Haunted: December 2017

On Thursday, November 30, I was out driving with Corky just before noon and started noticing contractions. Painful ones. Up to this point, I'd had a few Braxton Hicks contractions that I could feel, but they weren't exactly what I'd call painful. I wondered if I'd even recognize real labor contractions if and when they did come. I didn't say anything to Corky at that moment because baby had been regularly faking me out for over a week and I didn't want to say something and have it turn out to be nothing.. again!

I opened the Notes app on my phone and started timing them. This is what it looked like over the course of the next few hours.

We went and picked up Mara at school at 12:30pm and I texted my mom, asking her to be on call for Mara duty. After we got home, I noticed some blood-tinged watery stuff in my underwear. I called the advice nurse because the contractions were pretty irregular but fairly strong. She urged me to go in and get checked. We went in around 1:45pm and the nurses discovered that my water had partially broken. We were admitted and an IV was placed.

Because I was Group B Strep positive, I had to have 2 doses of penicillin before baby was born to protect him from it. My IV wasn't placed well so it already hurt, and then penicillin stings going in. I was not pleased.

I went on this way until about 8:00 or 8:30pm. My dad came to keep me company while Corky got some dinner and tidied up the house and fed the dogs. After he returned, I got an epidural. It hurt more than I remembered. Once I was nice and numbed, the doctor came in and broke my water the rest of the way and administered a tiny bit of pitocin. I was adamant about getting my epidural BEFORE I got the pitocin this time. I learned my lesson after Mara's birth.

I started shaking almost right away after the epidural was in. The doctor asked me if I was scared or if I just had the shakes. I told her I had the shakes. I couldn't stop! It was awful. The hours ticked by and I had the most awful heartburn but couldn't sit up very well since I was numb from the middle of my back down. Finally, the nurse (Erin) propped the bed up and let me sit up for a while, as well as giving me anti-heartburn medication in my IV. It seemed to help.

Eventually, she laid me back down and told me to try pushing. I was on my side with this weird peanut-shaped yoga ball between my knees to help with dilation. Prior to the epidural I had been at 4cm but I was now at a full 10cm in just the space of a few hours. Thank GOD for epidurals!! I tried pushing but baby was so far out front and had dropped on the wrong side of my pubic bone, so I had to lie back down and flip from side to side every 20 minutes to get him "down" into position. During this time, Corky slept.

Around 12:30am, I woke him up to come hold my hand. I felt pressure and some pain. I told the nurse it felt like I was pooping without giving my body permission. She checked me and said that baby was in the right position. At about 1:00am I started pushing.

Orion Alexander was born at 1:09am on December 1st, 2017.

He weighed 9 lb 14 oz and was 21 inches long.