It's long and will make David cringe because I'm too lazy to go through and edit it. Enjoy!
I usually get a cold between the 36-38 week mark. So right on schedule after the influenza left our house I caught the lingering cold that Mallie and David had post flu. On Sunday night, Feb 2nd, we unwisely decided we should let Lucy cry it out because she had been waking up teething and wanting Tylenol for the past few nights. So Sunday night we didn't get to sleep till about 1:30pm coupled with being congested and coughing it was a bad night for me. We both woke up exhausted and David called in sick for the first half of the day. I remember at 6:30am waking up to a contraction that hurt like crazy and thinking to myself, "I'm not physically or emotionally prepared for a baby today - I'm getting an epidural if this is going down today." I was so tired from a bad night of sleep and from being sick I didn't even want to think about having a baby. I took the kids to school and came home and went back to sleep for an hour.
I packed up the girls at 3:30pm to pick up Ashton and was talking to Jodie and Emily in the parking lot telling them I was totally cranky and that Emily would probably have to watch the kids that night. At this point I didn't think I was really in labor I thought I was just being funny about my bad mood. So I took the kids home started feeding them a snack and Ashton asked to play the dot to dot game in his coloring book. After 20 minutes of drawing lines, a score of 47 to 43 boxes and a few hard contractions later I put on a tv show for the kids. David walked in the house for all of 2 minutes to grab something for a 4:30 meeting and headed out the door. I thought about mentioning the contractions but I wasn't sure if it was the real deal. So I said, "hi and goodbye" without a second thought.
The rest of the afternoon I have documented on my phone between phone calls and texts.
4:00 My mom texts me and asks how I am and I call her back. We talk for 22 minutes. During this time I'm screwing back in the dishwasher from frozen pipes, feeding the kids, and cleaning up the house. She tells me I've had a couple of contractions just while on the phone with her and asks if they hurt to which I respond, "Oh crap, I'm having a baby tonight. I need to go pack a hospital bag and shower."
4:30 I text David "I'm in Labor - No joke" he replies "Do I need to come home? This meeting is going to be awhile." I say, "Yes, come home."
So while I'm waiting for him to come home I shower, pack a hospital bag, start packing the kids jammies to go to Ben and Emily's and start seriously doubting my ability to have a baby. I text my older sisters and say, "Don't judge me I'm getting an epidural tonight."
5:10 David walks out the door to drop the kids off and Mandy calls me. I tell her I'm too grumpy to talk and that I cannot have a baby tonight because I'm already wussing out because it hurts so bad.
5:20 David comes home and I am an emotional wreck. Side note: The only time I ever get emotional during labor is during transition. So the fact that it is this early and I'm losing control is a sign of how tired I was. I start walking around saying things like, "Why are we still having kids?" and "What do you even wear when you're in labor?" and then I asked David to give me a blessing. I was contracting through the whole thing but I still vividly remember almost everything he said that I really needed to hear. Definitely a tender mercy during this time since I've never felt so out of control during labor.
5:40-45 We drive to the hospital and I am having hard contractions over and over. As we pull into the parking lot I look at David and I say, "It's too late. I know I'm too far for an epidural."
By the time we get upstairs the contractions have slowed to every 7-10 minutes and aren't nearly as painful so I begin to think I'm only at 5cm or so. The nurse says, well let's hook you up to the monitor. And I say, "No check me - I want to see if I have time for an epidural." She checks me and says I'm at 10cm and they start to set up all the newborn stuff in the check in room. I'm so relieved at this point to know that my meltdown was because I was indeed in transition at home when I was telling David I didn't want to do this and asking why we were still having kids. Once I knew the hard part was done I knew I was in the clear and I was totally capable of going natural. But I still had no feelings of needing to push at all. So I tell the nurses to calm down and let's just wait it out for a bit. For an hour and a half we waited. I seriously could have taken a nap. Contractions were only coming every 10 minutes and they weren't even painful. I had 6 nurses in the room just watching me at one pointing because they could not believe I was still in labor (completely dilated no less) and I was not in any pain. Finally, I decide to let one of the nurses check me and help break my water. She does, contractions don't change at all. Most women push as soon as their complete - aside from Ashton's birth I've never had to push. All the girls have just come out. So I was waiting forever for the urge to push. It just wasn't happening. At 7pm, there was a shift change and we had some new nurses walk in. One of them convinces me I should just try and push and see how it feels. I'm getting tired of being a side show in L&D at this point so I decide to give it a whirl. Laying down was uncomfortable so I got on my hands and my knees and decided I finally felt like I could push with the contractions. The doctor came in and asked David if he wanted to glove up and help catch the baby. David got really excited about it which I remember thinking was really cool since I've been doing all the baby catching for the last 3 births. The rest was textbook I push a few times the doctor cleared the cord around the neck and David caught Scotty.
I'll post more pictures tomorrow. I've got to say 5 days ago I had a natural delivery and the only part of my body that is sore is above my wrist where the dang IV was. Scotty is darling and David holds him ALL the time. There is something to be said about waiting for another boy!
