As noted on an earlier post, I tried to keep pretty busy on Monday, September 16, 2013. That morning I went to someone's home to clean their kitchen as they prepared to move. That afternoon I went on a walk with Amelie to help get things moving and had to carry her home after her first bike accident. I then made 6 loaves of banana bread to eat and take to our neighbors. All in all, a pretty busy, but fairly normal day.
Then that evening at 9:30 pm, I felt a cramp. Nothing out of the ordinary. I had been having cramps throughout my entire pregnancy. 20 minutes later at 9:50 pm I had another cramp. Then 20 minutes later I had another cramp at 10:10 pm. My interest was peaked. At 10:30 I told Ben I had been cramping for an hour but that I wasn't getting my hopes up yet as nothing was super painful or long lasting and my "due date" was still 5 days away.
In an effort to be extra prepared (just in case) I gathered a few things up and put them by the door - you know, just in case. I finally went to bed at 12:30 am. I woke up at 2:00 am with the WORST cramp ever. I couldn't move and was completely paralyzed for a good minute or two until the cramp subsided. After that, I received a cramp 15 minutes later, then 10 minutes later, then 5 minutes later. At this point, the cramps were hurting pretty bad and I now considered them to be contractions and not simply just cramps. So we had to make a call as to what to do with Amelie.
Option 1 was to call our neighbor Michelle to come over, sleep on our couch and hang with Amelie till morning. The only problem was that she was recovering from a cold and there was a chance she could pass it along to Amelie, who could pass it along to myself and Ephram.
Option 2 was to take Amelie to our other neighbors the Nelsons where Amelie could sleep at their place.
Our initial gut was the Nelsons. However, we knew it would probably freak Amelie out. Being woken up, and sleeping in a strange environment.
We finally decided to call Michelle and have her come over. The chances of Amelie catching her cold were slim and chances were Amelie would wake up to notice our absence was also slim.
So Michelle quickly came over with her pillow and blanket ready to do anything and everything to help us get out the door.
So off we go with contractions happening every 5 minutes. We got to the hospital at 3:00 am. After quickly being shown our room, we took a few "last time you'll see this belly" shots. As you can see, he has dropped. My belly wasn't sticking out quite as far as it had been. I then changed into my lovely gown crawled into bed and began to endure some serious contractions. My nurse was amazing and made sure I was as comfortable as possible while enduring contractions.
My doctors came in to check me quickly after arriving. We were all a bit shocked to find out that I was already dilated to 7 cm. By now it was 3:45 am. I then began to worry that things would happen too quickly and I'd never get an epidural. My nurse upon hearing this, gave up on trying to "check me in" and began IV drips, getting things ready for the big moment and getting the anesthesiologist in to my room ASAP. Unfortunately the anesthesiologist was with another person and I had to wait. It was the longest and worst wait of my life. With Amelie I was able to get my epidural at around 5 cm before the big contractions really hit. This time - no such luck. I was in horrible pain. I was having back contractions and after each one felt the need to throw up. I finally asked if it was normal for someone to throw up upon enduring contractions to which my nurse promptly handed me a spew bag. I then emptied my belly of everything that existed and continued to endure contractions.
FINALLY at around 4:30 or so, the anesthesiologist arrived. It took him MUCH MUCH longer to get me numb than I had hoped and I had to endure several horrific contractions before the pain began to subside. Because of my scoliosis, he was playing a bit of a guessing game. My left leg quickly began to numb but my right side was fully aware of everything. A few more contractions, a lot of rolling me from side to side and FOUR additional perks of drugs, and finally my left side was 100% dead and my right side was numb enough for me to not feel the contractions, but alive enough to feel pressure.
He left around 5:00 am. My doctors came back in to check on me and sure enough I was dilated to 8.5 cm. My water was still in tact and so I agreed to let them break my water. After my water was broken, they took off to go catch a few hours of sleep and told me they'd check on me in an hour or two. No more than 5 minutes later, and I turn to my nurse and say, "I'm not sure if it's the drugs, but I am feeling a lot of pressure down there." She then checked me and discovered I was at 9.5 cm and ready to push. As she ran out of the room to gather up the team who was to help me and get my doctors back into the room, she said "Whatever you do, DO NOT PUSH".
After everyone was gathered again and all set up, I began pushing at 5:30 am. And we were excited to welcome Ephram Drew Heath to our family on September 17, 2013 at 6:28 am. He was perfect. A bit ugly as I suspect most babies are at first, but perfect. He was then given to me for the next hour to snuggle with and love. After my hour, he was then weighed, shots given and birth certificate created.
It was during my hour of snuggling my new tiny (8.7 pounds) son, that my nurse was finally able to begin "checking me into the hospital". Technically when I gave birth, I wasn't even a patient there as we didn't have enough time to fully process me. What a whirlwind.
Around 8:00 am, I was then transferred to my new room which I'd call home for the next 30 hours.
At 10:45 Ben left to go get Amelie who was now happily playing at Chailyn's. That afternoon they came to visit me and Amelie met her new baby brother for the first time. They left after a few hours and returned the next day to enjoy lunch with me and wait for check out.
The entire process was great. Better than I had with Amelie - except for the whole horrible back contraction thing!
We are now home, adjusting to life with two kids, attempting to still provide Amelie with plenty of attention so she doesn't get jealous and find sleep. Luckily it only took us a few days at home to figure out Ephram and his needs and likes. He's a pretty content baby as long as he has a fully belly and clean diaper. Overall he sleeps most of the day and generally joins us in the "awake, eyes open and alert mode for 2 hours a day.
Upon hearing that I delivered early, my parents jumped into the car Wednesday and drove out to meet grandchild #10. It was nice having them here, knowing that I didn't have to worry about the little things and could focus on my family. Thank you!
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