I woke up feeling strange around 3am on Wednesday morning. I was up until 5:30 wondering if this was really it, if our baby was on the way. At 5:10am I timed my first contraction on an iPhone ap. It just felt like cramping, not what I expected. Nothing on my sides or around my back, just low in my belly. It was all very exciting but somehow I fell back asleep until my alarm went off at 6 for work. I got dressed and ate breakfast and had 2 more contractions. I checked my schedule on my blackberry and didn't have any meetings at work, so decided to work from home, just in case this was the real thing. I worked from home all day (should have took a nap, definitely regret that later). The contractions started an hour and a half apart in the morning. By lunch they were every hour. Kellen came home and we ate lunch together. I don't think he really believed I was having contractions, but luckily brought his laptop home from work because he didn't make it in the next day!
When Kellen got home from work the contractions were 15 minutes apart, still not that strong and feeling like cramping. I kept timing contractions on my phone and we baked a casserole I had made that afternoon, Oyster Rice Casserole from Paula Dean's cookbook. It was not very good. Nona (my mom) was very excited about the contractions and Pappy (my dad) was on a Fed Ex trip, so we invited her over for dinner. By 6pm, the contractions were less than 10 minutes apart. I started squatting during contractions and could hardly feel them in the squat. By 7pm, they were less than 7 minutes apart and getting a little stronger. Nona went home to pack her hospital bag and I took a bath. Right before the bath I lost my mucus plug, the baby was definitely on the way. I tried to relax in the bath and breathe through the contractions. Contractions were getting closer and closer together and we decided to leave the house at 9:30pm to go to the hospital. 9:30 came very fast. I got out of the bath and got ready while Kellen added everything from my list to our hospital bag. When we left for the hospital, my contractions were 4 minutes apart. It was raining but since it was later on a Wednesday night, the roads weren't that trafficy. We got to the hospital around 10pm.
We parked in the parking garage and made our way to the front desk. We tried to check in and of course they didn't have us in their records. I had early registered online and for some reason my SSN didn't go through. Luckily, they had me in the system when they searched by my birthday. Signing in took forever, filling out more paperwork and signing consent forms. Then, they didn't take us back right away, we had to sit in the waiting room. This whole time I was still having contractions. 5 or 10 minutes later they called us back.
We met our nurse, Hollie, and got a little bit settled in a labor/delivery room. We were still not officially 'checked in' until they made sure I was actually in labor and going to progress. Hollie checked me and I was only dilated 2cm. Major disappointment. Hollie asked if there was anything she needed to know special about our birth plan. I told her I wanted a natural birth if everything went as planned, to hold our baby as soon after birth as possible, I didn't want the hospital to give her any bottles or pacifiers - breastfeeding only and there was one doctor that I didn't really want to have deliver our baby. Hollie asked who that was and I said her name, of course she was on call that night, lovely. But Hollie said there's no guarantee I would have the baby that night, so let's just cross that road when we got there. Hollie went to call the doctor to see what we needed to do. The doctor said we needed to wait an hour to see if I progressed any then we would be admitted. Great. So we made our selves a little comfortable and I breathed through the contractions, coming every 3-4 minutes now. I had read books about thinking about opening up and visualizing a flower blooming and the muscles of my uterus working through each contraction. I tried my best to visualize all these things.
Hollie came back around midnight to check me again. First she asked if we wanted to stay in the hospital. We said yes, even if the doctor I didn't particularly like would deliver the baby, I was ready. She checked and said I was 2.5cm, wait 3cm, 3.5cm? Then that she could probably make me 4cm. I have no idea what she was actually calling it but felt something happen so I thought I was at 4cm. She went back to call the doctor again. Now we were just hoping to finally be admitted into the hospital for real! We had left all our bags in the car to make sure we were staying and just wanted to be settled. Hollie came back and said that the doctor wanted to wait for another hour to see if I dilated any more. She said she would be back at 1am to check me again. I just kept breathing through contractions. They were probably 3 minutes apart or less now, still not too bad. Hollie came back at 1:15am and checked, I was dilated 4cm. She asked again if we were sure we wanted to stay, we said definitely yes. She thought that 4cm was where I needed to be for the doctor to say we could stay, woohoo. She said she would check with the doctor to make sure and if yes, be back with the IV kit. I wasn't sure about the IV, but Kellen convinced me it was a good idea to make sure I stayed hydrated in case we were in for a long night. They gave us more pillows and sheets and Kellen made up the pull out bed, we thought we would be admitted soon. We tried to sleep a little but had one eye open waiting for Hollie to come back and say we were good to go.
At 2am Hollie finally came back and we were in! She said how great my veins looked and jinxed herself, it took her two spots to get the IV in. I have a pretty big bruise on my great looking vein now. Of course as soon as I got the IV in, I had to go to the bathroom. Unhook all the wires - 2 from the IV, 1 from the baby heart-rate monitor and 1 from the contraction monitor and make the trip. Kellen helped with all the cords and I said as soon as I got all hooked back up, he could go get the bags. All of a sudden the contractions started getting worse, much more painful (still all low in my belly) and probably 1-2 minutes apart. I started having a rough time breathing through them. I was sitting in the bathroom and told Kellen to just go get the bags. I'm so glad now he didn't. I was bleeding and got really nervous. With Kellen's help, I made it back to the bed and Hollie was no where to be found. Kellen said that she had to take her lunch break and another nurse was ready to help. I pushed the call button and told them I was bleeding. It seemed like right away I had to go to the bathroom again. On the way there, I told Kellen to get someone in here. Another nurse came to the bathroom and said that the bleeding was normal, the baby was coming soon. She said that I needed to definitely let her know if I felt pressure or the need to push. Well I definitely had pressure, told her that and she said we needed to get back in the bed and she would check me. I was at 10cm, already!
All of a sudden to room went into action. Tons of nurses came in to get the bed ready, I didn't think I was going to make it. I kept telling Kellen that I couldn't do it and it hurt bad. He was the BEST birthing partner. He kept reassuring me that I was already doing it, I was going to make it, getting me ice chips, rubbing my legs and keeping me cooled off. I couldn't have done it without him. I am extremely thankful to have him as my husband and as Ainsley's dad. As the contractions got stronger I kept getting hotter and hotter. The heart rate and contraction monitor felt tighter and tighter and I was annoyed with everything on me. My nurse came back from her lunch break and nurses were everywhere changing the labor bed into a delivery bed and covering everything with blue tarp looking blankets. They called the doctor and everyone kept asking how long she would be. Delivery was moving fast so they called the on-call back up doctor. My body started pushing before there was a doctor in the room. The nurses kept saying not too push but my body was pushing, not me.
After a couple of contractions of pushing, the back up doctor made it to the room. He gave me oxygen (guess I was looking a little pale) and checked me again. FYI, checking during a contraction, not fun. Finally they let me push. Five minutes later the real doctor finally arrived and quickly subbed in. Supposedly I have a narrow pelvis, so I had to hold behind my knees to push. I think I probably pushed for a half hour. Pushing was fabulous after the painful contractions. It felt great to actually do something and feel like I could relax between contractions. Before I knew it, Ainsley's head was out and they were telling me not to push. Again my body pushed for me and delivering the rest of the baby was easy! She was born at 3:49am. The doctor put her on my chest right away and she started crying! She has tons of dark hair and is the most gorgeous baby I've ever seen. 8 pounds 8 ounces delivered all naturally. I had a little tear that seemed to take forever to stitch. I don't think they have a lot of deliveries without epidurals so it was difficult to get the area numb to stitch up. Kellen watched as the nurses cleaned our perfect baby and held her until I was done.
The whole birthing experience was a whirlwind of events. I went from 4cm dilated to holding a baby in about 2 hours. Crazy.
My dad had just got off of work and him and my mom were in the waiting room anxiously awaiting a text update. Kellen hadn't had a chance since 2:07am to text them anything. While I was finally holding Ainsley after they were done stitching, Hollie said there were some visitors that wanted to come back, did I want them to? My parents thought that we were in for a long night and hoping to break up some of the contraction monotony, little did they know they already had a grand-daughter! We said no, no visitors until we get to the recovery room.
Kellen's parents were also anxiously awaiting our call that we were actually admitted and staying at the hospital. There was an ice storm in their home town in Illinois so they did not think they would leave for Memphis until the next morning. Kellen called after we had the baby and they were already on their way!
Kellen started making other phone calls spreading our good news while I got cleaned up. No one could believe it all happened so fast, us included. Hollie said that she never thought we would have the baby that night when I had walked into the hospital smiling! Thank goodness they let us stay at the hospital because I don't think we would have made it back in time! Kellen said that we wouldn't have gone home if they would have sent us away, we would have just drove around and then come back to the hospital, haha. I'm still glad we didn't have to go through that. It was a perfect quick birthing experience. We just have to make sure we are ready on the next one and make sure we get to the hospital and admitted in time!
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