Much of the first days highlights are things I posted about in the August thread or in a thread of their own, but I wanted it all together for my own records so I can remember the signs for next time, if there is one.
August 9th, 2012: I had my 39 week appointment which showed no progress on the dilation front from my 38 weeks appointment, though my cervix was just a bit softer and at 60% effaced. Another membrane sweep was done, but the 48 hours following it were uneventful, so it did not work again.
Monday, August 13th, my due date, came and passed with absolutely no activity. I even told DH that day I had run laps throughout the house playing with my dogs and that I didn't feel pregnant one bit, much less due. This comment is what I now refer to as my mistake.
Tuesday, August 14th I woke up in the wee early hours of the morning with contractions that came out of nowhere and were at 2-3 minutes apart for 3 hours. By the time 5am rolled around, DH told me to make the call for him to get ready for work as planned or if I wanted to go to the hospital. For some reason I just knew these weren't the real deal and they'd go away and sure enough, within 30 minutes of him saying that, they were becoming irregular. The contractions were entirely gone by noon that day, but had been sporadic until then.
Wednesday, August 15th started out normal. I was having some sporadic contractions again and I even posted on here asking for advice. I was 110% sure they were braxton hicks because they were coming at all the times my BH normally acted up (full bladder, changing positions, etc) and I had read everywhere that BH didn't turn into real labor contractions. These contractions were very painful though and felt like the ones I had Tuesday, which I was sure were real contractions. Not really sure why I refused to believe they were real this day, looking back on it.
At any rate, I took the advice some of you offered and called in to L&D, I never updated that post because I was livid, I was an emotional wreck from exhaustion, I was mad at my body, etc. I called at about 2:45pm and after I spent 20 minutes on the phone answering questions that I'm sure are helpful at determining if someone off of 16 and pregnant is in labor, my patience was running very thin. I explained to her that although the contractions were very irregular, they were bad enough that I couldn't walk or talk through them and I had to focus on breathing. After all was said and done? She didn't even want me to come in and be looked over and her advice was to take a tylenol and sleep the contractions off.
Around 6pm the contractions went from being one every hour, if I was lucky, to showing an obvious trend in ramping up. By 8pm I was in bed, clinging to DH's arm and breathing through the contractions and about to crawl up a wall. DH was begging me to just go to L&D since he knew how mad I was about the response I got on the phone because what I was obviously going through wasn't normal to not be in labor. I refused, of course.
This went on for about 3 more hours while DH timed them and they progressed into an obvious trend. At about 11:15pm they were 5-6 minutes apart so I got in the shower just in case, with no real intention of going to L&D, mostly just to keep DH off my back. I was sure they'd fizzle off, or that same nurse would just tell me I was due for another tylenol dose. By the time my shower was over, the contractions had dropped to 4-5 minutes apart and I couldn't deny things were happening anymore, so we called L&D and just told them we were on our way, didn't ask for any opinions. We got there at about midnight and contractions were 2 minutes apart already. I was checked at this point also and was already 7cm dilated and the nurse said I was easily stretched to an 8 and fully effaced. She was a little panicked that things were moving so fast because the doctor and anesthesiologist live off base and had to be called in and they had 30 minutes to get there. Thankfully, they both showed up very quickly and I got an epidural at this point, not because I couldn't handle a couple more centimeters of contractions, but because I was terrified of pushing.
After the epidural was in, the doctor broke my water since it was bulging and not going on its own and I immediately went to 8/9cm dilated. They decided since I was exhausted (and obviously so, hello two black eyes!) from not getting any sleep from the last two days of prelabor, they were just going to put me in the princess position on the bed and just let Ava drop on her own time since there was no need to rush to push and she was only at a +1 (I think) and allow me to get whatever rest I could. I did this for probably two hours before I started feeling lots of pressure and they checked me again - I was ready to go! They had me do a couple pushes for practice since I was a FTM and obviously had no idea what I was doing. The doctor left the nurses in charge and said he'd be back in 2 hours as he didn't expect me to be ready before then. Don't underestimate a sleepy, panicked pregnant lady. Panicked? Because I told them I could feel the epidural creeping up my legs and I could feel my butt already. They assured me this was a good thing and I'd feel just enough to push effectively, I wasn't sold. Probably 30 minutes in, I guess I was feeling enough that I got scared and stopped dilly dallying and found what worked for me pushing wise cause the nurse said "whoa, okay, stop! She's coming, let me get the doctor!", since the epidural was officially gone at this point, my body was taking over and the contractions were pushing for me, I couldn't stop them despite what she requested, lol. I tried to resist them, but my body just coiled up and did it anyway. Doctor showed up quickly after and maybe another 5 pushes later, Ava came flying out. It took 5 cause when I felt her crown, I was pretty sure I was going to push her back in and ask to leave the hospital. I'm very much a suffer in silence person, but I guarantee you that if anyone else was in L&D that night, they heard me. After realizing my escape plan wasn't an option, I realized there was only one other option: she actually had to come out of that tiny opening that was on fire. I clenched my eyes and pulled the sheet they had strung over a bar for me and pushed with every bit of might I had left in me and she came out in the 3 pushes I got from the contraction. It was kind of a blur after that, apparently DH cut her cord, but I have zero recollection of that. Before I realized what had happened, she was on my chest and being wiped off. Holy stinkin' cow, I had a baby! And for the record, as I typed this, I asked DH what direction she came out and sure enough, she was face up as I suspected she had pulled off again.
I'm still not really sure what they mean by she was in shock, but she wasn't wanting to perk up after coming out, so they finished wiping her off and took her over to the scales and stuff and just stimulated her a bunch to get her going. After they assured me she was fine the 500 times I asked, the doctor started to stitch up my tears. I think this is where I realized he didn't believe my epidural had worn off cause I jumped when he poked me. Hi, hello, I feel that. He seemed genuinely surprised, but assured me that since my tear was minor (he called it a superficial 2nd degree), it would take as many pokes to stitch it up as it would to poke me with a numbing needle and to pick my punishment. I told him to just stitch me. I'm pretty sure there were at least 100 stitches when all was said and done, but I might be exaggerating.
He also found another small tear on the inside of a lip and apologized cause there'd be more pokes, doh! Upon looking at my stitches (I don't recommend this!), I wouldn't want to see a worse tear. Between the stitches and swelling, I was (and still am) the proud new owner of a Frankengina.
To end my lovely story with just more proof the epidural was gone, I asked to pee as soon as the doctor was done cause my bladder was about to bust. A different nurse insisted I couldn't walk yet, I begged to differ and she was going to help me to the potty. Yeah, I didn't need help. She did have to clean the crime scene path I left on the floor on my sprint to the toilet though.
Ava Kay was born August 16 at 5:40am, weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces, 20" long.
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Ava Kay's birth story (complete w/ pictures!)
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10/29/11
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