The Birth Story - Part 2

So we left off on Sunday evening, August 25th.  Hubs, after a thousand questions of "Are you sure you are okay?" decided to go to his Fantasy Football draft with his phone in his hand at all times. (He can be a little over dramatic when he's excited!!)  I called some other wives of friends who had hubbies at the draft to make dinner plans. We decided to meet for Mexican at 6:00.  At 5:00 I noticed a contraction that had some power to it and made me pause for a moment.  I didn't think much of it and went on with the evening and getting Miss M ready for a night out.  We got to dinner and enjoyed a ladies night out.  I of course was having contractions the whole dinner, but still in denial. Miss M and I got home from dinner and Hubs called to get the report.  I had started timing the contractions when we got home to see if there was any consistency, every 6-7 min.  I told Hubs the update, but also told him not to worry and to stay and finish his draft.   I don't think he was too convinced.  Meanwhile I took a bath, took care of the dogs, and got Miss M into bed.  Hubs was home by 8:30 and by the time he arrived, the contractions were hurting and every 5-6 minutes.  He convinced me to call doctor at 9:00.  I was told to come to hospital when contractions were 3-4 minutes apart.  I still was not convinced this was real labor so I got into my PJ's, into bed and started reading my book.  Hubs was packing the luggage with last minute things and loading the car.  He had me text the friend who would be staying with Miss M. to ask her to come over, just in case.  By 11:00...I was convinced, these contractions are not going away and they are getting longer, stronger, and harder.  We needed to go to the hospital and I was very uncomfortable.
We got to the hospital by 11:20.  I was checked in and told that they would check me in an hour and if I had made progress, I would be admitted. Okay....another hour of these contractions, I can do it.  A slow hour passes, they do a check and I went from a 1.5 Friday night, 3 when I got to hospital on Sunday, to a 4 in the hour!!  Yea!  I was official...this baby was coming.  Thank goodness.  We started the process for an epidural, which takes about another hour.  Finally at 1:45 a.m. I was comfortable with an epidural and trying to get in some shut eye.  I had been progressing beautifully and everyone thought that I would have a baby by 7:30 that morning.  My doctor was coming in at 7:00, so the joke was to try and hold off until then so my doctor could deliver.  My water was being stubborn and not breaking on it's own, so the on call midwife broke it at 5:30 a.m. After my water was broken, I had a terrible bout of nausea and spent some quality time with the little blue barf bags. Ugh.  Not fun....ever.
At 7:30 my doctor came in to check me and I was at a 6-7, and progress was slowing a little, so she suggested some Pitocin to help make the contractions more consistent and stronger. I agreed, let's get this party started.  I got some Pitocin and the official shift change happened.  We got the same day nurse as we had when we delivered Miss M, so Hubs and I were excited.  She is excellent.  We said our goodbyes to the night nurse, who we went to high school with, and made her promise to come and see us in recovery that evening.  She agreed and wished us luck!
So....time started to tick by, and each time I was checked, there was no change.  6-7 cm...hour after hour.  My nurse was trying all the tricks up her sleeve and had me moving and changing positions so much I felt like an acrobat! Side to side, sitting up, on hands and knees...flip, flop, flip, flop.  The Pitocin was cranked up, but not really making a difference. I was really starting to get discouraged, but still trying to stay positive.   Then, I felt the cramps.  Small at first, but still there.  They quickly turned into all out painful contractions with NO break between them because of the Pitocin...just one constant contraction.  They called the anesthesiologist, but he literally took an hour to get there.  He gave me a quick reboot and I was feeling better right away.  Everyone in the room thought it was strange, but just happy that he got me comfortable again.  Tick, tick, tick...hours, hours, hours. No change.  Each time they checked me, I started to feel more and more discouraged.  At around 11:00, my doctor came in for the talk that I knew was coming.  The possible "C-section" talk.  I lost it.  LOST IT.  C-Section was the one thing I did not want.  I live a very active life style and need my abdominal muscles to stay intact!!! Dr. D. was so patient with me and said, okay, let's keep going.  We know you've done this before, we can do it again.  Hubs during this day was amazing.  So patient and encouraging, trying to keep me calm and positive.  He was my rock.  At 3:00 it happened again...I felt the cramps coming back again.  And then the full on, steady contractions.  Another hour of hell and my third anesthesiologist!!  This time the doctor came in and tried to "reboot" the epidural again, but it only partially worked.  So I had to get a whole new epidural...all while having these horrible, never ending contractions.  This was my breaking point, and I'm going to be honest, it was not pretty.  I was a mess, Hubs was trying everything he could, doctor was upset, everyone was just tired.  Especially me!!  Finally, he got me the drugs and A LOT of them and I felt much better and comfortable again.  So back to the waiting game...and the hoping. Still no progress at each check, but my doctor said that my cervix was VERY flexible and soft, just needed the added pressure of the contractions pushing the head down to move it and I would be complete in no time.  Finally at 6:00, we were all done and decided something had to be done.  Either deliver or C-section.  My doctor said that she was willing to try and deliver vaginally if I was willing to.  She said it would be hard because I didn't have the contractions to help me and it would be all me and my strength.  She was basically asking, could I do it?  I had no doubts and I was determined to do it.  Anything to avoid a C-Section!!!  So I started pushing at 6:30 at 7 centimeters.  With each push, my doctor physically helped to push my cervix around the babies head.  After 2 contractions / pushes, I was complete!!  We did it!!  I still had no real help from my uterus, but after 40 minutes of the hardest work of my life, Baby D came into the world!!!  HE WAS HUGE!!!  As his head popped out, my doctor said, "Well that explains it all!!  Your a big baby!!!"  Next came the shoulders, but he was stuck.  The doctor had to do some "magic" and finally the baby was born!!  Everyone in the room was busy and no one remembered to tell me...boy or girl!!  Finally I said, "What is it?"  and my doctor beamed, "BOY!!!"  I was so happy and so surprised!!!  I always had an intuition that it was a boy, but just couldn't make myself believe it was a boy...but here he was, our baby boy!!!!  26 hours of labor, 3 epidurals, a close call to the operating room, and he was here!!!