Since my labor was continuous over the course of a week, this post is an extension of "Crazy Contractions".
Thursday, March 24: I called my doctor's office first thing in the morning. Dr. Stoltz was not going to be in the office on Friday and I wanted to see her to get some answers about what was going on with this whole crazy situation. She was able to see me at 1:20, so in the meantime I ate some spicy pepper jack cheese with crackers, and vacuumed the house hoping to keep my contractions going. Josh came home around lunchtime so that he could go to the appointment with me (with hopes that Dr. Stoltz would say, "Follow me over to the hospital so that we can deliver this baby!") As we arrived at the Dr.'s office, everything just stopped once again. Dr. Stoltz checked me and I was now up to 6 centimeters dilated. She tried to get things moving with a "vigorous" check, and encouraged Josh and I to take a nice long walk and come back in an hour. Since the weather was really nice, we went to a nearby park and walked around the reservoir a couple of times. After being checked the second time, nothing had progressed, so I was sent home. Ugg!
Friday, March 25: At 1:00 in the morning, my contractions started to really get strong, so I started preparing to go to the hospital. I didn't want them to send me home again, so I really toughed it out for as long as I could. At about 3:00 the contractions were bearable, but I knew this baby was coming. We headed to the hospital. Once we were there, the triage doctor checked me and I was still just 6 centimeters dilated. Then I made the mistake of telling them that I was dilated to a 6 in the doctor's office today. So they told me that I needed to get up and walk around for about an hour and then come back and get checked again. I think I made it through 2 contractions and we headed back to the triage room. Once we got back I was begging for some painkillers. They told me that I needed to wait until I was fully admitted into the hospital. I was in so much pain, that I'm sure the nurse felt sorry for me, so she called the doctor back in to check me again. In that short 20 minutes I went from 6 centimeters to 9 centimeters dilated. They finally admitted me at about 4:30. On our way to the delivery room, I started to vomit from the pain. Therefore, I was begging for the epidural. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist was busy giving another woman an epidural. They kept telling me that he was on his way. Come to find out he was having some difficulty with the other patient. Meanwhile, Josh was doing a phenomenal job coaching me through every contraction. At about 5:00 the anesthesiologist made it into my room. By the time he got through all of his consent and risk jargon and got the epidural in it was 5:30. Then the doctor came in and did one last check, broke my water, and suited up for the big event. We didn't bring in any bags since we weren't sure if they were going to send me home or not, so I had to hold off on pushing while Josh ran out to the car to get the camera. Once Josh got back, I pushed through 5 contractions and our beautiful baby boy was born at 6:06 am! As with Kyler, I had Josh announce the sex of the baby to me. "It's a boy!" he said with such excitement! Once they laid Blake on my chest I had forgotten about the excruciating pain that I had just experienced. He is perfect!
Since he was a whole 2 pounds smaller than Kyler, it was a lot less traumatic on me. I felt pretty good!
Saturday, March 26: Blake had been monitored for the required 24 hours and all looks good! He had an APGAR score of 9 both times, his heart rate was very stable, body temperature was great, made it through the circumcision, passed his hearing test, therefore he was cleared to go home. Early in the morning, my doctor came in to check on me. I was feeling so good that she and many of the nurses had commented that it seemed as though I didn't even give birth a day ago. My doctor said that I could stay another day if I felt like I needed it, but I didn't so we opted to go home. We were on our way before noon!
Getting ready to go home!
Blake's first car ride!
Debbie also does an annual field trip to Plumb Farm to see all of the baby animals. I was fortunate enough to attend this year.
All of these events have made for an extra special Springtime!
