mg of some narcotic to help with the pain, but it didn’t work.
• 6:30ishpm My contractions made my body start pushing.  I honestly thought I just had to poop since it had only been 4 hours and they told me I’d probably be in labor for at least 12-24.  I asked Andy to call my nurse and the receptionist chimed in mid-contraction so I didn’t say anything.  She sent the nearest nurse into my room to check me and – surprise! -  I was 10cm dilated.  Too late for that epidural.  Too late for anything.

I labored for 4 hours and pushed for 10 minutes, and our little Luke Anothony was born at 6:46pm, 8 lbs. 21 inches. :)

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