I was release to begin rehab on my shoulder just 4 weeks before my due date when I should have had 12 weeks but it would have to be good enough because Little Miss came early!
And here's all the gory details:
I started having contractions every 10 mins on Friday, Oct 28 in the evening. Of course, knowing better than getting my hopes up, we went to bed and went about our weekend plans. Saturday was Hub's company picinic and LOTS of walking. The contractions got closer for several hours and then settled back into the every 10 minute pattern. :((
Monday was Halloween. I went to therapy and did as much as a huge contracting momma with a messed up shoulder can. TD and I went to my parents' ward party and trunk or treat. At this point I was having contractions about every 5 minutes so I put our sitters on high alert. After we got home and settled into bed, the contractions fizzled out and back to every 8 minutes. SO disappointed!
Tuesday was better... that is if pain = better.
After dinner, my contractions had been about every 3-4 minutes for 3 hours so we decided to go in and get checked. I was dialated 3 cm and after an hour of walking in the beautiful Banner Gateway Maternity garden, the contractions had stalled back out to every 8 minutes and I had made no progress. Very sad and a little angry, we went home.
Wednesday and Thursday I had steady contractions every 8 minutes. UGH!
Thursday afternoon, we saw the OB. STILL only 3 cm.
Thursday night around 10, I got a sign that active labor was on its way: lost my plug and the contractions started getting stronger but not much closer together. I went to bed hoping to be woke up in the night ready to have a baby!
Friday morning, I got up and went to my last scheduled PT appointment. When I arrived, my contractions were every 6 minutes and strong. As I went through my exercises and manipulation, they got stronger and up to every 3 minutes. I drove myself home, went for a long walk with TD and hubby, showered and napped. Sadly, they were back to every 8 minutes. I was beginning to feel like she was NEVER going to leave my body! So, I send hubby to work and went about my day. I did laudry and dishes and played with TD on the floor a lot so I could squat.
By 4, I was having a hard time breathing through my contractions so I called TD's Mamacita (my wonderful mother) to come help with his dinner and all that jazz. She brought dinner and fed us both. She did the dishes, helped me put away laundry and rubbed my back.
At 5:30, I knew it was time for hubby to come home because I was feeling the need for pain meds!
We arrived at triage around 6:45pm sure I'd made some progress for all the hard work I'd been doing over the last 20 hours. I wanted to stab someone when the said I was STILL only 3 cm! The triage nurse kindly informed me that I had 1 hour to make some progess or I'd be going home regardless of my pain level.
After 45 minutes, she came in to check me because my contractions were showing long and clusters on her monitor. Thankfully I was at 6.5 cm in just that short time! We were going to have a baby very soon!! Oh, and PLEASE get the epidural ready!!
Unfortunately, there was no bed available for me for about 30 minutes but thankfully Christina, my labor and delivery nurse had paged the nurse anesthetist and he was waiting for me!
At nearly 10pm, Christina checked me and I had made NO progress. And, Little Miss was not only facing the wrong way, but not dropping down into position. .... As if this princess hadn't put me through enough already. Awesome. At least with the epidural in, I could rest.
Around 2am, Christina came into mess with my IV some more and I was barely 7 cm. My doc decided to start pitocin and I figured after 8 day of contractions and 26 hours of hard labor, it was probably a good call. Due to my shoulder, I couldn't do a lot of the position changes that help babies turn over so we just had to hope for the best.
At 5:12 Christina came in to hang another dose of penicillin (I'm GBS positive) and was going to check me "in about 20 minutes" and as she stood there messing with the machine my water broke with a huge and audible gush. SOO much fluid, had to change my gown and all the bed linens. She checked me as soon as it broke and I was 9cm and fully effaced but Little Miss was STILL not engaged in the birth canal. :((
By the time we got all the linens changed (about 20 minutes) I was feeling ready to push. So, she checked me again and I was 10cm. She told the baby nurse to make sure they'd called my doc and she decided to have me do the "test push" ya know, where they decide how fast they think you're gonna go. After about 1 second of that she was practically screaming at me to stop pushing and telling them he'd better get there NOW.
We waited about 15 minutes and as he was walking in, I told him "I need to push RIGHT NOW. I can't not push any longer" He was gowning up so said to go ahead. I started to push as he turned to face me. He stuck out his hands, said, "ok WOW, you werent kidding" and literally caught her as she popped out.
Little Miss
11.5.11 6:08am
8lbs 2oz 21inches
Because she waited until the absolute last possible second to turn around and engage, she came out the a beautiful, perfectly round, unbruised head. And she is DELISH!
Apparently, I had a surprisingly large amount of fluid because EVERYONE commented on how much came out with her. I soaked the gown, all the bed linens, the floor, and the Doc enough he had to go change his scrubs before the next delivery! (HEHE, that's what he gets for making me wait for HIM instead of him being on our schedule!) I'm guessing that's why she seemed to not be affected at all when I fell on her 7 weeks ago. And we thought she was gonna be a lot bigger because of how my belly looked and felt but it turned out to be all the fluid.
It's funny because everyone keeps telling us how big she is but I feel like she's tiny because TD was a whole lbs heavier, 2.5 inches taller, and his head was 3 inches bigger too. Her's is only 11inches. I'm also very happy to report that after a bit of whinning and complaining on my part, they discharged us only 30 hours after delivery instead of the typical 48-72!
Little Miss has such a sweet disposition and is fitting into our little family perfectly! TD adores her... sometimes he loves her a little harder than she'd like! :)
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