He’s here, he’s here :) Born October 15 at 11:28am. 7lbs 10oz, 20 3/4″ long. And I know I’m supposed to sleep when baby sleeps, but I wanted to type up the story before I forgot any details. Maybe TMI for you, but I wanted to remember!

I’d been having contractions Monday-Thursday of last week, but they were all so far apart and random that there was really no need to go to the hospital. Tuesday I was 3cm and 70% effaced at my Drs visit. In case you were wondering (and I certainly was before the whole thing), a sure sign of a “real” contraction from a “fake” one was that my belly would get super super tight and rock hard with a real one…while the “fake” ones just felt like cramping.

Thursday night I woke up around midnight and they were 8 minutes apart. I decided to eat a little, walk around a bit and take a shower to see if they’d go away (like they had other times). I think Andy was more concerned about how calm I was, but I just told him to go back to bed and I’d get him if I needed him. A few hours later when nothing had changed I called my Dr and was told I could head to the hospital and they’d see how things were going.

We got to the hospital around 3:30am where they hooked me up and monitored me in triage. Apparently I was at 5cm although I didn’t even really feel anything, and at 85% effaced it was definitely enough to get me a room. We waited in room for about an hour and contractions only moved to about 7 minutes apart. A midwife came in and asked if they could break my water to get things progressing. Afterwards things started happening at lightning speed. My contractions immediately went from 7-8 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart with virtually no breaks in between. I’d planned on getting an epidural somewhere in the “in between” time, but luckily the anesthesiologist was on floor and still able to work with me. Sidenote to women who do this without an epidural…you are amazing! I was just clawing at the bed each time another contraction came on.

The epidural went in, but a half hour later I realized there was a “window” in my lower abdomen where it wasn’t doing anything. Which made the pain that much worse as it was concentrated in that tiny area. The anesthesiologist came back and did it a second time with success. Afterwards, I felt amazing, lol. Another two hours later I felt like I had to pee really bad. When the nurse arrived with the catheter we realized I didn’t actually have to pee…baby was on his way out! The Dr was called and the room started flooding with a ton of people. I’d given permission to a few nursing students to watch (hey, why not?) and there had to be at least 5 other staff members there as well. I started pushing once the Dr gave me the ok and since Ben was right there he came into the world with only 15 minutes of active pushing! I’m SO thankful! He was quiet for what seemed like forever then he just started screaming and screaming and kept it up for a good 20 minutes while they checked him and stitched me up.

The birth was amazing, Andy said he actually wasn’t queasy at all with all the blood and everything. He did stay up by my head and opted to not cut the cord ;-) The part after the birth is what I remember as being completely awful. A rare side effect of the epidural is a Spinal Headache and guess who got lucky? Granted, the contractions were worse…but second to that I’ve never been in so much pain. Stabbing and aching from my neck up through the back of my head and behind my eyes. I could barely function enough to get myself to the bathroom and learn how to nurse Ben.

Insert comment to family that came to visit Friday night: That’s why I was a zombie! Actually, if you look at all the pictures and video posted of me I look WAY out of it. I actually apologized to my mom for not being friendly or pleasant.

At that point we just thought it was a headache, so I was given Percocet and caffeine to help deal with it. Ibuprofen did nothing to help and while the Percocet was fairly helpful it wore off within two hours and I eventually built up a tolerance to it. The pain hadn’t gone away by Saturday night and all I could do was lay still in bed. When I couldn’t even nurse Ben the staff was amazing and taught Andy how to give him formula from a little medicine cup (I guess he could kind of lap up a little bit) so it didn’t undo the work I’d done trying to get him to nurse, by giving him a bottle.

Sunday morning an anesthesiologist came back and proceeded to give me a Blood Patch to help fix the spinal head ache. I guess when I received the epidural(s) there’d been a tiny puncture of the outer layer of the spinal cord where spinal fluid had leaked out (causing the headache). Blood was taken from my arm and I guess in a “third” epidural was put into my back. The blood clots and fills in the tiny little hole, almost like a tire patch. Crazy! And kind of scary, there’s important things back there to be messing around with. The Blood Patch didn’t work instantly, but a few hours later I was able to get up and walk around and actually feel human again. I’m still scared to turn my head or react to something fast because part of me thinks it’ll come back some how.

Even with all the above, I’m am glad I chose to get the epidural because I could really take in and participate in Ben’s birth. I remember it, I remember him…not just the pain. I didn’t really get to bond with him in the hospital (I think Andy spent more time loving him, holding him, doing diapers and the like). We’re making up for it now that we’re home though! He nurses great (that needs to be another post, holy hard work Batman!) It kind of makes me sad that he’ll never be this tiny again so I’m definitely taking advantage of it and it’s what I tell myself when I hear him crying. I just can’t stop staring at him or holding him, last night as tired as I was from coming home from the hospital I wanted to hold him more than crawling into bed. He’s kind of like the coolest thing ever :)