Rewind - Labor Story

February 24th - 12:38 am . . . . I thought I was having a dream . . . some pains were included in this dream, but I still didn't think it was labor. I got up and used the bathroom (my 1st since we went to sleep at 10:00 that night) and the pains continued and were different than I had ever had before. They were pretty severe. I went back to get my cell phone and figure out the time between these pains. They were about 4 minutes apart. All along, the doctor had said to come to the hospital when the contractions were 5 minutes apart and you had timed them for an hour. My first thought was "Holy Crap!" I just woke up and we're already beyond that point. I yelled for Rob to get up and that I thought I was in labor. He timed the next contraction and they were 3 minutes apart . . . . yikes! So, we decided to head ASAP to the hospital. We quickly tried to pack what was left to pack for the hospital (although I couldn't focus on what I needed due to the pain). We made it to the hospital at about 1:11am. I told Rob to park in the front . . . little did I know the ER was completely in the back . . . we proceeded to walk with our bags all the way around (I stopped and just about died with each contraction, but some how made it).

When we arrived at the ER, I remember them wanting me to sign some papers and I wasn't sure I could even do that. We tried to use a wheel chair to go up to Labor & Delivery, but Rob said I got to impatient with it and decided to walk. By this time the contractions were about every 2 minutes.

I told Rob to walk into L&D shouting "Epidural!" He did that as soon as we walked in and they said wait a second there, we need to evaluate her and see if we're even going to keep her. I said no worries, I'm pretty sure you will be keeping me. They examined me and I was almost 8cms dilated. They about flipped . . . one nurse said "Well you sure weren't walking like you were 8cms." I wasn't sure what that meant. They started getting the room ready for the delivery of RJ and said he'd be coming at any time (I think it was like 2:30 am at this point). I cried saying that I really wanted an epidural. They said oh but you did most the hard work already at home. What work I thought? I had slept and then woke up to what I thought was a dream . . . that was it. They tried to talk me out of an epidural and I seriously considered it (they said RJ would be born within an hour or 2 without the epidural), but decided to have them call the anaesthesiologist to see what he said. He decided to come to the hospital. I think it was mainly because RJ's station was still zero and he had not moved down the birth canal yet.

Just when I thought I was about to die I was getting the epidural and things went from terribly bleak to pretty darn good. They decided to let RJ "labor down" (come down the birth canal naturally) while we took a couple hour nap. The doctor was called in a little after 7 am. I pushed for about 15-20 minutes and our little guy decided to join us at 7:54 am.

So, to recap - epidurals rule!! I'm very thankful that I made the decision that I did. Rob and I had barely had 2 hours of sleep before I went into labor. The epidural allowed us to get a little more rest in before the arrival of our little man which allowed us to enjoy the moment even more. I am very thankful for modern medicine and the option to utilize it! I'm certainly a fan of the epidural!