I woke up a little before 4:30 AM on Wednesday August 28th with what felt like a bad menstrual cramp. I had heard labor compared to that, so I wondered if I might be starting labor. The 28th was my exact due date so I thought that it would be pretty neat if this actually was the day. I had just been talking to Brianne, one of my best friends, the day before about how I should have the baby on the due date because that's unique and because it was her birthday. I was thinking about that early Wednesday morning and getting excited thinking it might be the day and I would get to tell her. Samuel kind of woke up around that time and I told him I might be in labor but to try to get some sleep until I knew. I thought I would try to get some sleep as well while I could so that I would be well rested for labor but realized a couple minutes later that there were was no way that was going to happen as I experienced a contraction. I had been a little bit nervous about how to know when my contractions were close enough that I should go to the hospital since I hadn't had contractions I could really time before that point. I kept reassuring myself that when real labor came I would know because it would be a lot more intense. My doctor told me I wouldn't be able to sleep through real labor and it was definitely true.
So I got out of bed, grabbed Samuel's iPad and went out to the family room. I had downloaded a free app that was a contraction timer and so I started using that to see where I was at. I knew I was supposed to call my doctor when my contractions were about 5 minutes apart, lasted for about a minute, and had been going for at least an hour. My contractions were already about 5 minutes apart and a minute long so I was just waiting to see if they would keep up. I just played games on the iPad and kept counting contractions. I was hungry and ate a granola bar, but around 6 AM I threw it up.
Samuel woke up when he heard me throwing up and came to check on me. We both showered and got ready for the day, but it was really hard for me to do because my contractions were getting closer and closer together (about 2-3 minutes apart) and I was starting to feel them in my back as well as my abdomen. It's really hard to get ready when you have to stop every couple minutes for a painful contraction.
I called the doctor's office answering service about 6:30 AM and the doctor got back to me a little before 7 AM. He told me to go to the hospital. He said I did not need to super rush, but to be there within the hour. Samuel needed to get something from school so he was going to drive there real fast and then come back and get me to go to the hospital. It took him way longer than normal to get to school and back though because he got stuck in traffic and there was an accident slowing things down. My contractions were getting worse and I threw up again. When he got back he gave me a quick blessing and then we headed off to the hospital around 7:40 AM.
The drive to the hospital was the worst part of it all because we got stuck in rush hour traffic and my contractions really picked up in intensity. They were coming every like 2.5 minutes and lasting for a minute each. I felt them in my abdomen and back and down into my upper legs. It took like 40 minutes to get to the hospital and it probably didn't help the pain that I was kind of stressing about it taking so long and not getting there when the doctor said to be there by. I'm sure some of the cars next to us could guess that I was in labor when we were in stand still traffic and they could see me squirming and grimacing and grabbing Samuel's hand.
Finally around 8:20 AM we got to the hospital. My doctor happened to be there doing his rounds at that time so he was able to check me himself. He told me that I was 5 to 6 cm dilated. The nurse got me all set up with everything, asked me lots of questions, and helped me through the contractions while we waited for the epidural.
I got my epidural around 10 AM and felt way better right away. I was 7 cm dilated at that point. I just rested for a while after that and waited for things to progress. When I was 9 cm dilated my water broke. I was really calm and relaxed during this time and was just reading, playing games on Samuel's iPad, etc. I was super hungry since I hadn't eaten anything except that granola bar at the very beginning of the day which I had thrown up, but there was nothing I could do about that since I wasn't allowed to eat.
Around 3 PM they said I was fully dilated and effaced, but that I just needed to 'labor down' until I felt the urge to push. The doctor said if I started pushing too soon I would just wear myself out. So there was more waiting for us. I still felt really good, but we were starting to feel a little impatient too, just wanting to move on to the next stage and start pushing. Around 3:40 PM I started pushing. Every time I had a contraction the nurse would have me take a deep breath, hold it for 10 seconds while pushing, and then let it out and repeat the process two more times. The nurse said I was doing it right and that I was making progress, but it still took a really long time to get the head out because I was so tight. The nurse told me she could see lots of dark hair on his head and that was exciting and encouraging. I had to keep pushing for about 2.5 hours so I was starting to get pretty tired towards the end, and a little impatient. The doctor did a little cut towards the end of my pushing so that I wouldn't tear. Once the head came through everything else came through right away. It was kind of a surreal feeling as I felt this physical and emotional relief as I felt the baby come out and I knew that I had done it. He was born at 6:17 PM. He weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 20.5 inches long.
Since the nurse had seen a little bit of meconium in the fluids while I was pushing they had the NICU come in to the room and take the baby as soon as he was born so they could check him out and make sure everything was okay. The NICU said everything looked fine and then I was finally able to hold him. Samuel and I noticed really early on how alert and attentive he was. He kept looking around at everything and his eyes were wide open taking it all in.
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Around 7:30 PM I breastfed him for the first time and it was going well until the nurse noticed that he was breathing really fast and she was concerned about it. She had the NICU come look at him. I got to eat dinner (finally!) and then I was moved to the postpartum floor. The NICU deliberated about whether he was just having a slow time transitioning with his breathing or whether there could be a bigger problem. They were going to keep him in the nursery for observation, but then when the problem didn't stop decided to take him to the NICU unit for observation. Samuel was really tired and had a headache since he hadn't been sleeping well the nights before so he went home to sleep that night. After he had already left is when they told me our baby was going to stay in the NICU. The NICU nurses didn't seem to be too concerned though and still thought it was just a transition thing since everything else was totally fine, so I was never too worried about him. They took x-rays of his chest and everything looked normal. His breathing was also starting to slow down. So around midnight they took me to the NICU so I could breastfeed him. Around 1 AM when they took me back I was finally able to try to get some sleep, but I couldn't sleep for more than like an hour without waking up from pain. After getting some pain medicine and going to the bathroom and feeding him again around 3 or 4 AM I felt better and was finally able to get a couple hours of sleep until they brought him back to me to feed again around 8 AM.
My whole hospital stay went really well and I really liked the hospital and all their staff. The other women in our ward here who have delivered at that hospital call it a 'spaspital' and I completely agree. They had a huge menu of yummy food I could order whenever I wanted and all the staff were so nice and helpful. It's pretty easy for me to accept help when people offer it, but it's kind of hard for me to ask for help, because I don't like being needy. So while being there I had to get used to asking for help and it was probably good practice for me.
Before our little guy was born we were deciding between two names and we were going to wait until he was born until we decided for sure. On Thursday we decided on Harrison Ned Price. Harrison just seemed to fit him so much better than our other name in terms of looks and personality and everything. The Harrison in his name is after Samuel Harrison Smith and the Ned is a Price family name (it is Samuel's middle name, his dad's middle name, and his grandpa's middle name).
On Friday we went home from the hospital. We are figuring things out and loving spending time with our little Harrison!
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