Teachergal
We made a snowman!
Member since 1/08 3239 total posts
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Jake Thomas 6-26-09
I can't believe I'm already writing my birth story, since my due date isn't until tomorrow!
Our little bundle of joy was born two weeks early. I knew that something was going on- I was having BH for weeks, but on Wednesday the 24th, something just felt *off*. I went in to work the next day, but scheduled a doctor appointment for that afternoon. I was already 2 cm dilated at that point and 40% effaced, but as everyone said to me, "You could walk around like that for weeks!" Blurgh, it really annoyed me!
Well I went in to my doctor and lo and behold, she said the same thing to me! Nothing had changed! I kept telling her that *something* was going on. She told me to take it easy and to not go in to work the next day. I'm a teacher and that next day was the last day of school, so hearing that made me a little sad, since I have fifth graders and I wasn't going to get to say good-bye to them, but I knew she was right. I went home, put my feet up and felt better. When DH got home, I actually told him that maybe it was all in my head, I felt so much better!
4 hours later, at 10:45 pm, my water broke! I was right! I really knew my body and my body was telling me that this was coming. We were pretty calm at that point, finished packing our bags and drove over to the hospital. Actually, we drove to the ATM, then back to the house to get my eye mask, then to the gas station to fill up, then to the hospital, then back to the house to get my pillow (we live a 2 min drive away) then back to the hospital. It was comical seeing us drive up to the hospital and then back away! They must have thought we were lunatics!
We checked in to L&D at LIJ around 12:15 am and from here on out I have to say that the staff at LIJ was phenomenal. They were so sweet and accommodating. They treated us so well and made us comfortable in an otherwise very uncomfortable situation. When I got checked in, they administered the IV which they had to do TWICE, since the first time didn't work in my left arm. Yowzers that hurt! Then I got moved to a laboring room which I unfortunately had to share with 2 women. It was 2 am by this point. The woman to the right of me was watching TV the ENTIRE time I was in this room and not at a very low volume. It was so distracting and annoying. I listened to my ipod and tried to just go with my breathing techniques. DH caught a few  but not me. Around 6:30 am my mom came in to say hi before she left for work. After she left the contractions started coming more often and more intensely. I was gripping that blanket for the life of me and trying to breath along! I have to say I handled it a lot better than I thought I would.
What confused me was that the nurse then came in and told me that they wanted to move me to a laboring room and administer pitocin to me. At this point it was almost 8 am. I asked why since the contractions were increasing and coming closer together. She said they weren't in a consistent pattern and that since my water had broken they wanted to make sure things moved along. I agreed but said that I needed the epidural before the pitocin. I got moved to the laboring room and then the anesthesiologist and nurse came in to administer the epidural. By this point, the contractions were bringing tears to my eyes. I am still so impressed with how well I was able to handle the pain looking back on it. We are so much stronger than we think we are!!
Getting the epidural was not bad at all. It's the least of what you're thinking about at that point. You just want some relief. Once the epidural was in, it was only affecting my left side. I could feel the contractions on my right!! They tilted me but it didn't help. After 15 minutes they gave me another drug that knocked out my right side and it thankfully worked. Feeling half a contraction hurts as much as feeling both sides!! I then got some rest over the next hour and a half. My doc came in at 10 am to check me and UNBELIEVABLY I went from 3 cm to 10 cm during that hour and a half. It was time to push! Unfortunately, since the epidural had just been administered a little while ago, I couldn't feel a whole lot. My labor nurse was AMAZING and coached me through the whole thing. She helped guide me through the pushing and gave me the words that I needed to hear to get him out. I pushed for an hour and a half- DH was right in there, holding my leg (the nurse had the other) and encouraging me along the way. I didn't know if I was doing it right, but something must have been working because at 11:45 am, June 26th Jake Thomas was born!
I was so tired from the pushing and not sleeping the entire night, but seeing him on my chest was the most amazing, happy moment of my life. I just felt like- I did it! He is a beautiful and happy baby. We are so lucky and overjoyed. My recovery has been very smooth and I feel up and at it already.
If you've read this far, thank you! Good luck to all of you that are pregnant and get ready for the greatest joy of your life! Here's a pic of my little one:
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