Part 1: Pre-Labor (Graphic Level: TMI)
Part 2: Labor (Graphic Level: Low)
Part 3: Delivery (Graphic Level: Eww)
Part 4: Recovery (Graphic Level: TMI)
Part 1
Baby L's due date was official 18-Aug, so of course when the date came and went there was a measure of disappointment and anticipation for both G and me. I had been working from our apartment rather than going into the office because by this point I wasn't sleeping well, my whole body ached, my feet were swelling...all the typical late pregnancy symptoms that make going into the office uncomfortable. We went to see my doctor on Saturday, 19-Aug and she said everything looks fine and normal, Baby L is not too big, come back in 4 days. When I scheduled my appointment, the hospital staff even joked with me, "is she even going to last that long?". My response was "who knows?!?"
I worked from home on Sunday, 20-Aug and at this point, it was almost a little awkward. I'd handed off most of my duties to my backfills, so the only remaining tasks I had were some low priority administrative things and knocking off some initiatives on my "like to have" list vs my "need to have list". That evening, G had his twice weekly basketball game from 8-10pm, and I hung out on the sofa catching up on the show Suits. Around 9:30pm, I had my first noticeable contraction - it was kind of weird, and I wasn't 100% sure it was a contraction. It started in my lower belly and rolled up my whole abdomen until my womb felt hard as if I were doing crunches. It didn't particularly hurt, but it was somewhat uncomfortable. I quickly downloaded a contraction counter app to see if it was maybe a false alarm and I texted G.
Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, it happened again. G asked if he should come home, I told him probably not - at 30 miuntes apart, we probably aren't going anywhere any time soon. I started to feel excited and bumped around the apartment packing up things and preparing to go to the hospital in the morning. G got home around 10:30pm, showered, and I told him he should get some sleep. I was counting contractions around 10-15 min apart and the hospital had instructed us to come in when the contractions were consistently less than 10 min apart for longer 45 seconds each.
I couldn't sleep, I was so excited. My contractions were getting closer and closer together for longer periods of time. Some were just uncomfortable, some caused me to need to sit down and take a breath, some were fairly painful. I felt like the worst was at a pain threshold of maybe a 4, although looking back, that was definitely NOT a 4. Maybe a 3. It's interesting how subjective the scale is since it's relative to how much pain has been experienced thus far.
I woke G up at, according to him, exactly 2:27am on Monday, 21-Aug to go to the hospital. My contractions were between 3 and 7 minutes apart, and lasting around a minute each. I was bursting with excited energy, he was groggily packing up his things. We got to the hospital around 3:15am and went straight up to the assessment room. They hooked me up to a CTG machine to monitor baby's heart rate, baby's movement, and timing for contractions for 30 minutes (I have grown to hate this machine). The contractions began to slow down to 10-12 minutes apart, and the midwife evaluated my cervix as only maybe 1.5-2cm dilated. Right on the edge of being sent back home, but since there were rooms available in the maternity ward, they decided to go ahead admit us. Note, for future reference, we should have gone home.
That morning, I did 2 more rounds on the CTG machine during the wee hours, and my contractions dwindled away to maybe 30-40 minutes apart. My doctor came to assess, still only 2 cm dilated. However, the contractions were mild to moderate, so we should probably stay. Since we'd been up all night, we tried a few fitful naps throughout the day. G went home to shower and grab food since the hospital doesn't have a cafeteria - the only food outlet is a Caribou Coffee stand on the ground floor.
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| G first tries sleeping on the cot - it's not very firm, and terrible for his back and hips |
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| So then he tries sleeping on the sofa - it's too narrow for his shoulders. He just can't win! |
Around 10pm, we decided lights out and called it a night, and almost immediately, my contractions started increasing in frequency and intensity again. After about 2 hours, called the nurse to tell her, and she hooked me up to the CTG machine. This is when I started to hate this machine - it involves strapping 2 transducers to the belly using wide, tight, elastic bands. The transducers are finicky and need to be moved a lot, and every time they need to be moved, the 30-minute timer for readings start over. I was attached to a CTG for about 2 hours that night - the nurse kept trying to move me and move the transducers to get better readings. I didn't know it at the time because I didn't have any symptoms, but I believe I had developed a urinary tract infection that had reached my left kidney because laying on my left side was excruciating. The nurse kept pushing laying on the left because the bloodflow to the baby is better, so readings on baby heart rate and baby movement would be better - eventually, I started crying from the pain and G pushed the nurse off me and pulled me into a sitting position. By this time, I think the stress killed my contractions again, and the doctor who came to assess me said I was still only at 2 cm. I was so discouraged that when everyone left, I sobbed into G's shoulder that I just wanted to meet my baby girl!
The next day, we decided to walk laps around the maternity ward to try to get things moving. G held my hand and walked around circles with me, opening doors and goofing around to keep my spirits up. The nurses brought me a birthing ball to sit on and roll around. G went home again to get more snacks and clothes. Just before lunch, I had rolled around on the ball since contractions were more comfortable in that upright position. I decided to take a nap, and as I climbed into bed, my water broke! I had a contraction, felt what I thought was Baby L kicking me, but was actually the amniotic sac rupturing. We called the nurses and G gave me a big high-five. We were so exhausted, but also giddy!! After 39 hours (9:30pm Sunday night to 12:30pm Tuesday afternoon), we were finally in Labor!!!
On to Part 2: Labor (Graphic Level: Low)!
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