So, at my 36 week appointment, I asked the doctor if I could travel to Virginia Beach for the funeral. He was going to let me...until he checked me. I was 1cm, and the baby was super low. He told me to stay put and stay out of trouble.
This began the wait for our little girl. I thought she would come any day. And then, I kept not progressing....at my 39 week appointment, I was barely 2 cm and 50% effaced. The doctor instructed me to schedule a 40 week appointment. I wanted to cry, because I had never had a 40 week appointment before! However, he said, anything could happen and to be ready! I decided to laugh instead of cry. That was Monday.
Wednesday was my last day to work at Harrison's school (it is highly parent involved). I told my co-worker that I would just be her extra eyes (we watch preschoolers), as I was in pain. I had been in pain and so tired for weeks, though, so I didn't think much of it.
That night, Brett put the kids to bed early as I laid on the couch. We watched TV (Survivor, I think), and got into bed by 10pm.
At 2:20 am, I was laying on my left side, and bent my right leg. In doing so, I felt a gush. It woke me up! My water had broken with Harrison and was continuous, but this was not. There was nothing else. So, I went to the bathroom, and still nothing more. I was in the bathroom for a few minutes, and Brett asked, "Lauren? Is it time?" I told him I didn't know!!! So, I got on my phone to look up to see if my water was partially broken. He was antsy, and I told him the last think I wanted to do was go in the middle of the night as a false alarm!!
30 minutes later, I told him I think we should go. So he jumped in the shower, and I called Amy, our middle of the night on-call friend. I washed my face and got dressed, and she was there about 15 minutes later. I showed her where everything was and gave her a few instructions, and Brett is pulling me out the door! We ended up leaving our house about 3:15--almost an hour after I woke up!
As we went to the hospital (it's about 25 minutes away), Brett was stressed, so he was taking some stops at red lights pretty rough. That's when I started to notice I was in a little pain. I asked him to slow down sooner at the red lights! He thought I was nuts!!
We arrived at Winter Park Memorial Hospital at about 340 am. at about 4 am, I was in a room getting checked by Joy. I went to the bathroom and changed into a gown, and as I came back to the bed to get checked, more water came, and it was red. That made me nervous. I have gotten increasingly nervous with each delivery because I know what's coming! With Harrison, my ignorance was bliss! So, at the reddish color, I started crying a little bit. I was 4 cm, and my water had indeed partially broken.
I was moved to delivery room 2108, met the nurses and talked to the doctor (Dr. Moore) on call. I got my IV sometime around 430 am. I knew that the shift change would happen at 7am and that I probably wouldn't deliver before then. When I got my IV, they told me it would probably be within the hour that I could get my epidural. At this point I was starting to feel contractions about 5 minutes apart.
at 530, the nurses informed me that the anesthesiologist had an emergency csection, so it would be longer before my epidural. I was okay with that, but the contractions were hurting. At about 6 am he came and administered the epidural. I was super nervous (I have had bad epidurals). But, all went well.
While he was in there, we discovered who would be delivering me. It was the only midwife at the practice I go to--her name is Terri Nesbit. I had seen her for a couple visits, and never thought a midwife would deliver me, but she was so wonderful!
she checked me at this time, probably close to 7-730 ish, and said my water was not completely broken, so she broke the rest of it. They called it a 'high leak', where it only partially breaks. I am glad it was only partially broken because, if it had fully broken, I probably would have not made it to the hospital to deliver!
She checked me and I was still 4-5. She said the epidural would slow my progression down a bit. I was getting really numb on my left side, so the nurses turned me.
A little over an hour later, at about 840, she came back and said she was going to the office (across the street) and would be back at noon unless the nurses called her. My nurse said she would definitely be back before then! Terri said she was just going to have them give me a 'sniff' of pitocin to get things going. She left. They started that up and then tried to buckle me up to the monitors and were having trouble. They said the baby was fine, but they just couldn't find her because she was so low. They asked when I was last checked. I said a little over an hour ago--an hour and a half tops. They decided to check me. I was 10cm. after she broke my water, I went from 4 to 10 in about an hour, but I couldn't feel a thing because I was SO numb! I had been ready to push for several minutes already! They called her and she came rushing back! I pushed through one contraction, and then she said, "Lauren, I think we don't have to wait for the next contraction, can you give me one more small push?" I did, and she was here! I pushed twice for a total of maybe 5-7 minutes! She probably would have been born 30 minutes earlier if Terri had checked me before she left! It was SO fast once my water had broken fully! Turns out I only got about 2 drips of the pitocin! Brett asked if we could get our money back on that one and we all laughed!!
While I was pushing, I was really nervous, because I had ZERO feeling in my left side--the epidural took TOO much! I had some feeling on the right side, but, otherwise I felt a bit out of control! The nurses were holding my leg, and I could see it, but I couldn't feel it. They let it go at one point and it slammed on the table. That made me nervous, but we still made it through! So, I got emotional during the pushing, and of course, holding her! They immediately gave her to me and let me hold her for 30 minutes before weighing her, etc. I was so emotional!
We stared at her good and hard for that time making sure about what we should call her. "Paisley" was our top name, but we had another one too, and I wanted to see her before we decided. And I'm so glad we stuck with Paisley! More on her name later!
Because it all happened so fast and I was so numb, I was really shaky and got chills for awhile--I was fine, but in a little bit of shock, I suppose. They took all of both of our vitals. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 5 ounces, and was 20 inches long. So, so precious!!
They kept me in the delivery room for 4 hours--2 hours longer than usual, because I still couldn't move. I didn't really feel un-numb until about 5 or 6 pm that day. Talk about an epidural!
Then it was off to room 3114 to enjoy our precious new baby! The hospital stay was exhausting as they had done away with their nursery since 6 years ago when Harrison was born there. More on the stay later.
Until then, I'm so glad I took the time to write this down so that I could remember the arrival of our sweet gift! More pictures to come!
