on tuesday, May 7, i had a doctor's appointment. i would be 39 weeks that friday. my doctor told me i was progressing (50% effaced, 1 cm). she could see my belly already contracting pretty good and said "i doubt i see you at your appointment next week...i'm on call this weekend". talk about getting a girl's hopes up!
friday night, i started having strong, painful contractions at about 7pm that lasted throughout the night. we were packed and ready to go. saturday morning i woke up to zero contractions.
saturday night, i started having strong, painful contractions again at about 7pm that lasted throughout the night....6-7 minutes apart. nothing by the next morning.
sunday was mother's day. who wouldn't want to become a mother on mother's day?! my parents brought food down and we hung out for the afternoon. still nothing.
that night as i was getting ready for bed, my lower back started to hurt. bad. i had trouble getting comfortable, but managed to get to sleep. at 1:45am, the contractions started again. stronger. but still only 10 minutes apart. i got up to use the bathroom an hour later. when i came back to bed, i felt it. my water broke.
brian was out of bed in no time packing his last minute items, loading up the car, and sending the "here we go" text to our families. i changed, called my parents, threw my last minute items in my bag and headed for the car. boo had no idea what was going on but followed us around the house anyway. the contractions were still about 10 minutes apart but were getting stronger. brian may have driven a little fast and through some red lights (with his flashers on, of course...we did have a 40 minute drive).
when we arrived at the hospital, my parents were there- my mom to be with us and my dad to take boo back to their house. i was taken into triage and donned a fancy hospital gown. they first did a test to make sure my water had actually broken (apparently women come in all the time and say their water broke when it really didn't. i always wondered if i would truly know when it was happening. trust me...you KNOW!). the nurse also checked my progress. i was still only dilated to 1 cm, but my mom told me not to worry, that after your water breaks you normally start progressing quickly.
about an hour later, i was taken to my delivery room. the nurse checked me again. still 1cm. and then we heard a couple nurses whispering amongst themselves...she couldn't feel baby boy's head.
they brought in an ultrasound machine to verify his position. when there was debate about where his head was, i knew this little boy was no longer (or never really in the first place?) head down and ready to go. an x-ray was taken and the doctor confirmed that we had a little breech baby on our hands. since my water had broken, they could not attempt to turn him...i would have to have a c-section.
throughout my whole pregnancy, i said repeatedly that i did not want a c-section, so i was crushed. i started crying and felt like i wasn't going to be able to get ahold of myself. i so badly wanted to have the birth experience...the pushing, having brian tell me i could do it when the baby was crowning, the doctor laying him on my chest after he was born....all of it. but everyone reminded me that the end result was a healthy baby, and that's all i really wanted too.
SO, with the crying out of the way, i asked for some DRUGS to help with the contractions that were now quite strong and two minutes apart (and completely pointless). a few hours later, i was being prepped for surgery. brian suited up and waited in what he says was a closet while the team got me ready. the spinal was a little difficult...bending over my massive belly and holding still while having contractions was no fun. once i couldn't feel anything, brian was brought in and we were ready to have a baby.
it is pretty eery knowing you are being cut open and being awake for it. it's also very strange to hear the doctor giving orders so that you know exactly what he is doing. the whole surgery was surprisingly rough. Brian said my shoulders were rocking on the table a few times. when they were ready to pull baby boy out, the anesthesiologist let brian stand up to watch...his butt came out first, followed by each shoulder, and his head last. i watched brian's face the whole time and all he could say was "OH!" brian told me he had a full head of hair (that heartburn wives tale is totally true)!!! and then we HEARD him....holy cow, this boy had a set of lungs. i could hear all of the nurses commenting on how loud he was (he received excellent apgar scores ;-) Baby boy was born at 9:35am, may 13.
my first glimpse....he was fabulous! Brian was so sweet looking at both of us and said "we can name him whatever you want"...if the waterworks weren't flowing yet, they definitely were after that comment. We were both in awe and in love. I am so thankful for the nurse who took our camera and captured these precious images.
brian went with the baby to the nursery to be weighed and measured while i was cleaned out, stitched up, and taken to recovery.
I was in recovery for two hours before I saw my boy again! One of our friends from the floor brought him down to nurse for the first time. I couldn't really move, so she positioned him and got him latched on and off he went...he was a natural. After he was done, he was taken back upstairs and I stayed in recovery for TWO MORE HOURS!!! I couldn't leave until I could move my legs and the spinal was taking forever to wear off! I kept asking the nurse to wiggle my toes for me to help me figure out how to do it myself. I hated that I missed my boy getting to meet his grandparents for the first time. But at least there were plenty of people to love on him. I finally got to my room after 2:30 and couldn't wait to get my arms around that precious baby. Everyone but Brian stepped out and we got some family time and decided on his name...from our short list we decided he looked like a "Will", officially Charles William - after our dads.
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| Still drugged but finally holding my sweet boy! |
Thank you Lord for this unbelievable blessing!
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