Ha, ha, so this is not for the faint of heart. Well, don’t worry, it won’t be that bad, but you might end up thinking I’m crazy in the end. (So what’s new…?)
So you all have heard that Julia was born via C-section last Saturday morning, but not many people have heard how we got to that point. So here you go…
Let me start out by saying, the previous weekend (Nov 16 – 18), Adam had three ‘gigs’… so, I joked that we would have the baby that weekend. But, no baby. So, Sunday (the 18th), I said to Adam, I am totally planning out next weekend in hope that Murphy’s Law takes over.
Tuesday (the 20th) I saw my doctor, and he basically told me that there wasn’t much of a chance of me having the baby Thanksgiving weekend. He said he even expected that I’d be at my next appointment (which would have been the 29th… which would be tomorrow!), and we’d start talking induction for the first week of December.
So… I planned a Thanksgiving meal for Adam and me for Thursday… the whole works. (Yes, Jason, the cooking WAS as much fun as the eating! I loved making pie, rolls, and other goodies from scratch! It was much fun!) I planned to decorate the Christmas tree and put up the Christmas decorations on Friday… and I planned to clean the house on Saturday. Who knew what I would wind up doing Sunday.
Wednesday, the day after my appointment, I had contractions on and off throughout the day. It was kind of wild, as I hadn’t felt any prior to Wednesday. Wednesday night I timed them between 6 and 20 minutes apart, and when I went to bed, I had no problem falling asleep.
During the day on Thursday, as I cooked and prepped for Thanksgiving dinner, I felt a few contractions, but nothing serious. We watched the Packers beat the Lions (WOOHOO!), and at 6:30 PM, we sat down to a scrumptious turkey dinner, with potatoes, dressing, corn, rolls, and pie. We watched movies that night and were in bed by 10PM.
Friday morning, I got up, showered, and dug into the Christmas decorations. It took me almost 4 hours to put together the tree… I was excited to do it, but also tired very easily. After all, it was my due date and I was carrying around a full-term baby! Bending over, reaching up, and fluffing Christmas tree branches aren’t exactly ‘restful’. I also hung the wreathes in the windows and outside, but did not hang up the lights outside, knowing that would require climbing on a chair, and that my neighbor would probably have a heart attack if he saw me climbing outside to hang lights.
Friday morning rolled into Friday afternoon… and then I was starting to wonder if my water was leaking. (Don’t ask my how or why… just know that I had a legitimate reason to wonder.) I finished with the Christmas decorations (only put up about ¼ of what I normally do)… put away the boxes… hung out with Adam for a while. Around 4 PM, I decided I should make pizza dough so we could have homemade pizza for lunch on Saturday. So, I told Adam I was going to the store, and he said he’d come with. We finished up some Christmas shopping (where we ran into a friend of mine and we talked about me still being pregnant…!) and then went to Hyvee to pick up a few things.
On the way home, I mentioned to Adam that I thought my water was leaking. He said that I should call the hospital and see what they thought. But, we figured we better eat some dinner first. (Ha, my last meal before having Julia was two hot dogs. How silly is that?) Then I called the hospital, and they said I should come in to be checked. I got my sweater on (seeing as how I didn’t have a coat that fit) and was ready to go and Adam said, don’t you think we should grab your bag just in case? I’m like sure, but they will just send us home anyway. But, we finished packing the bag and off we went.
The first test said that nope, my water hadn’t broken. I was prepared to be sent home. But, the gal who was monitoring me said, hmm, didn’t you feel that? I said, what? She said, you are having a contraction. And sure enough, I was, and they were 5 – 6 minutes apart.
And… wouldn’t you know, my doctor was right across the hall delivering a baby! So, the nurse said she’d get my doctor and see what he thought should happen. He came in to talk to us, and decided we should do a full work up to determine if my water was actually leaking or not. Adam and I were still pretty sure we were going home that night and talked about what type of movie we’d watch.
And then the test results came back… and my doctor came back… and what he said had both Adam and I in a state of minor shock… he said we were having a baby that night! WOW! Adam said, wow, to think we will be parents in less than 24 hours! And the doctor says, nope, more like 12 because of when Erin’s water broke! Aiy!
So… we were admitted to the hospital, and I was started on an antibiotic that I needed. Around 8:20, the doctor completely broke my water, and the contractions kind of took over from there. I did have pitocin administered for about 20 minutes, however, the nurse ended up shutting it off because my contractions were regular and I was progressing on my own.
Throughout the night, Adam proved to be an awesome coach. Long ago, we had determined that we would try for a natural childbirth; i.e., no pain medications, etc. Adam was my strength through the contractions, even when I wouldn’t let him touch me (LOL!). And… I kept remembering what our goal was and what we had decided we wanted together, and I pushed through without drugs. My nurse, Valerie, was also amazing in that she never once tried to push anything on me. She also proved to be invaluable throughout the experience.
Around 3:30 AM, I decided I just couldn’t do it anymore, and Valerie talked about where we could go from there… but after she got me to describe WHY I thought I couldn’t do it anymore (aiy, the pressure!), she decided to check me and I was a good 7 – 8 cm dilated. She said I should hang in there and try different positions. Sure enough, 20 minutes later she said I was almost there, and at 4 AM she called my doctor to come to the hospital. He arrived at 4:15 AM, and he determined by 4:30 AM that I was ready to push.
And push we did! For 45 minutes we (because I had ‘help’ from Adam, the nurses, and the doctor) pushed and pushed. At 5:15 AM, the doctor said that he thought she was stuck and that her head was turned wrong, and he really felt that a C-section was the best option. We discussed it for a few minutes, pushed a bit more, and then agreed that was the next best thing.
Ha. THEN I had to NOT push for an hour. Okay… NOT cool. My thoughts during this time basically translated to, “KILL ME NOW!!!” Pushing is easy. NOT pushing is NOT easy. Again… kudos to Adam for hanging in there with me. And kudos to my nurse for NOT forcing me into the wheelchair… LOL, I still remember her bringing a wheelchair in for me to get into so they could take me to the OR, and I just started crying like a child and said, “Please don’t make me get in that chair!” So… they wheeled me off to the OR in my bed, transferred me over to the operating table, and an angel administered a spinal for me… and I was in heaven.
(Seriously, again. Laboring eleven hours without drugs and pushing without them was NOT THAT BAD. I actually would do it again! However, the one hour of NOT pushing was NOT fun, and I am VERY thankful that they can ‘knock out’ your body with a spinal. That stopped me feeling the contractions… and EVERYTHING ELSE immediately! It was REALLY cool!)
At 6:34 AM, little Julia Morgan came into the world. I can remember the surgeon saying that we had a beautiful baby and Adam asking what ‘it’ was… “It’s a girl!” I can remember apologizing to him for not giving him a boy, which caused the anesthesiologist to laugh pretty good. I was so excited to finally have this little wonder, this little being, in my life! She is truly a miracle! Who ever could have thought two people could produce something so wonderful!? Adam went with Julia to the nursery while I chatted up NFL (really, we just talked a lot about Brett Favre and the Packers) sports with the OR team as they stitched and cleaned me up. Adam came in and spent time with me in recovery while I warmed up under some warm sheets and blankets and marveled at the fact that I could NOT feel my toes or legs!
And… you can probably guess that the pizza dough was never made and the house was never cleaned this last weekend. :)
Erin
Ps. Wouldn’t you know, Adam and I actually remembered to take a 40-week picture of me the morning of November 23rd, my due date. It’s one of the last pictures of me pregnant! Wow!
