I laid down in bed at around 9:30 the night of my birthday, after Taylor left for work and the random contractions started up again. I stayed up for a couple hours after they started and they went from being an hour apart to about 15-20 minutes apart. I finally fell asleep at around 12:30ish only to wake up at 3:00am in horrible pain - with contractions between 8-10 minutes apart. The pain kept getting more intense, so about an hour later I called my mom to ask her what she thought. I was scared to call Taylor home from work if it was just a false alarm, but she said I needed to call him. So 5am, I call him and he comes straight home. His mom comes over to wait with me and by 6am my contractions are 5 minutes apart, so we headed up to the hospital! We were in the triage room for HOURS before the doctor came in to check me. And of course, during those couple hours, my contractions slowed down and were back to about 15 minutes apart. When the doctor finally came in and checked me, I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced, with Finn at a -2. So they decided to send me home, saying that it could still be another couple days before he decided to come. Which pissed me off. I didn't see how I could be in SO much pain and still have a few more days.
So, we walked back to the car and started heading for home. No joke, by the time we got home, contractions were back to 5 minutes apart and I was dying. I got in bed and tried to rest, but as soon as I would fall asleep, I'd wake up from a contraction. The pain was steadily getting more intense and I was shaking like I had been out in the snow for hours. I tried to eat and drink some, but it just made me feel worse. Sitting on the toilet during crazy contractions has to be the most uncomfortable feeling EVER.
But I decided to run a bath to try and ease the pain a bit. Contractions were about 4 minutes apart at that point, but I didn't want to go to the hospital again just to be sent home, so I tried to stick it out as long as possible. The water did help a lot, but it got to the point where I was just getting mad because the tub wasn't big enough to get comfortable in. By the time I got out, they were 3 minutes apart and I couldn't walk or talk through them at all. So, I had Taylor call my mom and tell her to meet us back up at the hospital again, and we headed up there. Another awful feeling - contractions while being confined in a car. Especially when they're that close together! OUCH!
Got to triage and they came in a lot quicker this time. I had dilated to a 4 and 90% in an hour and a half, so they decided to admit me. YAY! I was so relieved. They moved us over to L&D and I labored for a couple more hours. By 4:00 I had a few contractions that made me sob. I couldn't stop crying, so at that point my breathing couldn't be controlled, so the pain felt even worse. I had been laboring for 13 hours with no pain control and I just couldn't do it anymore. I had gotten 2 hours of sleep in the past 31 hours and I was dead. So, I asked for an epidural. They checked me right before I got the epidural (at 5:30) and I was still at a 4 but 100% effaced.
The epidural worked at first, then they hooked up the pitocin on a really low drip, and I fell asleep. Only to wake up two hours later in excruciating pain. I felt everything on my right side and was starting to feel it go across to the left too. I asked the nurse to fix it, and they tried to move me around to even it out, but Finley didn't like that too much. He started to stress out. I told them that I was starting to feel a lot of pressure. They had mentioned breaking my water soon, and as soon as I mentioned that, I felt a little pop and a gush. I told the nurse and she checked me and I felt another huge gush. I asked her where I was and she said I was 10cm - 100%. Well no wonder I was feeling a ton of pressure, Finley was coming out. They didn't even have everything ready when he was crowning. And I couldn't help but feel like I needed to push. As soon as they got everything set up, they told me to push. The first couple pushes were awful, I wasn't sure what I was doing. But I got the hang of it by the second set. And my god, I could feel everything. Which I'm glad I could. The epidural worked long enough for me to rest and get some strength back, but then fail so I could feel my body telling me what I needed to do. I pushed for less than 20 minutes, and he was out! I couldn't believe it. I saw him and immediately started crying. I had no idea what was going on around me, I just couldn't stop starting at him. I think I reminded the nurse to wait for the cord to stop pulsating. They placed my sweet boy straight on my chest and I just stared at him. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen!
Taylor cut the cord, and then we just sat there and stared at our sweet boy for the next hour. I tried breastfeeding and the little man latched right on like a champ!
I didn't sleep much at all the first night. Apparently I was bleeding more than was normal, so they kept coming in to check on it. Then at about 5am, two nurses came in and one of them put these gloves on that went up to her elbows. Proceeded to reach in and remove any clots that she could find... UP TO HER ELBOWS! The morning after I gave birth. After getting stitched up. (2nd degree tear) Sweet lord, did that hurt! Then they gave me a shot and a few rounds of pills after that to help the bleeding stop.
That whole next day was hard and emotional. Visitors coming in, I couldn't get Finley to latch any more, I was in pain. I just wanted to be left alone and try to figure things out with my baby. It was so hard. I was so relieved but nervous to go home. Those first two weeks were so harder than I ever expected. Hormones, trouble nursing, bleeding nipples. I dreaded every time he latched because of the pain. Thankfully we worked through it and found a good routine! FInley will only sleep on my chest, so I guess we're bed sharing now.
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