A Year Ago Today!

April 4, 2011 My last pregnancy photo!

      Last year at this time I was calling my husband to take me to the hospital for the delivery of our son. I would love to tell you a dramatic story about contractions or my water breaking but none of that happened. I guess I should start at the beginning. Two days earlier I woke up and knew that my water had not broken and I had not wet my pants, but I was somewhere in between. So I called the doctor and was told to go to the hospital ( I could not believe this, I was in tears, I was not ready). After about three hours at the hospital it was determined that my water had not broken and I was to go back home!
     Fast forward two days, I was in the kitchen getting ready to go to my non-stress test and my dog was freaking out at me. Keep in mind I had been leaking fluid for two days. So I decided to try the little strip that doctor had given me at the hospital ( the doctor gave me a a little slip to test the fluid to determine if it was amniotic fluid so we didn't have more false alarms), the strip immediately changed color. So off to the hospital! I was excited this time, I had been having a lot of low back pain.
    I had been getting ready to eat breakfast when all of this drama occurred, but I poured it out because our birth class said it was not a good idea to eat during labor, BIG MISTAKE! It is not a good idea to eat during active labor, I was not having any contractions, and once you get to the hospital they only give you ice pops.
   At the hospital I was checked again and again the doctor did not believe my water had broken. Instead they decided that I had a high leak that started on Saturday, so I was staying. I got into bed and the started pitocin. This was fine I was feeling great. To give you a timeline it is a about 9:30 AM on April 4, 2011. I spent the rest of the morning relaxing and wishing I ate breakfast.  Around 1:00 PM they decided to break my water and that was when I thought I would die.
  At that at time I was ready for the room to be empty, I wanted to see no one. I decided it was important for all parties involved that I get my epidural. Once that occurred life was good again. I spent the afternoon and evening in good spirits. I was no longer in pain but I was hungry. I did not start to get grumpy until about 9:00 PM,  I felt like the labor was going no where. I was 3 cm when I got to the hospital and I may have been about 6 cm around this time.

My sister and her husband.

   I believe I finally hit 10 cm around midnight but they wanted to give me another hour so the baby would be lower in the birth canal. Finally, at around 1:30 AM I was allowed to start pushing. It was a miracle or so I thought. After about two hours of pushing I no longer thought the pushing was a miracle. I was just wondering if I would ever see my baby. We had been through several episodes of American Pickers, and there was nothing on TV at this point ( I had a wonderful epidural I was not in pain so we were watching TV in between contractions). I do remember my nurse telling me that if the baby did not come in the next hour, we may have to look at some interventions. It was 3:30 AM, I knew that this baby was not coming through my pushing, so I basically watched time tick away for the last hour. Finally, around 4:20 AM the doctor came in and he was going to try and use the vacuum to help me get the baby out. At 4:39 AM Joseph was born at 7lbs 13.6oz.
     This was the most challenging day of my life and I would not change a minute of it! Check back tomorrow for picture of Joe from then and now!