Labor and Delivery - EDEN IS HERE!

Well, the night of March 3rd came and Lane and I watched American Idol together. While we were watching I was having contractions - at the time I believed them to be Braxton Hicks because they weren't getting close together or getting more intense - they actually eventually went away completely. Eden and I then went in to take a bath and have a heart to heart...Braxton Hicks this late in the game are wrong and should not happen. Lane and I then went to bed without any thought of an impending labor being upon us.

At 3:15am I woke up thinking I had wet the bed. I had heard that this wasn't uncommon in pregnancy and so I sheepishly got out of bed and was trying to sneak into the bathroom without being noticed - I was slightly embarrassed. Half way to the bathroom Lane must have rolled over onto the wet spot and promptly asked me if my water had broken. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind at that point, I still thought I just peed all over myself. The more I thought about it and the more I couldn't get it to stop I was coming to the realization that it was indeed my water that had broken and our journey was about to begin.

Once we got to the hospital I only measured 1cm dilated, which was no change from my 2 previous appointments. I was a little discouraged at this point because I knew that there was a long way to go and I had only 18 hours to get to where we were going since my water had broken. We were placed in a Labor, Delivery, Recovery, and Postpartum (LDRP) room once it was confirmed by the doctors that my water had broken.

Once in my room and after several cervical checks, only to find that I was at 2 cm and a couple hours into my labor process the doctor put me on a pitocin drip. The drip increased my contractions in intensity and in duration and in frequency. All that being said, I didn't get a chance for much rest between contractions. My contractions were lasting about a minute and they were coming every 1-3 minutes. So when they came every minute, I got no rest between contractions and my body didn't relax - therefore preventing much progression. As I approached 4 cm all I could ask for was my epidural. I had a couple doses of an IV medication to take the edge off the contractions, but that didn't even TOUCH the contractions, it only made me tired and loopy. Once I had the epidural, I was a different person. I was willing to talk to people and I was willing to get hugs from people who were there to visit me (my mom and dad and a close friend of mine and Lane's). At one point with the medication, it made Eden's heart rate go up more than the doctors wanted it to and they were talking very seriously about a c-section for me. At one point the talk about it was so serious that the OR was prepped and they were coming in to have me sign the forms for everything. I just told myself to lay there and relax as best I could and take deep breaths. It seemed to work because when they came to get me, they were pleased with her heart rate and they called off the section - thank goodness! As the epidural set in I was able to relax and before you knew it, it was time to push!

Pushing was not terrible and not painful (thank you epidural!). I would say that it was very tiring! I pushed for 2 hours and even had the help of the suction. The suction helped with positioning of Eden in addition to helping us make progress through the birth canal together. She was facing sideways and so she was having a hard time getting through the birth canal - so again, another section was threatened, but I don't feel that it was as serious this time. Between contractions Eden's heart rate was now going down and they were getting slightly worried about this. Changing positions for me - on my side, on my back, on my other side and with oxygen - seemed to do the trick and we eventually pushed so hard that there was a baby in the doctor's arms and Lane and I couldn't help but cry together over the joy of seeing and hearing our sweet little Eden in out in the real world!

Since I've written a novel in this post, I will save our journey's through jaundice for another post because that is an adventure that is worth sharing. We had our own little glow worm for a little while and she was precious! Until that post, have good days and sleep some for us! :)