While I realize that every pregnancy/labor/delivery is going to be different, I still started last week with the expectation that things would still happen similarly to the way they did when I went into labor with Nathan.
My mom picked up Nathan to take him to her house for the week on Monday and it was soooo nice to have him completely taken care of for the week. Thanks Nana!!!!
I had a dr.'s appointment on Tuesday and I was told I was 1cm dilated. That's it?! My due date was the next day for crying out loud! And I was thoroughly depressed. So I went walking. I walked a couple miles with a friend right after my appointment and then John and I went walking again that evening. And nothing happened.
Wednesday (my due date, the 8th) I went walking again and got another couple of miles in. And still - nothing. By this point I was feeling pretty frustrated. I was sure I was going to be pregnant forever. ;) And all my preparations backfired on me because I had the apartment completely clean and I had finished all my projects that I had wanted finished before he arrived, so after I read my 8th or 9th library book for the week, I didn't have anything to do! I was planning on being at the hospital by now!!
Finally on Thursday I started feeling contractions. They were very sporadic and spaced pretty far apart, but at least something was finally happening. It wasn't until 6:30 or 7pm that they started to become pretty regular, about 6-7 minutes apart. With my first pregnancy, my contractions got going pretty quickly once they became regular, so we debated on whether or not we should just stay up and wait or try to get some sleep before going to the hospital. We decided to try to sleep. It's a good thing we did. After about an hour and a half of sleep, I woke up at midnight to some very strong contractions. But they were happening 10-12 minutes apart! I'd never heard of them getting stronger and further apart. After about 2 hours they were 12-15 minutes apart! So weird. I called the midwife on duty that night at 2am to ask about it and find out when we should consider getting to the hospital. She told me to wait a little more, to come in when the contractions were 5-7 mins apart. 2 hours later they were 7 minutes apart, so off we went.
We got to the hospital at about 4:30am. They took me to triage and checked everything out. But I was still only 2-3cm dilated! Talk about disappointing. They asked me how long my labor with Nathan had gone, and I had said "a long time!" but after a few more questions, I realized they were asking about dilation (I considered my labor with Nathan long because I'd pushed for 4 hours) and after I told them that I'd gone from a 4 to an 8 in 2 1/2 hours with Nathan, they decided to check me in anyway and get me set up in a delivery room with my IV and antibiotics (because I'm positive for group B strep) as well as oxygen because Spencer's heart rate was a little high. I guess he was just really excited to come. But I wasn't getting sent home! Yay!
My contractions had finally gotten closer together, about 4 minutes apart. Once we got set up in the delivery room, I requested my epidural, and I thankfully did not have to wait very long before it was administered around 6:30am. I was checked again and I was 4cm. Then it was time to wait. After a little while I got kind of nauseous. After readjusting my position I felt a little better and learned that nausea was a good thing - it meant things were progressing. I think I fell asleep there for a bit, which was probably good. I was so exhausted already from being up since midnight. After waking up I was at 9cm. Hurray!!!
Even though I was at a 9, Spencer's head was still pretty high up in my pelvis. My contractions had also slowed down a little so they gave me a little bit of pitocin to speed things up and try to get Spencer's head further down. My contractions picked up quickly, but Spencer's heart rate would go down with each one before coming back up again. My midwife also mentioned that my water hadn't broken yet, but that she could break it for me. The only risk would be that once it was broken, and Spencer did move further down into my pelvis, his heart rate might go down and stay down, in which case I'd need an emergency C-section. We said a prayer, and we decided to wait, and we found another position for me to wait which involved laying on my left side with my right leg up in a stirrup to open up my pelvis to make it easier for Spencer to move. In this position Spencer's heart rate remained fairly stable and after a few minutes I had bloody show, meaning that Spencer had started to move.
Upon closer inspection after my bloody show, my midwife informed me that my water probably had broken, though why it hadn't come out remains a mystery to me. I think it started to flow out when I started pushing. And speaking of pushing, it was time! I hardly pushed at all (after 4 hours of pushing with Nathan this was seriously awesome.)! 8 minutes, they told me! I think I made maybe 10 pushes and Spencer was here! Born at 10:44am on July 10th.
After delivery we found out that there had been a true knot in Spencer's umbilical cord, which explained the issues with his heart rate. We feel so blessed that the delivery went so well, and that the knot had remained loose. At 6lbs 1oz and 20inches long, he's just perfect!
