Brooke's Birth Story: Part Deux!

We stayed calm as we hopped in the truck and embarked,

yet again, on our way to the hospital.

I was not very hungry, but had forced a bagel down,

which I was beyond grateful that I had later on...

and Joe asked if he could stop and get breakfast at Panera.

I figured there was no rush, since nothing seemed to have changed in 

the past 48 hours, so we stopped briefly and were on our way.

Walking into the hospital during the daylight, 

it felt like a whole new place than the wee early morning hours the day before.

Everyone seemed happier,

friendlier,

and I felt a lot better this time around.

We checked into triage,

and I was still only 1cm dilated.

The nurses and midwives that day were so sweet and compassionate.

They said that I was experiencing "Prodromal Labor"

and they weren't sure why some people go through it,

but for some reason, something was fighting my body in its natural process of giving birth.

They suggested I stay in another room, take some morphine and rest.

The intention was to relax myself enough, so that perhaps my body could go into labor.

If not, then we'd talk about induction,

since at that point, I was done.

I couldn't take the pain any longer.

Now, those of you who know me, know that I am a fairly natural person.

I try my best to do Organic foods, no medicines, unless really necessary 

and all throughout pregnancy, I never so much took a Tylenol for a headache.

While I did plan on an epidural,

I had never in a million years thought I'd be on morphine prior to giving birth.
However,

it's 2013 and at this stage in the game, I was desperate. 

Around 10:00 am I was administered the medicine,

and I laid in a bed, while my husband sat next to me.

I was sort of in and out of a sleep, but never really fell into a deep sleep.

My contractions had slowed down and weren't so painful and I finally felt somewhat at ease.

Joe had a small cough and kept waking me up, so around noon he said he'd go home,

let our dogs out and let me get some sleep, since that was most important.

He kissed me goodbye,

got no further than the elevators,

and my water broke.

I quickly picked up my cell phone with one hand

and the hit the Nurse's call button with the other,

and couldn't help but think, they couldn't let me home now!

Joe came back in through the door and was so excited.

I tried to explain, it was most likely a fairly long road until we meet our sweet baby,

but yes, this was it!

The doctor came in and I was already dilated to 3-4 cm.

I was elated.

They walked me to my birthing suite,

and in I settled for the stay.

My first two nurses were absolutely amazing and I am so thankful

for them through the majority of my early stages of labor.

They told me that I was the "star of the show" and the only one giving birth that day!

Ironically enough, that was around noon...

by midnight, the hospital was full of women giving birth.

There weren't any vacant rooms,

and left and right women were having their babies well before I had mine.

{granted, they already had kids, so it wasn't their first childbirth}

The cause of the rush of pregnant women going into labor?
The nurses said since the weather was changing from cold to warm,

the barometric pressure drops...

and for some odd reason, it causes more women's waters to break.

Interesting?!

I didn't get much rest in between all of the Residents, Med students, nurses,

doctors, midwives coming in every other minute to check on me. 

  Our families started arriving 

and we could only have a total of 4 people in the room at a time.

I will be honest, and most of the day is a bit blurry.

I was in and out of sleep,

still a little groggy from the morphine,

and just so tired.

At one point they brought me a tray of liquids and I do recall being very excited over that!
Chicken broth, tea, juice, popsicles...

I received my epidural, and didn't feel a thing when the Dr. administered it.

I used the bathroom once more after that,

and then I had to get a catheter, which I did not enjoy.

I really did not want to receive Pitocin,

but it got to the point where I was not dilating past 4cm and after much discussion,

the Dr highly suggested that we get it and so I did.

It did make me dilate, and it caused the contractions to get a bit wacky.

Fortunately it didn't get out of control and I was able to deliver vaginally and not C-section.

Later into the night between 11-12:30 it was sort of like a mini party

{oddly enough}

but I had my phone playing Pandora {Jack Johnson station}

and my dad would watch the monitor and let me know in 10 seconds when my

next contraction would be coming.

I will admit, I thought the epidural would have made all the pain go away,

but I still had to breathe through each and every contraction.

The pressure you feel with an epidural is immense;

I cannot imagine those who go natural.

Bravo ladies; I commend you.

When this song came on Pandora:

I started crying and my husband even got a little teary eyed,

as it was 'our song for Brooke' when we first discovered we were pregnant.

I was so nervous I'd miscarry or something would happen,

and Joe was nervous to become a daddy,

but we'd play this song and know that
every little thing's gonna be alright...

 {NOTE: we still play this almost daily, 

as the overwhelming responsibilities of being a new mommy and daddy can be quite a lot!!}

We loved the song so much,

Joe played it again on you tube

and even the nurse got excited and started prepping for the birth of our baby girl.

She told us to get the movie Shark Tale or something??
Apparently this song is in it--

I need to look into that.

The Dr came in shortly thereafter around 1am

and checked me one final time.

I was at last,

10cm.

She said it was time to do some "practice pushing"

P.S. I don't think there is such a thing as practice pushing...