The birth story.

I will take a (now) rare moment of peace and quiet to share the details of how Henry came into this world.  The story really begins on Friday, July 19th.  I had been going to the OB weekly for several weeks and had been "progressing" for a while.  Without going into too many gross details, my cervix was pretty dilated, indicating I was possibly ready to go into labor at any moment.  Knowing this, JP and I became convinced that Henry wanted out.  We began talking about our various options.  Due to a lot of various reasons, we were really wanting Henry to deliver early, prior to July 31st.  We had been given the option of inducing on July 24th, but I wasn't crazy about the idea.

So...this past week, I had several shifts at work, that were beginning to get a little more uncomfortable.  JP and I were talking about what day we would want Henry to come if we could choose.  Friday the 19th was my day off, so that became Operation: Come on, Henry day.  On the list for the day were various old wives' tales for ways to bring on labor.  The plan for the day included pineapple, a walk that turned into a jog, and spicy Thai food.  We completed our checklist, but I really didn't feel all that different...darn.  We went for dinner and fro-yo with some friends, and still, nothing.  Later that night, I had a couple of strange little crampy sensations throughout the night while getting up every few hours to pee.  (This got ridiculous in the last few weeks).  Although I was sure I WASN'T going into labor, I also felt like things were just different.  

[Insert pause to feed a VERY demanding Henry.  Seriously, he does this Gremlin thing where he gets frantic while he's feeding...it's the funniest thing.]

Saturday morning I got up to go to work, and was talking with JP about what we would do if I went into labor that day.  Again, I just had a funny feeling that I still can't really explain.  JP drove me to work, just in case.  I got to work, and thankfully, while it was steady, it was not crazy busy.  I started having some light cramping in the morning, mixed in with my usual Braxton Hicks contractions.  These started getting a little more uncomfortable around lunch time.  The red flag for me was that I had to force my lunch down.  I really kinda felt sick to my stomach, and the idea of food was pretty terrible.  This was really unusual, especially for these last few weeks, where my appetite had been huge.  I decided to call the answering service for my doctor and she instructed me to count all of my contractions and give her a call back.  I sat down for a few minutes and timed them, and they were coming every 5 minutes like clockwork.  I called JP to come get me and off we went to the hospital.  At this point, these contractions were still not painful, at all.  On the way to the hospital, we didn't call anyone, because I was sure I was going to be sent home and told that I was in "false labor."

We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors and observed me for around 2 hours.  Although I wasn't progressively dilating, my contractions were getting closer together (2-4 minutes) and were now becoming painful.  By around 6:30 pm, the contractions were painful, but nothing I couldn't handle.  My L&D nurse encouraged me to go ahead and get my epidural (which I'm so thankful for.)  It took almost two hours for me to go through the process of getting the epidural.  Over these next two hours, the contractions were still coming every 2-4 minutes and were getting increasingly more painful.  It took almost all of my energy and concentration to deal with the pain.  The anesthesiologist came to do my epidural, and honestly, the whole process took maybe 4 minutes.  I instantly felt relief, and this wonderful warm, tingling sensation in my legs.  I was confident in my decision to get an epidural before delivery, but now, I know it was the best decision for me.  Seriously, I loved it.  Almost immediately, the ob came and broke my water, and then I slept for the next two hours.  While I was sleeping and not feeling a thing, I was having contractions about every 2-3 minutes and had fully dilated.  About 11 pm, the L&D nurse called the ob to come and deliver me.  I began pushing at 11:18.  Thanks to the epidural, this process was not painful, just required a lot of concentration.  I couldn't really feel my legs or lower abdomen, so I couldn't really feel if I was pushing.  Henry came QUICK.  He was officially born at 11:54, which means I pushed for 34 minutes.  Not bad for a first baby.  

Here's Henry right after delivery:

So cute.  

That's it for now, I'll write again soon to give an update on the first few days at home.  Yay Henry's here!