On Sunday I had a feeling that the baby was going to be coming in the next couple days with losing my MP and having mild cramping. Everyone tells you that you will know what a contraction will feel like when it happens. People were telling me that I was having contractions, but I wasn't in much pain and I couldn't time them. There wasn't a start and an end to them because the cramping was constant.
I wanted to get the show on the road, so Tuesday we decided to try some of the old wise tails (Mexican food, long walk, etc). That night about 11:30pm my water broke. I heard a pop and thought, was that my water or did I just pee the bed a little. I got up and there wasn't much fluid, but the contractions began. I now knew these were contractions but I still wasn't able to time them because they were back to back. Most people say after their water breaks that they have time to get ready for the hospital like take a shower, pack the rest of the bag (camera, makeup, etc), but that wasn't us. My contractions were strong and fast. There was no resting and catching my breath between them. As soon as one stopped, the next one started. While waiting for Aunt Mandy to come over to watch Callie I was on all fours breathing through each contraction. We decided to get in the car before Aunt Mandy showed up so we could be ready to go. Just walking out to the car I had 2 full contractions. We left as soon as we knew Mandy was in the subdivision.
I had planned on giving birth at the down town St. Lukes (that is where my dr. is) but because I was unsure if we were going to make it, we stopped at the Meridian St. Lukes. Loren pulled up to the ER and they quickly got me in a wheelchair and up to the third floor for check in. They checked me in at 12:02 so wouldn't have to pay for the additional night (they are awesome). They got me in my room. The nurse quickly checked me to make sure the baby wasn't coming right then and then got me in the bed. They attempted to get IV line in but had the hardest time doing it and had to end up switching arms and nurses.
They were still taking in all my information because the systems are in the process of being linked, but are not yet. They got my antibiotic drip going and had to wait to get the orders for the epidural. All I wanted was that epidural. I asked everyone that walked into the room if they were the anesthesiologist. I finally got the epidural at 2am. My body was in such shock that it was shaking during each contraction even after the epidural my body would continue to shake with each contraction. By this time I was up to a 6 or 7. They got me hooked up to all the machines to monitor the baby and me and the nurse did say that the contractions were coming very quickly. They also put me on oxygen to help the baby.
The nurse told me to relax and try to get some rest and to tell her when I felt pressure and needed to push. Well the only pressure I felt was in my tailbone. I called her back in around 3 and told her about the pressure and she measured me again. I was at a 9. She told me that we had to wait a little longer to see if I could get up to a 10. Thirty minutes later I called her back in because the pressure was actually hurting my tailbone. She told me that we could try doing some practice pushing and she would try to move the babies head up off my tailbone. We did 30 minutes of pushing, then the doctor came in turned on the bright lights and told me to push for real now. It took about 15 minutes pushing with the Doctor and Carter joined our family at 4:15am on Wednesday April 17th, 2013.
Carter weighed in at 8lbs 14oz and was 21 inches long. Even though the contractions hurt, this birth was so much easier than Callie's 17 hour labor with 2.5 hours of pushing. We were so excited to welcome this little bean into our lives and start living as a family of four.
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