Around 3:30 Friday afternoon, July 9th, I started having contractions and by 4:30, it seemed like this was really it. Baby was pushing right up against my spine causing awful back labor. I called Jake who was on his way home from work and told him it was probably time. Jake got home a little after 5 and jumped right into action packing up the car, timing contractions and pushing on my back to counterpressure the back labor. Around 5:30 the contractions had progressed extremely quickly. They were longer than a minute and around 2 minutes 30 seconds apart. By six we were on our way to the hospital, admitted and brought into triage. Jake took this of me right before we left for the hospital, at 39 1/2 weeks pregnant and 2 hours into labor.
At 6:45, they checked me and said I was 5, almost 6 cm dilated and would I like an epidural? Three more contractions and more awful back labor and I replied "Yes, I would." In order to get the epidural, I had to have 2 full bags of IV in my system so they hooked me up right away and opened it up wide. I was halfway through the second bag at 8pm when they moved me into delivery and checked me again.
Imagine my surprise when, at 9 cm dilated, the nurse said, "Well, you can forget the epidural." Definitely not words I wanted to hear right then but I had progressed too quickly and it was too late to get an epidural. I had to have the baby naturally. They'd called in my doctor but he was about 30 minutes from getting there. Jake asked the nurses, "Is there a back-up doctor in case he doesn't get here in time?" "uhhhh...[looks around nervously] Yeah, me and her," was the nurse's reply.
I felt like I had to push when Dr. Peress came in and checked me. At 10 cm dilated and with a bulging bag of waters, he explained that he was going to artificially rupture my water, we were going to start pushing and what I would need to do to meet our baby. After a half hour of pushing, out came Tom for a total of 6 hours of labor. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 4 ounces, 20 1/4 inches long, born at 9:33pm with a full head of hair, and looking exactly like his Daddy. Hardly seems fair for a first time mom to have such a fast labor and delivery, but I can assure you it was intense the way it progressed so rapidly!
Jake was awesome! He stayed with me the whole time, kept me focused and kept me calm, even when the doctor almost didn't make it. He did everything he needed to do, exactly how he needed to do it for us to have a healthy and safe delivery. We also had a team of two really awesome nurses who said all the right things to help me through labor and delivery and a wonderful doctor who has been taking really good care of Tom and me throughout the pregnancy.
After Tom and I were cleaned up, they allowed the grandparents in for a peek at their new grandbaby.
Jake went with Tom into the nursery for his first bath, immunizations and tests they have to run on newborns. Then they took us to our new room in recovery where we stayed until Sunday morning.
