Friday, Saturday, Sunday ... "fake" labor pains. Annoying, but nothing unusual.
Monday morning contractions were 10 minutes apart for 2 hours so I figured this was it as per my literature from my doctor but, they said to be at home, take a nap and wait until they were 5 minutes apart for an hour. So I took a nap, woke up and... no more contractions. I figured that 2.5 hours at work weren't really worth it so I ate some lunch and went back to sleep until I needed to leave for my regularly scheduled doctor's appointment. There, I had more protein in the urine (a reoccurring issue) and high blood pressure (noticed at the last appointment as well) so Dr. Lim suggested doing a 24 hour urine collection to make sure that there was no preeclampsia as those are the symptoms for that infection. Then she measured his heart rate and measured me and... 32cm when I was 36 the week before and should be at 38 or so. So, no good. She called in for an ultrasound machine and noticed that there was very little fluid surrounding him. No cushion for him = no good so... to the hospital you go! She scared me a bit with her saying there was no time to go home to get our go bags or anything just to go straight there.
We got to the hospital at about 2:30 or so and got checked in and shown our room. There were apparently a lot of babies being born and everyone was super busy so it took a while to get the order put in for the induction. They went with something to 'ripen' the cervix first before stimulating contractions. Once they got that in at 5:00 I started having contractions all on my own. At first I rated them at a .5 on the pain scale, and then an hour later they were at a 5 and they just went up from there. They were scheduled to give me another pill for cervix at 8pm, but as my contractions were 2 minutes apart at that point and I was 4cm dialated, they decided to wait another hour and see what was up. A bit before 9pm the contractions got very, very painful and I was having a hard time breathing through them, it was nearly impossible without John applying counter pressure. I got a dose of Fetenol, which took the edge off... for a while. The grandparents arrived as contractions were super painful and piling on top of each other. I was having a real issue with the pain and coping mechanisms... they just weren't working. I tried to hold out, but nope, I got an epidural and let me you tell you I would kiss the person on the mouth that invented that magical spinal contraption. It was a little uncomfortable at first and totally not pleasant going in, but oh my goodness that relief. I fell into a twilight from 4cm to 10cm over the next few hours as they gave me the Picotin to help stregnthen contractions (because apparently oh my God worst pain wasn't strong enough). The midwife came in to see how things were going at 2am or so and I was feeling a ton and a half of pressure... Turns out that what little water I had left had broken without me even knowing, I was fully dilated and effaced and it was time to get going on the pushing.
Yeah... that was an event. I don't remember screaming or crying...but apparently I did. All I remember is it was so much work and it felt like everything down there was both ripping apart and turning inside out. Yeah.... 28 minutes later, at 2:40am, I had my son in my arms. We had an hour of skin to skin goodness before they took him for analysis, Vitamin K, and a bath. And...noticed he had pooped all over me. Everything from the waist to breast was covered, my hands, arms.... it was a mess. But apparently a sterile one. Once everyone was cleaned up I got my hands on a sandwich and some OJ and we got transferred to our post partum room. Nothing much of note, he was running a bit cooler than he should have been so we did some more good time snuggling...but they did end up having to take him and stick him under the incubator.
Thank God for godparents! Melissa was there a lot during the time we were in the hospital. She brought me a robe and nursing top, additional bathroom supplies, presents, candy for the nurses, and kept Johnathan with food in his belly. I don't know how we would have carried on without her. Seriously not sure how I can repay her. I guess she gets the baby and the money if John and I die, lol. Josh and Melissa are seriously the best friends and most selfless people, we got lucky as all hell that we met them.
But yeah, that's about it.
Oliver Alexander Addison. 20.5" and 6lbs 7oz. with a 12.5" head was born 8/21/12 at 2:40 in the morning with his grandparents and papa to greet him.
All because two people fell in love.
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