1AM I woke up with what seemed to be mild cramps that seemed to come and go every ten minutes or so. I tried to go back to sleep but by 1:30 they had grown a little bit stronger and were only five minutes apart. I decided to get up and walk around the house. Secretly I was hoping that these were contractions so I knew that walking around get things rolling. Or at least I was hoping they would. As I was walking around I had downloaded an app on my iphone that helped me keep track of each contraction. By 3:30am, I was having them close to every 3-5 mins so I decided to wake up my husband and tell him we needed to go to the hospital.
3:30AM By the time we had gotten in the car and arrived at the hospital my "cramps" were stronger than before and come to find out were most definitely contractions. I was admitted into triage were they monitored my contractions for an hour or so. They also had check to see if I was dilated at all when I first arrived. And I was only at a 2!!!!! "That's it!?" I kept thinking to myself. "How can I be having these contractions that seemed to be strong enough to me and ONLY be dilated at a 2." The hour went on and the nurse came back to check my dilation one more time......still at a 2. She had told me that because I hadn't moved along at all that they would have to send me home and I was only to come back if my water breaks or I start bleeding. I was shocked to say the least. How can she tell me to only come back if those things happen when I can't even go to sleep or do anything for that matter because my contractions were starting to become unbearable?!
6AM We drove home and I was in complete tears. I was in so much pain & heart broken that they had sent me home. My husband tried to comfort and calm me down, which wasn't really working. So he suggested we try to get some sleep since we were both lacking it. I tried to go back to bed, which he succeeded at, while I just lay there. Only able to fall asleep for ten minutes or so and then to be woken up with painful contractions. Much more painful than what I had been experiencing all morning. This continued on for another hour. Falling asleep for ten minutes, wake up to go through pain for 2 or so minutes and fall back asleep. My contractions finally stopped long enough so I could at least have 30 minutes of uninterrupted sleep. But boy, after those blissful thirty-minutes of sleep, I woke up with horrid contractions. They were so painful I had to try my hardest to get up out of bed because standing seemed to be the only comfortable position to withstand what was going on. If I thought I was having painful contractions earlier, than these were the Katrina of all contractions. I couldn't speak, I couldn't sit down, I couldn't even cry, I just had to stand there, barely hunched over and try to take in the pain. I remember this happening for ten minutes of and on until my husband realized that I mean busy this time. My dear husband not knowing what to do or how to console me, asked his mother if there was anything he could do to help me. Once his mom heard of how much pain i was in, she quickly grabbed her purse and told him that it's time to go back to the hospital.
9AM Attempting to get checked-in for the second time around even though I could hardly tell the nurses and staff what my name was. I was admitted once again into triage and had to wait at least another hour until I knew what my fate was going to be for the rest of the day. Surprisingly that hour went by faster than the previous time. The nurse came in and checked my dilation and told me I was at a 3! Goodness, that was a bittersweet moment. I was only at a freaking three, but that meant my body was progressing!!!! So they called the Dr and he agreed to admit me to Labor & Delivery!
11AM They moved us into our own room and got me hooked up to the good stuff. Aka, my epidural. Once that happened, I felt like I was on cloud 9. But also felt real drugged and loopy. So throughout the day, I kept trying to take a nap but wanted to be apart of the party happening in my room. Which really wasn't a party, but people kept coming in and I wanted to be apart of any and all conversations. But goodness, the more I fought taking a nap, the more hungry I got. Thankfully my family was there to sneak some food into my system because little did I know I would be waiting to eat for a long time.
4PM The nurses would come in every hour or so to check my dilation and without no avail, I was not progressing. I was still only at a 3. So they hooked me up to pitocin, which is to help get things moving. They also had told me my water felt like it was ready to pop any minute.
5PM Just casually sitting and talking with my husband when out of no where, I hear and felt this big rush of water! "UH, I think my water just broke!!!" And it sure did. The nurse came in to confirm that it had broken and that because it had my labor should be speeding up pretty quick. Dr. Beck came in as well just to check and see how I was doing and what was going on. He sat down and checked me just as the nurse had been doing. But he was a little bit more aggressive than the nurses. So much so, that my water popped again! HA! Sorry Dr Beck. He also ended up flipping my baby from face up to face down. Which, felt so very weird.
6PM I started to have major pressure down there.... which I knew couldn't be good. Wasn't I NOT supposed to be feeling basically anything?!? So I looked down and started wiggling my toes to see if I could now feel those too. And surprise surprise, I could feel basically everything. I kept trying to press the button which shoots more of the epidural in me. But I could still feel everything going on. The nurse checked my dilatation before leaving the room and guess what I was at a 6!!
7PM The pain which I was feeling down there was getting stronger and stronger by the hour. A different Nurse came in, which meant my nurse I had before was already done with her day. So I told this new nurse of the amount of pressure I was feeling. She told me that I needed to be feeling pressure so that when the time came, I knew when I needed to push... Listen Lady, I'll push I swear but this amount of pressure I'm feeling needs to be subsided somehow!!! The pressure was getting stronger. And as my dumb nurse didn't do anything and the pressure continued in strength, I started to cry.
8PM At this point all I remember is how much pain my body was in. This is ten times worse than anything I had experience up to this point. I told my nurse for the thousandth time that I was in excruciating pain. Which she still didn't seem to care. In fact she told me to "stop crying because she has done this three times with her kids and she never cried." Oh heck no, she did not just tell me, a 41 week pregnant girl, who has NEVER done this in her life and who is also very very emotional to stop crying?!?! I wanted to be so pissed at her. Like blacklist kind of pissed. But the pressure going on down there took over any other emotion going on inside. She decided to check me one more time. Which she seemed very annoyed at even having to do this. And yet again, tells me I'm still at a 6. "No, she's wrong. I can't be at only a 6! Not with this much pain and pressure going on, I have to be at least at an 8!" Luckily, Dr Beck came in and checked me right after she did. Next thing we know Dr Beck is saying "She's complete! Lets get ready to push!"
I was in so much relief, shock, denial, anger. I wasn't sure what to be feeling at that moment! I just remember being so mad at my nurse, thinking she was so incompetent for telling me I was only at a 6 and just a few moments later the Dr is telling me I'm at a 10! I wanted her out! But before I could say anything, everyone is telling me to push!
8:34PM After only ten minutes of pushing, our precious baby boy was born!!
Bear Van De Graaff
9 LBS 4 OZ - 21 1/2 Inches Long.
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