journal

Sunday, December 17th - Woke up feeling GREAT this morning. A little disappointing after how crampy I was last night. Went for a short walk and thought about baking some more Christmas goodies.

9:00 a.m. - I have sprung a leak. Not too noticeable, but enough to make me wonder. I struggle with calling the doctor, hospital, or childbirth instructor.

10:00 a.m. - Crampy feeling is back. I take several laps around the property and realize that the feeling doesn't go away. Maybe this is it?

11:00 a.m. - Took a shower. Sat down and watched the football game, but with the Chiefs playing the Broncos, I just can't find any relaxation in that...:)

12:00 p.m. - After a trip to the restroom, I notice a pinkish tinge to the TP. I am convinced that this is the beginning of the real thing. Shawn calls Tommy to have him come feed the horses if we are not here.

1:00 p.m. - Nuts...things have really slowed down. Time for a walk!

2:30 p.m. - Contractions are back and getting closer to what I would call regular

4:30 p.m. - Broke down and called the doc. He said to go ahead and go to the hospital to see if indeed my water has broken. If they have, then we are now what you would call "on the clock". LOL

8:30 p.m. - After a couple of hours in L&D, we are back home. The contractions at this time are about 5 minutes apart, but not real intense, I am still able to walk, talk, and breathe through them. My cervix is about 90% effaced and 2 cm dilated. I did not dilate any further while they were monitoring me, so we opted to come back home. Shawn thinks that we will be headed back in the early morning hours. The nurse said she can feel my bag of waters bulging, but it is still intact. So I am off to bed now. I have my regular weekly exam at 9 a.m. in the morning, so we will see how I have progressed through the night. So far, this has been hard work...I am really surprised at how tired I am!

6:30 a.m. - Per the nurse's orders, I drank a boatload of water last night. After getting up every five minutes to go pee, until about 2:30 a.m., the contractions finally slowed down to about 15 minutes and I was actually able to get some decent rest. Seems like they are back to about 5 minutes apart and intensifying. Will I make it to my 9:00 a.m. appointment? My worst fear is that he will check me and find that I have not dilated any further.

9:00 a.m. - Doc does the internal and says that I am 5 cm dilated and to go ahead and head over to the hospital and he will come and break my water.

11:40 a.m. - Just as they bring me some lunch (broth, jello and juice) here comes the doc. He sure doesn't waste any time! After he breaks my water, he suggests that we administer some Pitocin, as my contractions haven't really became any closer together or intense.

WRAP-UP -
I am not so sure that the Pitocin was absolutely necessary, because before the nurse can get the drip started...here come the contractions!! WooHoo!!! I get through the first hour okay, but about 1 p.m., I start watching the clock. I made it to 2 p.m., but my cervix check reveals that I am still only dilated to 6. I hadn't made any progress and I feel as though my tension could be hindering my progress. I went ahead and compromised with a half a dose of pain meds.

As predicted, the meds made me groggy. It still hurt plenty but at least I was able to relax in between. I was having a lot of back labor and tried a couple of different positions. I finally got comfortable sitting on the toilet...LOL After laboring there for a while, I felt a definite change in my labor pains. It was hard to describe, but was definitely different...maybe just the baby changing positions or slipping a little further down. Whatever it was, I decided that maybe it would be a good idea to get back in the bed.

As we approached 4 p.m., I was feeling a definite urge to push. The nurse checked me and said that I was probably at 9 cm and that if my body wanted to push to let it, just not bear down. After a couple more contractions, she says to go ahead and start pushing and she will call the doc.

Pushing was scary. I really had a hard time with it. I wanted to push myself away using the hand grips rather than pull towards them. Also the back labor was causing me to want to arch my back. Once Dr. Spaulding arrived, I was mastering it a little bit. Of course, he lined me right out, when I wanted to chat (read: argue) with him and he told me to shut up and push! This, naturally, was Shawn's favorite part of the birth!

I was getting some good pushes in and feeling some progress. Unfortunately, the baby's heart rate was showing some signs of distress. Dr. Spaulding began to prepare me for an episiotomy...ugh That done, a couple pushes later he was concerned enough to opt for a vacuum-assisted birth. One more contraction and she was here...a true miracle. The doctor reported that she had two tight loops of cord around her neck. He went ahead and cut the cord while Shawn snapped some pictures. They put her on my chest and toweled her off. She was too busy screaming at this point to be very interested in nursing but she was here and that was all that mattered to us at the time.

They moved her over to the warming table, where she promptly sneezed! Just like her mother.. Her Apgars were 8 and 9. She and Daddy headed over to the nursery for her first bath. Aunt Jackie was there too and took lots of pictures for us!