Monthly News: Sep/Oct 2008

I never wrote my regular end of the month update for September (probably because I was busy having a baby on the 29th) and I don't even want to pretend that I will be ambitious enough to write one for October. Let's be real here, I'm tired! As a substitute, I thought I'd tell you about the biggest news in all of our lives right now by sharing the story of Anabelle's birthday (no graphic details, I promise).

The Friday before Anabelle was born I had an OB appointment, at which I was told that I still had at least a week and a half to go. I left feeling disappointed with a grapefruit sized lump in my throat. The baby who had threatened to be born all summer was taking her dear sweet time, and not only that, I had a deadline. My parents were scheduled to go out of town 2 days before my due date for my brother's basic training graduation. This really just was not going to do.

On Saturday afternoon I went to the hospital thinking my water had broken. False alarm. When I left, my discharge instructions stated that I was to call my doctor's office once my "contractions were 5 to 7 minutes apart for at least 2 hours". I left in tears. By Saturday night I was a feeling desperate, so I decided to take a long walk with my mom hoping to speed things up a bit. I went to bed that night feeling crampy and optimistic that I would wake up in labor.

To my absolute dismay I woke up Sunday morning feeling fantastic, everyone kept asking "How are you feeling?" and I would say, "Better than I'd like to be feeling!" That night I decided to go to my parents house and paint some chairs, couldn't hurt right? After I finished I went home and got into bed around midnight. Sunday ended with no impending signs of labor.

Then came Monday September 29th... around 2:30 in the morning I woke up with back pressure and cramps. I thought it was probably another false alarm so I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. By 3:00 "something that hurt" was happening every 5 to 7 minutes. I decided to play it cool, I didn't want to be the girl who kept crying "Wolf!" I decided to change positions and see what happened, so I walked around the house for about an hour. By 4:00 this "thing that hurt" was happening every 2 minutes and I decided to wake Ben, who of course said "Call the doctor". Being the unreasonable rule follower that I can be, I told him that I would like to wait until it had been 2 hours, just like my discharge papers had said (only they were talking 5-7 min apart - silly me). 4:30 rolled around and I decided that an hour and a half of contractions was enough and I called my nurse and my mom. By 5:30 we were on our way to the hospital.

The car ride was really unpleasant. By then I had admitted to myself that "these painful things" were contractions, and at that point they were only one minute apart. Ben was bold enough to ask if he could stop for coffee, to which I said, "you better make it quick". We reached the hospital around 6:00 and by then I was MISERABLE! I was only 5 cm dilated, but the contractions were coming 1 minute apart WITH NO BREAKS in between. I tried the breathing, but soon decided that I'd really rather just cry, and so I did. I cried, I cried, and I prayed!

I was told that I had to get a whole bag of fluids before I could have an epidural and by then it would be about 7:00 - shift change time :( The pain relief situation wasn't looking so good. Thankfully, the nurses could see how intense my labor was and were sweet enough to persuade an anesthesiologist to stay past her shift, hallelujah!!! By 7:30 I was comfortable, painfree, and laughing. For the next three hours Mom, Ben, and I just visited. At about 10:00 I was told that I had reached 10 cm, time get the doctor and push! I pushed through five contractions (about 10 minutes) and voila! Baby Anabelle was born at 10:27.

Anabelle's birth experience was a night and day difference from my experience with Evie. Everything was calm and organized. The lights were kept low, only one doctor and two nurses were present (all three were the sweetest cheerleaders I could have asked for) and best of all, Anabelle and I were able to room together! As an added bonus, nursing is going great too! God blessed me with the experience I (and many of you) had been praying for, and I am so greatful!