About 4 hours ago, a friend of mine had sent me a "labor concoction" which consisted of 4 oz of root beer, a scoop of ice cream and 1 oz of castor oil...ugh. Even writing it now makes my stomach hurt! With a little encouragement from my mom and sister, I downed that nasty and had been waiting for the promised labor to kick in from then on! It's a little scary to do something like that...hurrying something that you know will be insanely painful!
I hadn't been feeling good all day, just kinda blah. Our sweet friends came over to partake in my hopefully well cooked brisket, and all through dinner and dessert my back was hurting. Stared out just hurting, and by the time they left, it was killing me. They kept asking if they could help me time contractions, but I insisted they weren't contractions because it was just a constant pain, no "on and off" pain...they insisted I'd be having a baby tonight! No, no, I said, it's just back pain!
Well, they left at about 9:30 when I decided I'd have to opt out of any game playing for the evening, and by 9:45, we were on the road to the hospital. I couldn't decide if we should go or not, I mean, it's just back pain! But when I ended up on the floor on my hands and knees trying to make the pain stop, I figure it might be time to go! I mean the worst thing they can do is send me home, right? I so didn't want to be the girl they had to send home...we didn't call anyone and tell them we were on the way to the hospital, just in case.
We get to the hospital and they wheel me through the ER to the Maternal Observation floor where they check you out and decide if you get to stay or go back home. Once I got in there, the real contractions started. There were about 4 other ladies who arrived at Maternal Obs about the time I did, and things around there were freakin' slow...finally someone comes in and starts asking me all kinds of informational question...name, birth date, etc. Shouldn't they have this already? I mean, I pre-registered! And trying to stay calm and answer these dang questions in between clinging to the bed rail and writhing in pain wasn't something I was enjoying doing! The nurse is in the middle of 20 questions when she has to step out for a minute...um, don't leave me!
So I'm lying there, Jeff's holding my hand, when it feels like I just peed my pants! Really? Do I have so little bladder control? Well, obviously, it's my water breaking! At that point, the nurse had been out of the room for about 15 minutes so I send Jeff out to find someone...I mean, my water broke! Doesn't anyone want to know that?
We decide with the breaking of the water, we're probably not going home, so Jeff steps out to call the family so they can be there when Jack comes.
Meanwhile on the TV in the room is Fresh Prince of Bellaire...and what episode is on? The one where Vivian is pregnant and goes into labor! Jeff thought they might have just popped in a tape of all sitcom episodes pregnant...no, that's just ABC Family. But kinda funny!
The nurse finally comes back in, finally checks my and says, "Maybe I shouldn't have left you alone!" Oh, thanks. I'm pretty far dilated, so they wheel me up to Labor and Delivery. It's strange being on a bed, rolled down the halls of the hospital, groaning and moaning in pain. Very "ER".
We get upstairs and I'm dilated to an 8, which is pretty much when you're ready to push! The IV lady comes and puts in my IV, which hurts like heck, and gives me some kind of drug that makes me extremely sleepy. Jeff said I was sleeping in between contractions! Strange. It didn't cut the pain of the contractions, I can tell you that!
The epidural man came (love him!) and did his thing and I immediately felt so much better. Such a huge relief. Going that far into labor with out the epidural, I can tell you straight up, I will never have a labor with out it! Man, that hurt. At one point, Jeff was standing on the other side of the room trying to text people that Jack's coming tonight, and I definitely snapped my fingers at him and said, "Um, could you get over here?"
Jack was turned sideways, which made for a long bout of pushing...2 hours to be exact, but the reward for all the grunting, groaning and pushing was much worth it. He is precious, perfect, and we are so blessed. It's so surreal when they put the baby on your chest for the first time. Unbelievable.
Already in the past week, I have so many stories about Jack...his amazing ability to aim with his peepee during diaper changes, his poops on the picture lady's blanket and in Jeff's lap, his sweet sighs when he's sleeping, his funny little comb-over-looking hair...he's just amazing. Who knew you could love some one who wakes you up every few hours to nurse on your already sore boob? But man, I do!
