John's Birth Story

I never posted all the details, so here it is, a month later :)

On March 10th, I went to the dr and was dilated to 3, 80% effaced. The dr stripped my membranes. That is supposed to get things going, but doesn't always work. Well, in my case it did! All day long I was crampy, but he said that would be normal. I wasn't really expecting anything to happen, especially with Thursday being my due date. I mean, who really actually has their baby on their due date??

So Wednesday I went for a few walks, went to my sisters, went to bed feeling fine. I woke up at 3:30 am with horrible cramps. They did not feel like contractions to me, because it was constant. I wasn't sure if it was from the appointment or if I just had to go to the bathroom. I tried to lay there for a while, and the pain was just so bad. I got up and went to the bathroom, walked around upstairs, tried laying back down. Brad was sleeping down on the couch that night because I had been moving around too much earlier. So I went down around 4 and told him I didn't know what was going on. His response, "Let me know if you need anything hon," as he rolled over on the couch and fell back asleep :)

I went back upstairs and the pain was just intensifying. I called for him around 5:30 and had him come upstairs to see if we could time the pain. I was having contractions about 6 minutes apart, but they still didn't feel like contractions to me. Anyways, we called the dr and she said to come in. We quick packed (luckily we had it down pat this time...remember that post about Brad and the snacks???) and got in the car around 6:30 am. At this time, the pain sort of subsided. Both of us thought it was a false alarm. We actually turned around on the way to the hospital because I felt dumb for going in and them saying, "Oh sweetie, this is not labor."

But, good thing we turned back around because when we got there at 7:00, the contractions were starting again (still not bad though). They checked me and I was dilated to 4, 90% effaced! They told me I was in active labor and they were admitting me. We were both shocked!

Things moved so fast from there. We were admitted by 7:15, checked again at 8 and I was already dilated to a 5-6. I got my epidural, and they broke my water. By 10 I was dilated to 9 and they were getting ready for me to push. I didn't really feel pain during this, just a LOT of pressure. My contractions were super short but only a minute apart, and the pressure was awful. I started pushing around 10:45 and John was born at 12:01 pm!

The staff at the hospital couldn't believe how fast my labor was. They told me that the next time I better come in the minute I feel anything!

All in all, I had a great delivery experience. I'm sure that's easier to say now that is has been a month! I know at the time I couldn't believe how much harder it was than I thought.

So there it is...I can't believe it has been a month! I feel like we are just now starting to get the hang of things. I feel better this week, it has been fun to see his little personality emerge. I took him to the post office today, so slowly but surely we are having some small outings. It feels so good to get out of the house!

Well, I am going to go wake the little man to eat. I'll post some one month pictures this weekend! Thanks for reading :)