So here’s how everything went...
I had my membranes stripped on Wednesday but besides feeling like my period was going to start, nothing happened. On Thursday evening, I went to a work out class that my friend Brit was teaching for relief society to try to get things moving along and by 11:00 pm I was having contractions about 5-6 minutes apart. I woke Kenny up around 2:00 am to help me get the bags packed and make sure we had everything ready to go. My contractions stayed pretty inconsistent all night long, sometimes they were 3 minutes apart, other times they were 7 minutes apart. We went out on a walk around 7:00 am and then we went to hospital. I had no idea if I was really in labor because my contractions were still sort of irregular. They checked my cervix and I was 100% effaced and dilated to a 5 so they called my doctor and admitted me.
We walked around that labor and delivery floor so many times to try to get my contractions to get stronger but my body just didn’t want to get the job done! They broke my water around noon and that definitely stepped up the contractions but after an hour I was still only a 6. So I asked for pitocin (it makes contractions way stronger and consistent), by this point I just wanted to get the show on the road. The pitocin completely changed my contractions, before that point I could handle them on my own, but after...I thought I just might die. After almost 2 hours I asked if it was too early for the epidural and of course it wasn’t, but for some reason I thought they wouldn’t do it until I was farther along. The epidural was NOTHING compared to the contractions and it worked nice and fast.
At 6pm I was dilated to a 10 but because I had the epidural they wanted to wait an hour for me to start pushing so that he could descend more on his own so I wouldn’t have to push as long. At 7 I started pushing. The nurse warned me that “this could take a while”, I asked how long “a while” was, and she said that 2 hours for a first time mom is the average and 3 hours of pushing isn’t uncommon. After 10 minutes of pushing I said no freaking way can I do this for 3 hours. The epidural was wearing off pretty fast but I didn’t want to push the button for another dose because I was already pushing and it wouldn’t have made much difference anyway. Pushing was the hardest thing I have ever done. I tried really hard to stay active and fit throughout my pregnancy and I have no idea how I would have done it otherwise. That’s my one bit of advice...do yourself a favor and keep yourself as fit and healthy as possible to make the delivery not quite so bad. I got nauseous about a half hour in and threw up for a little bit which was not fun at all. Thank goodness my mom was there to cool me down with a rag and hold that little basin to vomit in. After about 45 minutes of pushing we could see his head crowning so they called in the doctor. Dr Craig was the doctor on call and she did an awesome job. His head just would come out, it was so close for about a half hour and then finally Dr. Craig decided that we needed to do a small cut on this band or something that his head couldn’t get past. (It was a band of skin inside that just wasn’t stretching). Once she did that, I pushed once and he came right out. It was immediate relief and they put him right on my chest and cleaned him off. He had the cutest husky little cry.
I tore in two places and the little cut inside, and those stitches did not feel good. It’s funny though, all the little things I was so worried about, like delivery the placenta (totally didn’t notice that part at all), and tearing, or pooping in front of everyone while pushing, were totally out of my mind. All that matters is pushing and getting that little baby here. The hardest part is that it’s excruciatingly painful, its exhausting (physically and emotionally), the contractions are like every 30 seconds apart, and you push 3 times per contraction and you have to keep doing it. You have no other choice. You’re the only one that can get this baby here and no matter how much support and help you have from the nurses or doctors or spouse, it comes straight down to you. It was an amazing experience though...I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Recovery has been okay...as okay as it can be I suppose. I was super swollen right after because his head had got stuck for so long so I couldn’t pee on my own. I didn’t mind having the catheter that first night because it meant I didn’t have to get out of bed to pee. Saturday, I pretty much stayed in bed the whole day since moving was such an ordeal with the catheter, the soreness, and my body being so weak (I bled quite I bit during the delivery so I was quite shaky and weak). Oh and when the nurses push on your uterus every 15 minutes after the delivery that hurts so be prepared.
Sorry this post is super long, I just wanted to get everything written down now while its still fresh. Beckett is a week old today and is still doing great! He is awesome.
