A Labor Story

While I was not sure about sharing this story- I know that I have loved reading all your labor stories, so I thought, why not?

Lets start by saying this: It was definitely easy, but I would not say it was necessarily pleasant.

but first, allow me to back track:
At 29 weeks pregnant, I woke up having consistent contractions. 3 minutes apart for 3 hours. DJ and our good friend Lee gave me a blessing to calm me down and give me counsel. I really felt comforted that I would be okay. So I went to sleep, and they went away. I promised my mom and DJ that if it happened again, I would go to the hospital. 2 weeks later, it did. Eli had strep, so DJ stayed home with the kids and my sweet friend Amy took me to the hospital. As soon as they got me hooked up to the machines I had 2 contractions, then they stopped. THEN at 35 weeks I had stronger contractions for 9 hours. Went to the hospital and I was not dilated, so they sent me home- contractions lasted 26 hours then stopped.

moral? even if you have had two children already, you may not know what labor is. Every pregnancy is different.

Here is what ended up happening. Two weeks before Tanner's due date, we went for a long walk. I had jokingly (but still hopeful) said that we were going to walk me into labor. We came home, put the kids to bed and I lye on the couch with NO CONTRACTIONS. I rolled over and felt a gush. I thought, "Did my water just break?" So I stood up and more came out.... and more.... (get the picture?---sorry)
We had had friends set up to stay with the kids and we quickly put our plan into effect. DJ and I headed to the car where my water continued to leak all over the front of the seat of his new landcruiser. (don't worry, he luckily found a sham-wow that my dad had conveniently left in the back. And is excited to announce that the sham-wow really works!) On the way to the hospital DJ called to have someone meet me outside with a wheel chair. I got into the wheelchair and by now I had fluid down to my knees in my jeans. The man wheeled me inside through the waiting room. There were people staring and giggling, so I asked, "Does it look like I wet me pants?" Of course they laughed and said yes. I later found out that the fluid was not only obviously all over me and the wheel chair, it was leaking off of the wheel chair onto the waiting room floor.
I got all set up in the delivery rom and continued for over and hour without any contractions. I was hoping that they would give me an epidural before contractions (hee hee), but no such luck. I was only at 2 1/3 cm dilated when the contractions started, and they immediately started hurting pretty badly. We decided to start with pain medication in my I.V. to take the "edge off" (bull)- they said it usually will make people itchy, so they added benedryll. .... WHOA!!!!...
As soon as they put it into my I.V., I felt s cold rush go up my arm, my mouth tasted like metal, and my head got foggy. Then the walls started moving around and the room got cloudy-- and apparently I started acting funny, saying weird things, making weird faces.... and from then on I don't remember much.
I do remember telling the nurse that the pain medication was not working and that my contractions were still hurting. When I was at 4 cm, they gave me an epidural. I also only vaguely remember this. "arch like a cat then don't move," he said. When he left, I remember still feeling a lot of pain and was very drugged and acting out of it and strange. I remember telling them the epidural was not working several times and finally the listened and came to add more pain medication. They then told me to roll on my other side and within a minute I went numb and fell dead asleep.
All of the sudden I woke up, unable to open my eyes and felt immense pressure- t reached for the nurses call button "I have to push!" - the nurse couldn't find the doctor, but came into check me and I was more than 10 cm dilated and that baby was ready to come out. Without the doctor there, the nurse yelled for help and in came more nurses. 3 pushes - i thought I was still working on this baby's head-- head more and there was a baby on my belly, and I was so confused because I didn't realize he had come out. The doctor came in as the feet were coming out. He did not have time to put his "booties" on over his shoes, so he got afterbirth all over his shoes and said several time "these are leather yuck!". My thoughts: "you knew you were coming to deliver a baby- you are an OV- why did you wear leather shoes?" He did calm down and changed his attitued, then delivered the placenta and finished up.
Right after Tanner was delivered, they nurse pulled the pain meds and epidural and all of the sudden the fog in my head cleared and I realized what had just happened. I was a mother again, and I just did an amazing thing. Then I stated shaking uncontrollably from head to toe from the medicine and the adrenaline of the experience. About an hour later the shaking stopped and I was able to calm down enough to hold our sweet baby boy.
Labor time: 9:30 P.M. to 3:16 am. 3 labors- never a tear or an episiotomy. All under 9 hours. All epidurals took to my body. So they have all been relatively easy. The one thing I would have changed about this- was not to get the first pain medication, but all-in-all, we have a healthy baby and a healthy mommy and thats what really counts!

Mom and baby are still doing well! Tanner is such an easy baby! Eats, sleep, poop, snuggle, look around, sleep, sleep, sleep. Thanks for all your thoughts and love!

Just minutes old

9 days old