The Labor Story

Well Margaux arrived 2 days late, but it worked out the way it was meant to.

Her due date came and went on that Saturday. I was uncomfortable but Matt and I got out and ran errands to keep me moving around. But on Sunday night I started having contractions that I noticed (and knew what they were) around 9:30, but honestly they didn't hurt so I could have been having them all day for all I knew. Then around 10:00 they started to hurt a little. They were about 3-5 minutes apart, and I would tap my foot through them. Other signs of labor showed up and I told Matt that it was happening. I was very excited to have the process start on its own. At my last doctor's appointment the Wednesday before I had not made any more progress in about two weeks. I was still between 1 and 2 cm dilated and 60 % effaced. I had been that way for 2 weeks with no change. We decided to give her the weekend and scheduled an induction for that coming Wednesday the 21^st.

About 11:00 pm Sunday night I told Matt, due to how close they were, we should probably make the 45 minute drive to the hospital to have things checked out. I'd never had a baby before and I had no idea how "intense" contractions were supposed to be. But I did know that close together might be something we should not ignore. We got there and they watched me for a few hours and at 2 o'clock Monday morning told me I was in early labor, but that it could last anywhere from 6-12 hours and that since my water had not broken I could go home if I wanted to and try to get some rest. I opted for home and they sent me with an ambien (apparently safe for baby, but I was skeptical and only took half) to help me sleep and relax while having contractions. It worked and I slept for 3 and half hours before the contractions woke me up. I monitored them, labored at home, called the family, and at 11:00 Monday morning told Matt we were going back to the hospital. They were still 3-5 minutes apart and hurt quite a bit more.

We got to the hospital about 12 noon and things really kicked into gear then. I was 100 % effaced and dilated to 3. At 12:30 the doctor came in checked me and broke my water to get things going. He said we would have a baby by dinner time. He started me on pitocin to regulate the contractions. Man did the contractions hurt after that. At 1:30 I got my epidural. At 2:00 they checked me again and I had dilated to 5 cm. One of the nurses noticed that I was grimacing and asked if I still felt any pain. I told her I could feel something sharp in my bottom. They thought that I probably needed more epidural because I was so tall (my feet were hanging off the bed). But before they upped the meds they checked to see if I had progressed any, this was at 2:45. The nurse looked and said I was ready. Seriously I went from 5cm to 10cm in 45 minutes. I pushed for about 20 minutes and we had a baby. I could not believe how fast it all happened. We arrived at the hospital around noon, just a husband and wife. About three hours later we were a family, with baby Margaux joining us at 3:10 pm on Monday the 19th.

Matt was the only family member in the delivery room with me. He was so good and completely exhilarated by the whole experience. He watched the whole thing and was so amazed. He saw her red hair before she was even out. As soon as her head was out, he started crying and telling me how beautiful she was. He was one proud Daddy. I didn't cry till I heard her cry.

A few hours later I had a bleeding problem that took a lot out of me and required extra meds and the epidural and IV to be left in till the next morning. They also kept me in labor and delivery longer. They weren't sure if it was a clot, a failure to clot, or a piece of the placenta still in my uterus causing the problems, but I bled out quite a bit. My blood pressure dropped, I got really sleepy, and I began to shiver and shake uncontrollably. Anyhow they took care of me and everything got under control with no other problems.

It's hard to believe this all happened 3 weeks ago. It feels like just yesterday, I was rubbing my belly.