Shelby's Labor Story

I'm going to see if the girls will let me write my labor story from Shelby's birth.  We're trying to get into a schedule, but Emma has picked up a stomach bug/cold, which always throws things off.  Plus it has been hard adjusting to the sudden lack of a 40 hour work week.  Of course, it will be just as hard to go back in a couple months. 

I'm not sure exactly how long I was in labor this time.  I had labor pains off and on for several weeks.  They were waking me up every night, but they usually stalled out.  One of my doctors suggested a Benadryl at night just to help get some sleep.  I was feeling pretty tired before I ever really began.  That Saturday evening after Thanksgiving we were out shopping, but we cut it short when several contractions had me stopping in the middle of WalMart.  (We later realized our poor shopping job since we didn't even remember the basics like milk and eggs!)  I managed to get some sleep that night, and again the contractions didn't seem consistent enough.

On Sunday morning, the contractions seemed to have an extra edge to them.  I think they were about 10 minutes apart that morning.  They were pretty painful and exhausting all day--they kept me from getting a nap--but I didn't think they were consistent enough.  I didn't want to go to the hospital just to be sent home to wait some more.  Around 5:00p.m. or 6:00p.m. I started paying more attention to the timing as the contractions became more painful and consistent, and after two hours of contractions that were five minutes apart, I decided it was time to go.  Andrew had been asking to take me to the hospital all day, so he was relieved when I finally said we should go.  I'm afraid I didn't have much energy left, but I thought maybe I could get some rest with an epidural!

Our friends, Kevin and Janine, met us at the hospital to take Emma home with them.  In triage, after monitoring my contractions for a long while, the nurse said it looked like I was in labor.  My contractions were 3 to 5 minutes apart and at least 1 minute long each (isn't that when you're supposed to go the hospital??)  She said they should be strong enough for me to make progress.  But when they checked me, I was only 2 centimeters.  They made me walk for an hour, which was not a pleasant hour when Andrew kept pushing me to walk through the contractions-- and there was no change.  So they decided to give me a big dose of Ambien and send me home to sleep because they knew I wouldn't be able to sleep without help. But first they spent another twenty minutes watching my contractions...

I was so discouraged to think that this wasn't it.  I didn't know how I was supposed to function or work until I was in labor.  The nurse suggested since the next morning was a Monday that I should wait and go into my doctor's office to see if I made any progress.  We left the hospital around 12:30a.m., and I'm sure I left an interesting slightly Ambien - induced message at work to let them know I didn't plan on coming in on Monday.  By the time we got home, I was feeling pretty fuzzy.  Since Emma was already asleep, we decided to leave her with our friends and hopefully get some rest ourselves.

Even with the Ambien, I was constantly waking up, though it felt like I was in an alternate reality.  That stuff was wicked.....and I still don't really know what all I did because I know I got up and went to the bathroom and kitchen several times, but it was a blur.  Finally at 6:00a.m. I was no longer able to sleep--and this stuff was supposed to last 8 hours!  I was cleaning up the bathroom...and I was not completely lucid yet or I'd have realized we needed to go back to the hospital.  From what I can remember now, I'm pretty sure my water broke sometime during the night.  I feel kind of stupid now, but I think I was cleaning up my water that morning.

I was trying to let Andrew sleep a little longer and wait for the office to open at 8:00a.m., but by 7:00a.m., I couldn't stand to wait any longer, and I called my on-call doctor.  The doctor who delivered Emma happened to be the one on-call, and I loved him with Emma's birth.  When he called me back he didn't even talk to me except to tell me to go straight back to the hospital. 

We took our time leaving since we didn't really know what to expect with another trip to the hospital.  I took a shower and tried to relax, but nothing was easing those contractions.  As we were walking outside to my car to leave, I realized my water was broken.  On the way, we timed my contractions to be only three minutes apart; Andrew was judging them by every time I had a death grip on his hand.  The hospital is about 30 minutes away from our home--we're used to the drive to South Bend, but this one was a long ride. 

At the hospital, Andrew drove up to the door, jumped out and grabbed a wheelchair for me so he could drop me off at the registration desk while he parked the car.  They were ready for me at the front desk, thanks to my doctor.  The lady at the registration desk asked if Andrew was coming back, and I joked that of course he was or he'd be dead if he abandoned me...and she responded that she has seen it happen.  That's a sad thought.

Ok, and on a dumb note, when I told her I also suspected my water was broken, she relayed the info back to triage, and they asked her on the phone if it looked like my water had broken...did they expect her to see a puddle?  Alright, so I'm not too fond of those triage people..=)

This time in triage, my labor and delivery nurse came in and said we were skipping the triage process.  Yay!  Love my doctor!  She did a quick check, confirmed my water was broken and I was at 5 or 6 centimeters, and she predicted we'd have a baby before too long! But I was thinking a couple hours at this point.

She took me to my room where she had a nurse already setting everything up and ready to immediately put in my IV.  I was so ready for an epidural.  They put my IV on through a contraction, and my doctor arrived.  Then the next contraction made me want to jump up from the bed. I grabbed Andrew and, according to Andrew, I said, "I want to push, get her out, get her out."  The doctor checked me, said I was ready and it was too late for my epidural.  Of course, I didn't care about that anymore!  The doctor said I could push if I wanted to, and Andrew was a little worried since he was the only one right there until they could catch up.  Ha..they couldn't even track my contractions yet, so they just went by when I was pushing.

I don't think it was more than 10 to 15 minutes before Shelby was born. Compared to Emma, Shelby was just a little squeaker. And she was definitely another keeper. :) I apologized for yelling afterward, but everyone insists I was not screaming.  Maybe it was in my head!  Everything happened so fast that I think I started shivering from shock when we were done.  There were a couple phone calls that I don't remember....another to my poor work!  I know that Andrew started texting family after 8:45a.m. to say we were at the hospital, and then at 9:31a.m. Shelby was born!  My mom was getting ready to rush up to the hospital--about a 2 hour drive--to then learn Shelby came so that she could take more time and leave to come up with her husband, Mike, to meet us in my mom and baby room.

I hadn't planned on a natural birth, but I'm proud that I did it and I've now had that experience.  And now I can also say it's true---pitocin makes the contractions a lot worse.  I think the difference is that I didn't have a break between contractions when I had pitocin with Emma.

Shelby is such an easy, laid back baby.  Emma always had a temper, and she would have me up every hour at night.  Shelby is already on a 3 hour schedule and hardly cries---and she rides well in the car!  I'm so glad I had Emma first!  We don't know if we'll have a third, but I could easily have a couple more babies like Shelby. 

And so far, Emma has done so well.  I really thought the jealousy could be really bad, but so far Emma loves Shelby more than anything.  The one problem we have with Emma is a new sense of separation anxiety from me.  Especially at night, so now I have to figure out how to keep her in her own bed at night.  She started this a bit before Shelby was born, but now it's really a big problem....and Emma is so stubborn that we can put her back in her bed all night long and Emma just doesn't wear out....arg..any suggestions?

Now, after several days of working on this, I'll finally post it!  I wanted to get the story right so I'll always have it recorded.  I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!