On the night of 5/4/13 at approximately 11:30pm, 30 minutes after laying down to bed, I felt a gush of warm fluid and knew immediately that my water had broken. The day had been pretty uneventful with no real regular contractions. At the time my water broke, I did not feel any contractions at all. My parents were staying overnight with us by chance, which worked out great - so we didn't have to panic about taking care of Nathan and my Mom was able to be with me every step of the way. Stephen got up and got everything ready and loaded in the car. I was a bit in shock, even though I knew the time was coming.
We arrived at the hospital a few minutes after midnight. They put me on the monitor and at first my contractions were spaced out, but they didn't feel that intense, but within a short amount of time they were regular at 3-4 min apart. I was still only dilated to about 3.5cm upon arrival. The intensity of the contractions didn't really pick up until 4am. Once it did, the pain was really hard to manage. I called for the epidural a little after 5am and opted not to do any IV drugs. I was dilated to 4.5cm at that time. Stephen stayed in the room with me while the epidural was placed, that was completed about 6:30am. I could then feel a contraction coming on, but the intensity was gone :)
They checked me again around 9am and I was at 9cm dilated. By close to 11am I was at 10cm and ready to begin pushing. I did not get any sleep at all after arriving at the hospital and was feeling pretty exhausted by the time I was ready to push. I thought that it wouldn't take a lot of time to push the baby out - I was wrong.... The pushing phase lasted over 2 hours. My mom kept track of each round of 3 pushes, there were 36 rounds for a total of 108 pushes until baby came out. I was utterly exhausted during this time and begged for the doctor to just pull him out of me. I screamed, I panicked, I felt like I couldn't do anymore, I cried.... I know that labor is painful, but I didn't think that with the epidural that I would feel a pain like that, everyone says "you can still feel the pressure, its just pressure" - they are liars. This was pain like I've never felt before in my entire life. The doctor that delivered Nolan was not my OB, but she stayed with me the entire time and coached me through. Nolan was born at 1:06pm on 5/5/13 weighing 7 lbs, 7oz and 20 inches long. I can't even describe the relief and joy I felt when they put him on my belly after I pushed him out. He was beautiful and had his eyes open looking at me. Doctor had to use a vacuum to help assist him out because he kept dropping low in my pelvis when I pushed, and I had an episiotomy.
I had to have quite a few stitches. When I first was able to get out of bed and into the restroom, I ended up passing out while washing my hands. It was a really rough day!
We were discharged the next day on 5/6/13 later in the afternoon. Nolan is doing great and we are working on breastfeeding. He did keep us up all night long our first night home....
Nathan is adjusting well to his new little brother. We are one blessed family!
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