The week before I delivered, my family came to visit. I was so huge I was miserable moving around, but I kept trying to get labor started. We went on a couple walks as a family, and Micah and I tried ALL the other recommended labor inducing theories. Nothing seemed to be working, I didn't even have contractions besides my normal braxton hicks. My family planned on leaving to head home at 6 am on Sunday Nov 25 , so in a last attempt at inducing labor I drake 2 spoonfuls of castor oil at noon on Saturday. YUCK! The oil didn't work the way I wanted it to, I just had to go to the bathroom a lot....LOL. That night we stayed up talking and playing games, and went to bed at 10:30.
At midnight I was awakened with very strong contractions, already 4 minutes apart. I had two contractions before I woke up Micah. He told me we would continue timing them for 7 or 8 more contractions and then head to the hospital. I downloaded an app on my phone to time them, and after only 4 more contractions we realized we needed to start getting our hospital bag. I let my mom know we were headed in, and we took off to the hospital around 12:45. I could have killed Micah on the drive there, he drove sooo SLOW!!! Normally I am nagging him to slow down, but in that moment I wanted him to hurry! I was so worried we wouldn't get there in time (even though we only live 5 min away).
Thankfully I was pre-admitted, so they got me up right away. By the time we got me hooked up with the monitors and they finished asking me questions, my contractions had gotten closer together, and I was really starting to struggle with the pain. It caused me to throw up about 5 times because of the pain. At 2:35 they officially admitted me to the hospital and we sent out our texts to our friends and family. My mom arrived quickly after.
I was only dilated to a 2 and I was 80% effaced, so I thought I had a ways to go. Boy was I wrong! My contractions started to peak, only go down a little, and then peak again. No resting time in between. So I started to dilate quickly. I warned the nurses, my mom would dilate to a 4 and then jump to a 10, so they kept a close eye on me. I did the same thing as my mom. Thankfully they got the epidural for me, and also enough antibiotics for the Strep B so Lucy wouldn't get sick, before I delivered.
I pushed for only an hour before Lucy was born. Because of the epidural, I couldn't move my left leg, but unfortunately I could feel a lot of it because the machine that is supposed to allow me to press the button and release more meds wasn't working. By the time they caught the problem it was time to push. At first I was shaking uncontrollably, but the oddest thing happened when I actually did push, I stopped shaking. I felt good. It feels like a dream, probably because I had my eyes closed for a lot of it. I was trying to focus and I was so tired that I couldn't use any energy on my eyes. lol.
The moment she was born I felt this amazing sense of relief and emotions run through me. I began crying, and I found Micah and so was he. I just wanted to hold my baby girl, and know that she was healthy and ok. It was amazing that first feeling of holding her, I couldn't stop crying and looking at her. She was born at 6:52 am, 8 lbs, 20 inches. I was so overwhelmed it felt very surreal, but I was very happy.
Have a great day! ~Meghan
