Here is the rest of the story!
So that am.bian helped me sleep a little, but it also gave me some pretty crazy dreams that I thought were real, but as the day went on I started to realize that it couldn't be. I woke up a lot during the night with contractions. I may have pushed the nurse button a lot, or it could have been a dream, still not sure about that. I also thought that they gave me a shot in my arm for pain that had 4 big needles go in all at once. I also told Gavin at about 7 that they were giving me mor.phine every hour into my IV bag.
I must have really hit the nurse button around 7 am because I woke up to about 6 people in the room including the doctor. Or they could have just come in from watching my monitor. The doctor was telling me things that seemed important and I was trying to focus, but also trying to think of a good time to interrupt and tell someone to wake up my husband. The doctor said that there was no holding anything off, contractions were here and baby would be coming in the next 24 hours. "Honey, wake up!" He checked me and said I was 4 cm and 100%. This doctor wasn't going to be on call anymore, but said the next doctor would be in to check on me and deliver.
Everyone left and I woke Gavin up. We made a few phone calls to our parents and to work. I had to also call my part time job and tell them, I don't think they even knew I was pregnant. Oops! I was planning to take care of that this week.
The next few hours I labored through, not even realizing that it was true labor. The nurses had mentioned my choices for meds, but I thought that was something for later, people do this for like 18 hours I've heard. I wanted to save meds for later. The most comfortable position for contractions for me was standing and bending over my bed which was put up high, then I would kind of rock side to side and Gavin would rub my back. I had a lot of back pain and they said this was probably because she was face up for awhile. My nurse and her student nurse were awesome and always checking in. The doctor was in surgery and would be in soon.
Sometime during this, a nicu nurse came in to explain their role in the birth. A nurse and respiratory specialist would be in the delivery room and ready to check baby and take baby to the nicu to see the doctor.
Around 11:30 the doctor came in to check me and I was thinking I would be about 5 or 6 cm. I was 9.5 cm! More equipment was suddenly in my room. No time for an epi.dural at this point, they said I could have a mini ep.idural (not sure if that's what it was called) or pain meds in my IV. I asked if pushing would be more painful than what I have been doing, just realizing that I have been in actual labor for hours. The doctor said some people think pushing is less painful or feel relief. At this point, a needle in my back wasn't something I wanted to do and the meds in the IV would make me feel drunk which didn't appeal to me either. I couldn't decide and look to Gavin, of course he is just in shock that I've made it this far and isn't going to decide for me. The nurse said she would go get the IV meds and I would have about 10 minutes to decide. Sounded like a plan. The doctor started getting dressed, and I was going into the bathroom again, I felt like I had to pee all the time. I had a contraction on my way and they said I had to get back in bed. They checked again and I was 10 cm and ready to push my next contraction. The doctor said to try a few pushes without the meds and I could always have them later.
Contractions came and I started pushing. I had long breaks in between contractions to rest up for more pushing (4 - 8 minutes in between). Next thing I know, it's a girl, born at 1:07 pm!
They put her on me and said to keep her crying. Gavin took pictures. All I could think, "I'm a mom and I was so grateful" After a minute or so, the nicu nurse had to take her and they did some of her checks in my room and Gavin took some more pictures. They said she weighed 5 lbs 9 oz and I was so happy she was big for being early. They took her to the nicu to see the doctor and Gavin went along for pictures.
The doctor worked on me (placenta and stitches). She used words like "amazing" and "rock star" because it went so smoothly. No one would ever describe me as tough so I can't believe I didn't need meds. I just thought, "my body wasn't made to get pregnant, but it sure was made to have babies." I said I should have counted my pushes, because it seemed so fast. The nurse went back and looked at my monitor and said it was 5 contractions, 15 pushes.
It sure wasn't how I pictured it, but it was so great and we couldn't be happier. She is our miracle and we love her so much.
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