Happy Birthday Kate!

I went to bed at 10pm Tuesday night, April 6, 2010. I wasn’t feeling unusual in any way. At 11pm, I woke up and my underwear was wet. So I got up and went to the bathroom and looked at my underwear. It was soaked and there was a lot of cervical mucus. So I thought maybe I peed my pants, but really doubted it since I peed when I went to the bathroom. So then I changed underwear and lay back down in bed. About 10 minutes later, my underwear was wet again. Dan called his mom who told us we better go to the hospital and get it checked out. We left around 11:40pm. We got to the hospital and checked in around 12:30pm. As soon as I got up from the wheelchair, water gushed. The nurse told me I was there to stay. So I told them my wishes of no meds and all. We called Dan’s mom and my parents and they headed over. At the first internal exam, I measured 2-3 cm dilated and 90% effaced at 0 station. So we got the IV in after two tries (ouch) and I had to lay in the bed for 10-20 minutes for the IV to set up. Then we were up and walking. The nurse told me that as soon as I dilated to a 4 I could get in the tub. By this time my parents and Dan’s mom arrived, so we went out in the waiting room and talked to them for awhile. I was ready to get in the tub, so we went back to be check and I was at a 4 around 1:30 so I got to sit in the tub which felt so good. I got a little warm in the tub so we decided to get out and walk again. I don’t remember how long things took after this, but at about 3:40am I was at a 6. The nurses had told me when we got there that good progress was about 1cm an hour. So my goal was to be ready to push by 8am. Well about 40 minutes later I felt like I had to poop and the pain was incredible, so they decided to check me again. At this point, I was so tired and ready to give up. Luckily, I had fantastic support with my nurse, Dan, and my mom. I was at an 8-9, fully effaced, and +1 station. I couldn’t believe it. Just hearing that gave me the strength to continue. They told me to try to push with the next contraction to see if I could get up to 10 cm. Well, I did. So the Dr. was called around 4:30am. While he was arriving they had me pushing three times with every contraction, which was really exhausting. I just kept saying I couldn’t do it. I wanted a break so bad. But when she started crowning to hear the excitement in Dan’s voice and my mom’s voice really helped. The Dr arrived around 4:43 or so. When her head was out, I could see her and that gave me the strength to continue. The whole time of pushing was very surreal to me. It was almost as if I was watching the whole thing. I found out later that she actually started coming out sunny side up and turned sideways. I did have tearing but I am not sure the degree. I haven’t been very sore and have taken 3 doses of Motrin so far for it. I thought that the stitches would be a lot more painful, but they haven’t really been that bad. Kate was born at 4:56 am. I was in labor for about 6 hours and pushed for 21 minutes. Kate was 7 lbs 1 oz and 19.5” long.