October 2nd 2011
It all started on a casual Sunday afternoon where earlier that day we had friends over and watched the Dallas Cowboys. Around 5pm I started to experience mild contractions...that just kept coming. I had experienced them 5-10 min apart until around 10pm when they started to be 3-5 min apart. My Dr had told me that I needed to have them for 2 hours at least before coming into the hospital. So around midnight we grabbed our bags and headed into labor and delivery.
12 a.m.
We get to the hospital where I had pre-registered so I didn't have to check in, but they started the monitoring process to see how far a part my contractions were as well as how much I had progressed. Now by this point I had already been having regular contractions for 8 hours....but because I was still not dilated past 1cm they sent me home. The hospital has a policy that they won't admit anyone until they are dilated to a 4. They also said to try to rest and to come back when the contractions are so intense I can't walk or talk during them.
2 a.m.
SO we went home crawled into bed to rest...but resting was not something I was able to do. I had probably nodded off able to sleep thru some of the contractions, but the big ones were still waking me up but with one bonus...they were now so intense I would get physically sick during them.
4 a.m.
So after a few more hours like this (nodding off between contractions that were still every 3-5 min) we went back to the hospital. This time I had dilated to a 2 and they told me to start walking to speed up delivery. At this point I had been up all night long and was unable to even contemplate walking because of how exhausted I was. But thankfully at this point my parents were getting into town after driving all night long. So we all went back to the house to try and get a little sleep. We all camped out in the living room and everyone except me was able to sleep. I could nod off a little bit but I was still getting physically sick and was completely miserable...labor wasn't as bad as the exhaustion at this point.
9 a.m. I had reached my limit. I probably hadn't gotten more than an hour collectively of sleep. I was exhausted I was miserable and I was sick of the hospital sending me home. So we went back..this time armed with my mom who knew what was going on enough to be my backup with the nurses. Not that my husband wasn't completely awesome and supportive...but I knew my mom having been through labor herself would go to bat for me. So we get there and this time I've progressed to 3cm. Still not enough to be admitted. I'm beyond frustrated at this point. I needed SOMETHING! I had been in labor for 16 hours already and I couldn't even sleep. So after the nurse left the room with the intention of sending me home...a midwife/angel came into the room. She wanted to give me some pain killers to help me sleep. She said there was no way I would be able to get through the rest of my labor unless I had some rest. They could let me sleep for 3 hours then see where I was..if I was progressed they could admit me, if I stopped labor they'd send me home. So they gave me and IV with morphine and left me to sleep. Well I slept a little bit better having some more contractions covered by the medication..but the big ones still had me up and at times, physically sick.
11 a.m.
After about an hour I let the nurse know I really wasn't getting any sleep and did they have another suggestion...so they came back in after while they came in to check me then determine what was to be done from there. I had dilated to a 6 just with a little sleep. So I was free to be admitted and to my delight get an epidural!
6 p.m.
The epidural was working great, they were also giving me pitocin to make sure my labor didn't slow. But since my water had not broken they decided to break it for me. It was at this point that they discovered the meconium in the amniotic fluid..and things started to get a little scary. After putting an internal monitor so they could get Colton's heartbeat monitored more closely they discovered that his heart rate had dropped a few times. This was a cause for concern so they had the pediatrician come in from home to be present for the delivery.
7 p.m.
Finally I had progressed enough to start pushing. Which was going good at first, I was doing a good job pushing his head was right there...but his heart rate was dropping so I had to push every other contraction and I was running a fever. The pediatrician had arrived and was in the room waiting to take my little boy to be examined as soon as he was delivered.
8:15 p.m.
Colton finally arrived!! He was immediately handed to the pediatrician and I was completely oblivious to what had happened...to me. I had torn upon delivering Colton..not just a small tear down which is common...but multiple tears and in every direction: up, down, left, right and even internally. As if that wasn't bad enough I had an arterial tear that had to be taken care of so urgently they couldn't move me to the OR as they would have normally done for the extent of tearing that I had. This is when the real pain set in.
8:45 p.m.
I finally got to hold my precious little boy!! The pediatrician had cleared him and declared him a perfectly healthy little boy. At 7lbs 15.2oz and 20 1/4 inches he was absolutely perfect! Up until this point the most I had gotten to see of him was a picture that my mom took on her phone. I was completely at peace finally having my little man in my arms.
11:30 p.m.
I was finally "reconstructed" as the Dr. put it. I had to have 2 doses of the epidural, morphine and toredol in my IV and a topical anesthetic. But it was finally all over with. I had my baby boy in my arms...FINALLY some food in my stomach!! And life was good :-)
That was a really long 24 hours...but worth every last second it took to have my little boy healthy and safe.
