Stay at Home Chaos

I had been plagued by the dreaded false labor for days when I went to bed at a little after midnight on January 21st, looking forward to sleeping in that morning and dreading going to my next appointment that afternoon. None of that happened.

I woke up at 4:30 am with a really bad contraction. But it was no big deal. This happened on two other nights before and they all eventually stopped. I went downstairs, got something to drink, went to the bathroom, and all that good stuff that helps contractions go away so I could go back to sleep. Before I knew it, I was wondering what time would be acceptable to wake Tim up. I waited until he would’ve gotten up for work to catch the train and woke him up then. It was a little after 6:00 am at that point. I informed him that I was about 80% sure that I was in real labor. I was sure enough to wake him up. We spent the morning stalling from waking up the kids and leaving too soon. We packed the bags, got snacks, and things like that. Around 7:30 am, Tim decided it was time to wake up the still sleeping children and get them ready. We was out the door just before 8:00 am.

We got all checked in at the hospital a little after 8:00 am and I changed into the birthing clothes. I got into the bed, got the IV started, and had my cervix checked. 6 centimeters with a bulging bag of water! I was 7 centimeters when I showed up with Auron, and had a bulging bag with Evie. I joked with Tim that I told him my bags were bulging like with Evie earlier. Tim said he thought I’d have the baby by 9:00 am. I said I’d have her by noon. The real laboring starts! The kind where you don’t want to get up or move. I kept requesting they let me sit the bed up more until I don’t think it could have gotten any straighter. Tim put on WALL•E for the kids. I don’t remember much of this part.

What I do remember really well is when the contractions really started hurting. And I mean really started hurting. It was the point that I said, “Oh my God, this really hurts.” and kept saying “Oh my God.” that I started paying a bit closer attention to everything. I ended up wondering to myself if I was offending any nurses and took all my will power not to curse like I really, really wanted to. Everything was already mostly set up at that point. Tim and I was joking about how his 9:00 am guess isn’t going to happen, and he was insistent it would. 9:00 am came and went and I joked at Tim for his estimated time frame being over.

Right after that, I learned it takes doctors 3 years to show up to a delivery. I needed to push. Tim called for the nurse. The nurse checked me at 9 centimeters with a lip. That happened with Auron. They called for the doctor. My doctor took 3 years to show up. At least, it felt like 3 years. He came in and asked for an update. The nurse told him my status and informed him my bag was still intact, bulging, and was the only thing keeping the baby in. I thought she was joking. How could a bulging bag be the only thing keeping a baby in? They started fiddling with their setup. I recall stating I need to push again. I also recall relaxing my vagina muscles in hopes that my body could sneak a few pushes in by itself. That made it feel only slightly better. I finally asked, instead of informing them that I need to, if I could push. The nurse was off to the side, and the doctor was fiddling with some stuff. I don’t remember getting an answer, although Tim informs me that the doctor said I could, and that even he told me that I could. I didn’t hear either of them.

So I pushed anyway. My water broke, which made me hesitate only briefly out of shock. I continued with the push. My doctor had a brief look of shock himself as he hurried over by me, Tim stated almost immediately, “I see the head.” I tried to go for my second push when the doctor stopped me. I was thereby forbidden from pushing anymore at all. I tore already and he didn’t want to make it worse. He told me to let the baby come out by herself. That was hard. He told me to stop pushing when I delivered Auron, but I was unable to. I succeeded this time. It hurt bad, it was hard, and I could feel a lot of stuff going on without knowing for sure what it was. I definitely felt the head come out. Then I was allowed to push again, but only little pushes. Then I had a baby at 9:04 am!

They plopped her on my tummy, but I couldn’t see her because the blanket was positioned wrong, so I moved it a little to get a look. The rest is pretty much history. Ory was angry. Evie’s only opinion was, “No baby.” and she continued watching WALL•E. Tim started recording stuff. Kiki was commented on about her size and her being nice and pink.

There is some other amusing (or not so amusing) details that I’ll leave out for random talking about. Like how the doctor didn’t believe me when I said “ow” the first time when he was sewing me up. Or the mess I made of myself when getting up to use the bathroom once. A cute story would be about Evie freaking out when Ory tried to leave with the pediatrician, yet remained absolutely calm during the rest of the visits.