| Week 36 weight = 168 pounds |
| Weeks 36 - 37 ... |
| Let me tell you what's happened ..... :-) |
| So, on Wednesday, August 03, I called Jason from work and asked him to meet me at the local mall to go walking. I had finally decided to give into the excerise as advized by so many and promised that it would help me go into labor. I was very skeptical about how fast this technique would work ... but I was willing to try anything at this point. I was exhausted and tired of being pregnant! Being the great husband he is, he met me there ... we began our journey (circles) around the mall. Two hours later I was 'done' .... tired and my feet were killing me! I had to use the bathroom at Chic-Fil-A (gross!) before we left, but then I was ready to go home. We got home about 7:45 and at 8:00pm, it felt like my water broke. I ran to the toilet to see the surprise and there was a discharge, but not much at all. I was expecting a "flood gate" to open or at least a trickle down my leg?? I called the triage nurse and she assured me that it couldn't be my water bags and told me to relax. The more I thought about it, the more I was cinvinced that it WAS my water and called again .... but yet again, I was reassured by Nurse #2, that it couldn't be my water bags .... At 10pm, my contractions started. I was concerned taht I wouldn't really feel them, since my tolerance for pain is pretty high, but let me tell you ... this thing brought me to my knees (literaly) and I couldn't speak, move, or even wink a tear out ... they just fell out of my eyes. Oh, the pain! We tried to go to bed and wait it out, since they were about 20 minutes apart and lastine anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes. Although, they say contractions don't last that long .... phuey! By 12: 30am, I was 8 mintues apart with 1 minute contractions and the triage nurse told me to wait until they were 4-5 mintues apart. I told Jason that we were leaving and if/when they asked, he better tell them that he timed it at 4 minutes!!! :-) So we left for the 45 minute trip to the hospital. 23 minutes later, we arrived at the ER at Duke. They loaded me up in a wheel chair and my contractions were at 4 mintues apart when we arrived. By the time they registered me and got me upstairs, they were 2 minutes apart .... this was happening so fast! She's going to be here any minute!! I was 3cm and 90% effaced .... only 7 more cm to go! Almost 3 hours later, I was still having contractions 2 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute in length. So that means, I had 1 minute in between each contraction to relax. I tried the whirlpool tub to try to help with the pain, since I was trying NOT to go witht he epidural .... that lasted about one contraction before I could tell that it was not going to help ... before I could get out of the tub, I started to feel nauseous. I threw up anything that was left in my stomach from lunch that day and asked if I could "do #2?" .... I think the nurse thought I was crazy, but I really didn't want to be a statistic and poo on the table. She got the doctor to check me to make sure it wasn't time to push and gave me the "okay" to poo. :-) That was hard ... I had cords hooked up to my arms and so it made it hard to wipe in between contractions ... I worked it out though (in case you were wondering!) So, I was still 3cm at 3am .. there was no way I was going to go much longer without an epidural .. so I had to ordered. They rushed it in and I was feeling much better until the side effect took on its course. Evidently, I am the 1-2% of women who get body tremors with the epidural medication ..... this kept me shaking (literaly) for almost 10 hours. Jason slept and I layed on the bed tremoring and fighting lock-jaw. My teeth were sore for at least a week afterwards! At 7am, I was only 8 cm and my contractions were slowing down, so they decided to speed them back up with a low dose of pictocin. At 1pm, my epi ran out and I was 10cm .. ready to push! They rushed more medication in before we started to push .... August, 04, 2005 @ 2:48pm, Lillian Grace Ruger was born! 6 pounds, 11 ounces 20 inches and 2 1/2 weeks early! Click Here to see Lilli's pictures! |
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