Since everyone keeps asking me what happened, I thought I would post the events leading up to Will’s birth.

Surprise!

I went to the doctor last Tuesday for my 37 week checkup. I went with a list of my pregnancy complaints. I generally was feeling like, well for lack of a better word, shit. Most I knew were from being pregnant, but I still wanted to complain. He checked Will’s heartbeat and then checked me. I was 1 – 2 cm dilated and had dropped. However, you can be that and still go for another 3 weeks, so I thought nothing of it. We went home and ate supper (it was around 7 pm by then). Around 11 pm, I went to the bathroom and noticed that I was spotting. I also was contracting, but it was not regular. You are not suppose to go to the hospital until your contractions are 5 minutes apart for about an hour. I woke Bill up and told him what was going on. I stayed up till midnight and then decided to go to bed. Bill woke me up about 6 am the next morning to see if he should go to work. I was like “sure”. I wasn’t contracting. However, I was still spotting. That I did not think was right. However, my obgyn’s office did not open until 9, so I just sat around and waited.

I ended up getting a phone call and did not get a chance to call until 9:30 that morning. They told me that I had to head over to labor and delivery right away. Of course, I blew this off. I figured they would monitor me for a bit and then send me home. Little did I know what was about to come. First, Bill was not going to leave work. He wanted me to call once I got to the hospital and let him know what was going on. I then called Bill’s mom and told her I needed a ride to the hospital. While we were waiting, I started packing a bag for Madison. Since we had 3 weeks, I had not done that yet. Heck, I didn’t have a bag packed for me either. When I called Bill back and told him his mom was on the way, he told me that he was leaving work and meeting me at the hospital.

The Hospital

Once I got to the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitors. I was only there about 30 minutes before Bill got there. They then did an exam and that was the beginning on it. After the exam, I started contracting about every 2 – 3 minutes. I was still only dilated 1 – 2 cm. They said they were going to watch me for about an hour and then decide what to do. Well, one hour went by and nobody came back. We ended up sitting there about 3 hours. They checked me again and I was 2 -3 cm, and most likely I was just in the early stages of labor and would be sent home. This was about 4 in the afternoon. I was starving, so we were discussing where we should go get dinner when the nurse came back in with a hospital bracelet. We were like “what??!!??” That’s how we found out we were staying. They hooked an IV up and a pitocin drip. At this point, I asked for my epidural.

The Epidural

After asking, it did not take too long to get my drugs. Unfortunately, it took them 2 tries to get it in. Let me tell you, that hurt. While they were doing their second try, the nurses started asking Bill if he was okay. Ummm, am I not the one contracting and having a baby here? Nobody asked how I was doing. Looking back, it is kinda funny, but it annoyed the hell out of me at the time. Once they got it working, I felt great. It was weird though. When I had my epidural with Madison, I could not feel anything from the waist down. With Will, I could move my legs and feet. They were a bit heavy but still movable.

My blood pressure also went pretty low, so the kept pumping me full of ephiderine (at least, that’s what I think it was).

The Birth

Around 7 pm, a birthing room opened up, and I was moved out of my labor room. At 8 pm, they came in and broke my water and hooked him up to an internal fetal monitor. Before they broke my water, I think I was still sitting at 3 cm. Around 11 pm, half of my epidural quit working. Yes, only half. Extreme pain on my left side; nothing on the right. It was weird. Amazingly, all they had to do was move the cathider in my back around a little, and it worked again. At midnight, I was up to 9 cm. I guess that is remarkably fast dilation. At midnight, they had me start pushing even though I was only 9 cm (they had me do the same with Madison too).

At 12:58 am, Will was born. I remember laying there waiting for him to cry. Even though it was only 30 seconds, it seemed like an eternity. He was 18 inches long. He also was 6 lbs 12 oz. I am afraid to see what he would have been if I wouldn’t have been 3 weeks early!!

If you just made it through all that, here are some pics.