Because I know everyone will be fascinated by these details....
It was Wednesday, March 28th and I was 11 days overdue. Officially the most overdue I have ever been (Felicity was 10 days late). I had never gone into labor on my own, and I was not expecting to this time around. I had a busy morning cleaning and organizing the house - I actually got a ton done and am now very grateful to myself! Around noon I started to feel contractions...I kind of ignored them for a while because I didn't want to get my hopes up...and I knew there was
no way I would go into labor by myself. After a while I noticed they were very regular and so I timed them - they were consistently 5 minutes apart. Still I kept busy and kept making supper, although I was starting to question if I would be there that night to eat it. After about an hour I texted Shane, who was at school, to tell him I was having contractions...but not to worry. And no, he didn't need to come home. They were still very mild...I was still cleaning and making supper. Another hour passed and I decided I should probably text my mom, so she could be prepared to come pick up the girls if need be. By this time they were 3 or 4 minutes apart, but only lasting 30 seconds. My mom said she would come right away. "Take your time!" I told her...not wanting her to come all this way for nothing. I then decided to put the supper away, since I was starting to think that this
might be the real thing (still I couldn't believe it!!) and clean up the kitchen. By the time my mom arrived, I was having to breathe through the contractions, and they were 3 minutes apart. I texted Shane to leave class and come home. He arrived, and we left for the hospital. We got there around 3:30. The nurse checked me and I was 4 cm. After getting my IV started (I had to have antibiotics because I was GBS positive), I walked around for half an hour, stopping every two minutes to breathe through contractions. Then I had to go sit on the heart rate monitor for 20 minutes, after which I hopped in the tub! It was very soothing at first, but quickly the contractions strengthened and I
really had to breathe through them. The nurse checked on me quite often, saying she didn't trust a woman having her third child, and she especially didn't trust me (since I was so calm and collected without pain meds...haha ..she kept asking Shane "Is she always this happy in labor?"). I was glad of this because I knew with Maria and Felicity things went very quickly at the end. I stayed in the tub til around 8, when the nurse came to tell me the OB was ready to break my water. "I think this baby will be born by midnight" she said.... I was slightly disheartened by this comment, since the contractions were very intense by this point and I was feeling some pressure, but I also knew that she was probably very wrong and it would be over soon (since that was how it went the other two times). I made it back to the room, they checked me and said I was 8 cm, broke my water and said the baby would be born in 20 minutes probably. Shane said "I think it'll be 5 minutes". I had a couple contractions with a ton of pressure, and told them I needed to push. Within two minutes I had dilated fully and with four pushes little William was out! The BEST feeling in the world. But then the fun part came. With most people the placenta just comes out within a few minutes. When I had Maria it didn't come out, and I had to be taken to the OR to have it manually removed. But with Felicity it came out normally. This time of course, it didn't come out....and the OB checked and said it was still fully attached. It is normal for it take up to half an hour to detach, so we waited and she checked again and said it was now partially attached. Instead of sending me to the OR, which would take a couple of hours at least and I would have to be put to sleep, she said "You're a tough girl, so I'm going to try to rip it out right now". They gave me laughing gas, which doesn't take the pain away, it just makes you feel drunk. The pain was unbearable and I yelled for them to stop. So they put some fentanyl in my IV, which took some of the pain away. And so she ripped out that placenta...I'm not sure if this pain was worse than labour, or it was just the fact that the baby was already out and so the pain was
supposed to be over! But I'm glad I didn't have to go to the OR. They then stitched me up and sent us on our merry way. We then spent a lovely two nights in a ward room with some very obnoxious people who did not know how to be quiet or courteous. We heard their whole life stories and then some. What a relief it was to go home on Friday morning! (with both girls we had to stay 4 + nights because of jaundice.....most awful thing ever!!)
In conclusion, I have to say everything went pretty well, it was only about 8 hours in length and I made it through! But labour is also by far the hardest thing I have ever endured. However, I just have to look at the faces of my three sweet children and without a doubt can say that they are worth every contraction a million times over. A mere 8 hours of intense pain compared with the countless hours of joy little William has already brought me? When put in perspective labour really isn't that bad then...but it still majorly sucks when you're going through it!...haha
