I never made it to my NST appointment, because the day before I ended up going into labor!
WARNING: If you don't want to read about my labor & delivery navigate away from this page.
Let me preface this by saying that Paul (+Beth) may remember more details or have better accuracy of the events that occurred between September 15th and September 16th. It has been 2 months since and a lot has happened between now and then, plus there were points when all I remember is my eyes being shut and trying not to black out (at least that is what it felt like).
Paul and I went to sleep around 2 am on Sunday, September 15th. I woke up just before 6am because I felt like I needed to use the restroom. When I stood up I wet my pants, surely I didn't need to go that badly, so I went to the restroom and then changed my pajamas and laid back down. I had a fleeting thought that perhaps my water broke but I was so tired I just wanted to go back to bed. I reasoned with myself that another hour or two wouldn't hurt. So I got back into bed but by then my mind started working a bit better and I thought I will just lay here for 5 minutes or so and see what happens. In less time than that I had the urge that I needed to use the restroom again so I stood up to go to the bathroom and see what was going on, as soon as I stood up I wet my pants again. At that point it clicked in my mind THIS IS IT! So I went to the restroom again and changed my clothes. When I walked back out Paul lifted his head and I told him that I thought today was the day he was going to become a daddy.
I called Labor & Delivery to explain what was going on. I was instructed to go ahead and take a shower if I wanted to and to eat something, then head on over to the hospital. I took them up on that and had a light breakfast, took a nice hot shower, got dressed, sent a text to Beth to let her know of the development and tossed our bags into the car and headed for Anaheim.
Upon arrival we checked in and were taken to a room to be assessed as to if I would in fact be admitted. I was monitored for a couple hours, asked dozens of questions, we went over my birth plan (Which ended up being thrown out the window. Flexibility ladies, flexibility is key). Finally I was admitted and taken to a room. Not long after Beth showed up (boy was she in for a long night).
I was given 6 hours, if contractions didn't start within 6 hours of my water breaking then I would be put on Pitocin which brings on or strengthens labor contractions during childbirth. So we waited & waited & waited -- nothing happened. So they started the Pitocin around 11:30am. For awhile I was still quite comfortable. We watched football, played some cards, talked. Then the contractions started to kick up. I was not managing them well, Paul did everything he was taught to get me to breathe with him and to focus, he also held a portable fan right by my face which felt awesome!
There came a point where the contractions were right on top of each other and super strong. I did not have any time between contractions to recover. I tried to deal with them but I was having trouble breathing because of the lack of recovery time and the pain! We had a nurse come and check what was going on, when we arrived I was only 1 cm dilated, I had only progressed to a 3/4! Tears started rolling because I wanted to do this with out drugs but I knew that there was no way I would be able to go hours and hours more in order to make it to a 10. I asked to have the IV drugs hoping that they would take the edge off the pain... after 2 doses I felt NO CHANGE! The IV drugs did nothing for the level of pain I was feeling. More tears fell as the other option is for an epidural which I was trying to avoid at all cost.
I made it to 6pm before I was finally given an epidural and they turned the Pitocin off. Once that was in I was able to breathe again and felt no pain. Then it was back to sitting around and waiting, waiting, waiting. We watched some more football, I tried to rest/catch a few minutes of sleep here and there. The nurses checked to make sure that I was still having contractions as the Pitocin was no longer flowing and I was which was a good thing. A couple hours later I was checked again and had jumped up to a 7 which was an impressive jump however they grew concerned over my fluid levels and how the baby was doing because of how long it had been since my water broke. They mentioned that they were going to try and reintroduce fluid into my uterus but if that didn't help I was going to have to be taken for an emergency c-section. Thank the Lord that they were able to get my fluid levels up enough!
We all rested as much as we could. Paul turned on his iPod and we listened to my playlist. I was not checked again until somewhere between midnight and 1am at which point I was at 9cm. They kept asking me if I was feeling any pressure or urge to push and I kept reminding them that I couldn't feel anything below my bellybutton.
Sometime just after 3am a nurse came in to see how things were going and I was told that the baby was already crowning at which point I was told not to push. I gave a little chuckle (sounded like a line in a movie to me, she couldn't be serious, right?) and then I was told not to laugh! (which caused me to chuckle again) Or move! Or do anything. Apparently even when I laughed it caused the baby to come out a little more. The nurse was then rushing out to get the midwife. Seriously? So I stayed still and looked at Paul. We were about to have OUR baby! The midwife came in and commented on the fact that the baby was crowning, said some other stuff I don't remember and before I knew it my legs were in stirrups, there were at least 3-4 more people in the room, Paul was holding my hand or leg or something (I think) and I was being told to push. THREE pushes later the baby was out and the midwife said "who wants to call it"? Paul said "It's a BOY!" I then repeated what Paul said.
He was laid on my stomach. I kept looking back and forth at the baby and Paul and back to the baby. It was so surreal. I was in awe. Tears were streaming down my face and I was so so HAPPY. He was finally here! Paul cut the cord, the baby was wiped down, taken over to the warmer for a few minutes to get all of his measurements taken and whatever else they do over there. Then the baby was handed to Paul - such a beautiful sight. After awhile the baby was handed back to me, and there we were a family of three.
Nathan Burton joined our family on September 16th at 3:36am just about 22 hours after my water broke. He was measured at 8 pounds 13 ounces and 22 inches long
