At midnight the Tuesday after I was sent home...My contractions were coming every ten minutes.
I spent all night sitting up and sleeping between contractions, and writing down the frequency of the contractions. By Wednesday morning I was contracting between 8-6 minutes apart but it wasn't consistent. I headed to the hospital because it was 45 mins away, but I wasn't consistently contracting every 5 mins, when I called my doctor, the 3rd doc in the practice told me to take a Tylenol for the pain but to call back when the contractions were 5 mins apart for an hour or more. Hubby and my mom didn't want to leave the area of the hospital so I convinced hubby to walk around the hospital grounds for an hour, it was pretty chilly so this lead to him getting a cold later. Then we decided to leave the hospital and we went to Marshalls and the grocery store...After 3 hours we decided to head back to MIL because I was tired of walking around and I wanted to relax and try and take a nap...
When we got back to the house around noon. I sat in an arm chair and napped while breathing through contractions... At around 3 pm the contractions started feeling a bit more painful, so I had hubby bring up the exercise ball. I rocked back and forth on the ball for two hours. At one point I felt sharp pain in my back and my pelvis, it felt like the baby was trying to go into my pelvis bones...it was so painful. At about 5, the contractions were coming 6 mins apart on a consistent basis, but it wasn't 5 mins and I didn't want to go to the hospital because I was afraid they would force me to lay in bed, which is so not what I wanted. Up until this point my water had not broken, although, I was peeing a ton. So I couldn't be completely sure. Since I couldn't figure out if my water broke but the contractions were definitely between 5-6 mins. Thus my hubby and my mom convinced me we needed to head to the hospital... my mom kept saying we had nothing to basis how fast things were going to progress since this was my first baby...but if it took all day for the contractions to be 5-6 mins apart I figured I had time. However, there were 2 of them so I got in the car and to the hospital we went.
I got to the hospital around 6, since the registration desk was closed I went straight to the maternity ward and then my mom went to check me in. While I was being checked in I explained to the nurse that was working on my paper I wanted to have a natural birth and told me as long as the baby looked strong I didn't have to stay in bed...what a relief...I was so terrified of having to labor in bed. Once I was checked in the hospitalist checked me to see how dilated I was... I was dilated 7 a tight 8 cm...WHAT!!!!!!!
Of course I couldn't go home at that point but still my water had not broken. I asked if I could have a pain killer to take the edge off the pain but the nurse said it was I was too dilated but that I could take a hot shower... So I jumped in the shower for an hour...after an hour the contractions were 1-2 min apart...and the most painful thing ever. I rocked on the ball for 30 mins and then danced with my mom for a while. But nothing seemed to work and I was terrified of getting into bed... At midnight, my doctor from my practice came back to check on me...it was a blessing to have the doctor that I liked there and who knew my history and wishes. At midnight I was still only 8 cm and my water hadn't broken...at that point I was exhausted and it was my last chance for an epidural...so I took it...
I just couldn't imagine another 4 hours of the pelvic rocking pain...So I got the epidural, I was all over the nurse who allowed me to hold her while I was getting my epidural...I was so grateful for the nurses...they were all really nice and thoughtful. After the epidural, my contractions slowed considerly but I was able to sleep. Sometime during the night the doctor came in and broke my water, but the contractions still were not strong enough so they gave me potocin to help with the contractions...At 4am they took me off the epidural and told me I had to start pushing but since I couldn't feel the contractions I couldn't be on the epidural. Once the epidural wore off...I had to push for 90 mins because my little guy was still too high...then finally he started crowning and I gave one last strong push and the doctor helped him out...at 6:03am on Thursday morning. During most of the pushing my mom was there holding my leg and helping me push...and she helped me with the one thing I was afraid of...pooping on the table...which I did but my mom who is a nurse cleaned me up and of course the other nurses didn't skip a beat but I was mildly horrified for about a millisecond...oh well... Where was the hubby you wonder, he had gotten a cold and spent most of my active labor sleeping in the sleeper in the room...he got up a few time but would just go back to lie down he kept saying he didn't want to get me and the baby sick.
Once it was time for the baby to come out, hubby was up and they offered me a mirror, which I declined. But hubby saw the whole thing and then much to my surprise he cut the umbilical cord. I was so proud of him...he took tons of pictures.
Of course Benjamin came out screaming, they placed him on my stomach, and he looked at me then they whisked him off to be cleaned and weighed...I must say it never really hit me that I was having a baby until he was on my stomach and looked into my eyes...I was overwhelmed and still crying from the previous pain of pushing and the overwhelming emotions of having this little guy... Once he was cleaned up, I tried to breastfeed him, and it was fine but it's still all a blur. I got to rest for 2 hours and then headed to the another room. We stayed in the hospital until Saturday at which point we were released at 10 pm because we had to wait for Ben to pee after his circumcision.
Since I couldn't get my pediatrician to see Ben within 3 days after his birth, the pediatrician at the hospital told me to bring him back to the nursery after his billirubin test on Monday. On Monday after being released it turned out that Ben's billirubin level had increased and he had lost 14oz. So they decided to readmit him to put him under the lights in the nursery...I thought I was going to die...I mean I just had him and have fallen in love and now I had to leave him in the hospital over night... They let me use the hospital pump so that I they could give him breast milk but otherwise had to use formula to supplement his feedings so that he could poop and pee more often. The next day I was at the hospital by 10am and spent the whole day there with my little man and by 5pm they released him back into my care...I was so happy...
What an ordeal but still it was worth it to make sure that the jaundice was under control and that my Benny was healthy...
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