The Munchkin

August 14, 2013 I entered the wonderful world of motherhood.  I know a lot of people really like birth stories, so here's mine:

My due date was August 10, and I thought for sure I would have the baby early since a lot of women in my family had their babies early, but as the weeks got closer I wasn't so sure that would happen anymore.  It got harder and harder to go to the doctor and hear him say that nothing was happening, we even set up an induction date for August 20 since there was no sign that I would go into labor on my own.

My plan was to work until I had the baby, so as August 12 (the Monday after my due date) rolled around, I was very distraught.  I wasn't supposed to be at work, I was supposed to have a baby!  Well, turns out that I didn't go to work.  Early in the morning I started having contractions and didn't sleep for about half the night.  The contractions stopped around 5 in the morning, but I decided to stay home in case they started again.  They didn't.  The same thing happened the next night/morning.  Contractions for half the night, then stopped around 5.

The next night was different.  I started having mild contractions around 7 pm, but nothing too bad or regular 'til around 9 or 10.  I couldn't sleep, mostly from being uncomfortable and anxious I think.  Around 1 in the morning, I noticed that the contractions were coming about every 5 min and would last for at least a minute, sometimes longer.  They were also very intense.  I didn't want to jump to conclusions and wake Ryan up cause this happened the night before, too, so I waited for an hour to make sure they weren't going to start getting farther apart.  They didn't, so I woke Ryan up.  We waited a little longer to make sure that the contractions were sticking since the hospital was in Riverton and we were in West Valley; we didn't want to get there and be turned away.

After getting checked into the hospital and shown to a triage room, the nurse explained that they would check me and monitor my contractions for an hour, and then check me again.  After getting me hooked up to the computer, she checked.  I was at a 6 and 80% effaced!  I was so happy!  After hearing at each doctor's appointment that nothing was going on, out of nowhere I was already more than halfway there!  The nurse was shocked; she told me she didn't think I could be in labor because I looked too happy when I walked in.  Needless to say, they did not monitor my contractions for an hour, I was immediately shown to a labor and delivery room.

I was one of those ladies who said, "I see how long I can go without an epidural so that labor can progress faster."  That didn't last long.  Before we even left for the hospital I had decided there was no way I could do it without pain killers.  So the anesthesiologist came just minutes after getting set up in my room (I was the only one in labor at the time, so that was nice :) ).  Even with the pain gone, I still didn't get any sleep though; I think I was too nervous and anxious to sleep, plus it was hard to get comfortable with all the cords and what not.

Around 7 the nurse checked to see how far I had progressed before calling my doctor.  I was still at a 6.  The doctor said to hook me up to pitocin.  By this time, my epidural was running out, but the nurse didn't believe me.  The pain wasn't too bad, so I just went with it.  The doctor came in around 8:30 to check how things were progressing.  I was at a 10 and fully effaced!  The only thing was that the baby was still a little high to start pushing.  He broke my water and said he'd come back in about an hour. 

Well around that time, my epidural bag ran out.  Once my water was broken, the pain got really intense!  They called the anesthesiologist back so that I could have a large dose of drugs quickly while the new bag started working.  The weird thing is, the drugs never fully kicked in.  I could still feel the contractions, but the pain was bearable, so it was okay.  Turns out it was a good thing that I could feel the contractions, though, because they were having a hard time getting the monitor to work right, but since I could feel the contractions I could let them know when I was having one so I could push the baby out!

The munchkin debuted at 10:37 am on August 14, 2013.  She weighed 8 lb 3 oz and was 20" long. 

The last month as been one big roller coaster, but I think things are starting to level out a bit as everyone gets used to each other.  I'm happy to say that everyone is still alive and injury free!

Laura