On September 19th my SIL and niece spent the night. MIL watches my niece 3 days a week and SIL often stays with us so she didn't have to spend as much in gas driving back and forth.
Ben and SIL ran to Buffalo Wild Wings and picked up dinner. I believe I had the Big Daddy Jack Burger. Or else Boneless Parmesan Garlic Wings with Wedges with Cheese. Can't remember exactly. My sister called about 9 to wish me luck since she wasn't sure what time we were going on. We chatted for about 45 minutes, then Ben and I went to bed.
At 10:30 I woke up to a warm, wet feeling. I laid there for a minute like "WTF?". Then I leaned over and poked Ben. "Honey, honey, I think my water just broke."
He was all sleepy and confused. "What?"
"My water broke."
Insert craziness here. I hightailed it to the bathroom gushing amniotic fluid, Ben woke SIL up who was sleeping on our couch because my niece was sleeping in Caleb's crib. SIL woke MIL up to let her know what was going on. Ben called the hospital, they said to take a shower and come on in.
So I got in the shower, while Ben started packing. After the shower I put clothes on. The packing was pretty much done and then we were out the door. I sat on some towels on the way to the hospital.
The contractions started on the drive. They weren't bad. I didn't gush any more fluid until I stepped out of the car at the ER. Yay, I got to walk into the ER with soaked pants.
Ben parked the car and brought our suitcase in, then we headed up to the New Life Center.
Insert painful, awful, horrendous back labor all night long. And I mean back to back contractions. The nurse pretty much sat in the room with us most of the night to keep the monitors on me to make sure Caleb was tolerating those contractions. I was begging for the epidural but couldn't have one until I was dilated to 4. I was only at 1.
Shift change was 7am. I asked that nurse to check me and see if I could get the epidural yet. I'd gotten no relief all night long and no rest. She checked, I was not quite at a 4. But she checked with my OB and he said to go ahead.
Let me tell you, having to sit perfectly still while having back to back painful contractions while they stick a needle in your back is no fun. And definitely not easy. Once that was in, within a little bit I felt nothing from the waist down.
The OB came in to check on me. He inserted some internal monitors since the external ones were not staying put and they were having such a hard time getting a reading on my contractions and on Caleb's heart rate. He noted that Caleb's heart rate was declining during contractions and said he'd watch it. If it got worse or went on too long, he'd do a c-section.
Right around 10:30, Ben was going to go and get something to eat really quick, and I was going to try to catch some shut eye. The doctor came in right at that point and said that he'd been watching the decels and he wanted to take me in for a c-section. Ben asked him how long until they'd be ready. The OB said "20 minutes". I cried a little, but not because I was scared. I teared up because I knew my baby boy was coming and I couldn't wait to hold him.
They did all the prep work and got me wheeled into the OR. Ben sat next to me and held my hand and the anesthesiologist stood at my shoulder to make sure I wasn't feeling anything.
At 11:21 am on September 20th, 2010, the doctor asked if Ben wanted to take a look as they pulled Caleb from my belly. Ben walked away from me at that point so he could get pictures of the little man getting weighed, measured, checked out, and cleaned up. He got peed on. They took Caleb's footprints and put them on Ben's scrubs (we got to keep them!) and in his baby book, and on the card from the hospital. They wrapped up my baby and brought him over to me.
I couldn't stop crying. It was the most amazing moment of my life. Hell, I'm tearing up just thinking about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment