Saturday December 17th started out like any other. . . oh wait no no it did not. I had been having bracston hicks on and off for a while but that morning they felt different and they were happening more offten. I told Ben I thought I was in labor. We got ready and went to the hospital up to the labor and delivery level. A nurse hooked me up to the machine to monitor my contractions and my babys heart beat. The nurse said that we would wait 20 minutes to see how it looked and then she would come back and check on us.
Ben and I sat and watched the monitor. Everytime I cringed the line spiked! We were getting excited! The nurse came back and said that it indeed looked like I was in labor but that my contractions were still too far apart. She said go do your last minute Christmas shopping because she thought we would be back that night. Sure enough she was right!
Later that day we went to dinner with my parents at Shoots in the riverbottoms. We had Bens phone out and were timing my contractions. I was having them 6-8 minutes apart. It was more annoying than anything really because I just wanted them to be bad enough to have the baby. They had been like that all day and no matter what I did, they just stayed the same. After dinner we went home and I bounced on a excersize ball and was doing laps around our house! Ben was laughing but I needed the contractions to get bad enough that we could go have this baby! At about 2 a.m. Sunday morning we decided we would try and sleep. Yeah that was a joke! We laid down and every 5 minutes I sat up in pain. The contractions were now so painful I knew I was in labor and that we should get to the hospital.
We went to the hospital and the security guard said well by the looks of it your not here to visit. We laughed and said nope were here to have a baby! We got in the elevator and man we were excited! When we got to the labor and delivery floor they again hooked me up the the machines. The nurse said yep you are in labor let me go call the on call doctor and see what she would like us to do. She then came back and then it seemed like everything was happening super fast!
They took us to our room. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me my epidural. I got a catheter and an IV. Then we just played the waiting game. They gave me some patosine to speed things up!
The on call doctor was Dr. Clowerd. She came in around 10 am and checked me. She said that Tanners head was starting to swell already and that I would need to listen to her very carefully during the process of pushing in the hours to come. She said "when I say push you push when I say don't push you don't push". Talk about scarying the life out of me. She said she would be back in the afternoon to check on my progress.
We called our parents at this time to let them know that we were at the hospital and were going to be having this baby! (We waited because we figured no need to wake them up at 2 am when they can wait tell 10 ish) My mom was there for most of the day. . . she was so sweet! My dad came in and out most of the day as well. Got to love parents!
In the next coming hours we played more of the waiting game. Then the nurse said I was dilated to a 10 and that it was time to start pushing. I worked with the nurse and Ben helped hold my legs and I pushed. I pushed like I had never pushed before. I pushed for 3 hours and man I was exhausted. There was a moment when the nurse put oxygen on me and had me roll from side to side because the Tanners heart beat was struggling. At one point they had to put a monitor inside me to monitor Tanner better. It was at that time when the nurse called out the door for some help and to get someone from NICU. I was starting to panic because it seemed like everything was suddenly wrong.
The doctor came in and said that there was a small piece of my cirvix acting like a flap on Tanners head. When I pushed it would move and we were good but when I relaxed it would flop back. Because of that reason she didn't feel comfortable using forceps. She said that Tanners head had swollen more, and that it was getting pretty serious we needed to get the baby out. The doctor and nurses were going to go prep the O.R. and Ben needed to hurry and get in the starilized clothes cause this was happening fast.
The feelings I had were mixed. I was scared. I had my dad and Ben give me a quick blessing. Ben said a few words and we were all crying.
Then we were rushed to the O.R.. We had a video camera but they had us turn it off during the c-section. As soon as Tanner takes another good nap I will be telling all about the C-section!
It is funny looking back on these pictures because I remember feeling huge but man it looks like I could be on Shallow Hal in a fat suit!
