DISCLAIMER: This isn't too graphic, but if you are uncomfortable reading the details of childbirth, this post is not for you. Oh, and this is a very long post. I'm trying to record everything I remember because I know that over time my memory will get a little fuzzy.
Last Monday (June 27th), I spent the entire day wondering if I would go into labor. Not much different from every other day for the previous couple of weeks, but there was one difference. I was 39 weeks exactly. And with both girls, I went into labor on that day. Both times I went into labor in the evening, labored through the night, and they were both born the next day by lunchtime. I spent the entire day wondering if history would repeat itself again, but also trying not to get my hopes up--I mean really, was that possible?? Robby was convinced we would see a repeat. He sent me an email at one point during the day and said, "Let me know when your contractions start." I had a few contractions through the day, but nothing different than I'd been having for several days. And definitely nothing to write him an email about.
Well, I had Bible study that night and he had praise band practice, so we ate supper at my parents house so they could keep the girls while we were gone. That's our normal mode of operation for these Monday nights where our activities overlap. But we decided to let the girls spend the night with my parents--just in case--instead of me picking them up before I headed home. Liz told me to have my Bible study girls lay hands on my belly and pray and then push really hard to see if the baby would come out. :-) While there was no laying on of hands, one of my sweet friends did pray for patience and peace that our sweet Will would come when the time was right.
So home I went. To Robby's dismay, I was not having any contractions. The college world series was on, so Robby and I sat on the couch and he rubbed the pressure points on my feet that were supposed to induce contractions. Nothing. Finally at midnight we realized the only thing that was going to happen the next day was that both of us were going to be really tired because we'd stayed up way past our bedtime! So to bed we went.
I got up around 5:15 to make one of my many nighttime bathroom trips. After getting back in the bed, as I was dozing back to sleep I thought, "Well, I guess we made it through another night." Ha ha! About 5:30 I had a really strong contraction. But it was very low and didn't feel like the contractions I'd had with the girls. I didn't get up and within several minutes I'd had two more. They were strong enough that I was having to control my breathing and that caught Robby's attention. Whether I or his alarm had woken him up, I'm not sure, but when I told him I was having hard contractions, there was no hesitation for him. He knew it was time to go to the hospital. I told him I wanted to get up and move around and make sure this was it. So while he was showering, I dressed and continued to have contractions. Now mind you, we'd jumped the gun once, but we were also pretty antsy about getting to the hospital. There were a couple of things that had me antsy (which is why we'd jumped the gun already): (1) My doctor told me he thought I was going to go pretty quickly once in labor, I was already 3 cm dilated at my appointment 5 days previous, and we live 40 minutes from the hospital--I didn't want to have the baby on I-16, (2) I was Group B Strep positive and needed antibiotics in me for at least 4 hours before the baby was born.
Anyway, we got everything set and we're about to head out the door. The contractions were coming every few minutes and right as we were about to leave, I had one that lasted a minute and a half. It was time. Or so I thought. We got in the car and I didn't have a contraction for 9 & 1/2 minutes. I thought I was going to go crazy. Not that I wanted the pain of the contraction, but I was convinced I was imagining things. I didn't want to get to the hospital and have a repeat of not really being in labor. Being in labor is weird because you're heading to the hospital and you feel like you should be in constant pain, like if your arm was broken. But between contractions you feel just as good as any day and then BAM! it hits you again. It's the in between time where I thought I was making things up. Robby had to keep telling me that I really was having contractions. We had to run by my parents house to drop off my van since my daddy was staying with our girls for the day. As soon as I got out of the car and started moving around, the contractions returned to their more frequent rhythm. OK, good. I wasn't imagining things!
Emma was already awake when we got to my parents, so we kissed her little excited face, picked up my mama, and headed to the hospital. We got settled in the triage room in Labor & Delivery and as I laid in the bed, my contractions went from being frequent to being sporadic. In between the contractions, I felt like I was having menstrual cramps. They weren't terrible but they didn't ease up either. After about 30 minutes of monitoring me, the nurse came back to the room and told me that I wasn't having regular contractions and that I was experiencing an "irritable uterus." I tried to be nice, but I promptly told her that I had been 3 cm the previous Thursday and I was NOT leaving. (My OB told me at that appointment if I started having contractions again he wouldn't send me home, so that was the premise for my stubbornness, but the nurse wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy, and I wasn't putting up with her snottiness.) As she prepared to check me, she told me that would be a decision my physician would have to make, which made me smile to myself because I knew what that decision would be. But as it turned out, it was a moot point because when she checked me, I was almost 7 cm. I said, "See, I'm not leaving!" This was about 8:15. She left the room right after checking me, and my mama reminded me that I needed to have the antibiotic ASAP, especially if I was progressing quickly. Knowing from previous experience that the nurses like to leave you in triage for unreasonable amounts of time, I called my OB myself. I told him what was going on, to which he replied, "Oh, wow! I'll call them right now, and I'll be there soon to check on you." We were moved to a room pretty quickly after that.
Once we got settled in the room and the antibiotics were all hooked up, things slowed down for a bit. They were planning to start me on pitocin to get my uterus acting right but we had to wait until I'd had enough IV fluids. Once I'd been pumped full, they started an epidural and then the pitocin. That got my contractions really going. I had an epidural with both of my girls, and they were wonderful! However, with Abby I was so numb that I started getting anxious about it, so I asked the anesthesiologist to give me a lower dose this time. I think this one was just about perfect. I never lost complete control over my legs or my ability to shift myself in the bed. And while I did feel a little pain from a few of the contractions, it was minimal and mostly just pressure.
OK, so moving on. When I talked with my OB on the phone in triage, he said he would be in SOON. What I've learned after three babies is that SOON is relative. And SOON to me is never the same as SOON to the nurses and doctors. SOON for my OB was his lunch hour, almost 4 hours after I talked to him. I'm sure he was in contact with my L&D nurse, but he didn't come in to see me until right at noon, which was fine because there really was no need. Anyway, so he comes in and says he's going to check my progress and then break my water to get things going even more. But when he checked me, he said I was complete and ready to push! YAY! He told me at my last appointment that the Group B Strep was only a risk to the baby after my water was broken, so the fact that it was time to push and my water was still intact was a good thing--less time, less risk!
The nurses got everything set up and at 12:08 I started pushing. During the time while we were just sitting and waiting, we realized that Emma had been born at 12:03 and Abby had been born at 10:23. Since we were sticking with the tradition of having the baby 6 days early, we laughed about having him at a time that ended in 3. So right before I started pushing, we jokingly asked my OB if we could have him out by 12:23. Well, we didn't make it that far. After just 12 minutes and 3 contractions, William Franklin O'Dell was born at 12:20. We had a rough little moment right at the end because his right shoulder got stuck under my pelvic bone and the nurse had to push down on my stomach to get him through. But other than that he came right on out.
He did have the cord wrapped around his neck and he got quite a beating on the way out, so his head was very purple when I saw him the first time. But he cried immediately and was thrashing around, so I wasn't too concerned. After spending a couple of minutes with me, the nurse took him over to the warmer to check him out. My big boy weighed in at 8 lb, 8 oz. One of the reasons his face ended up being purple was because he was so big and had to fight with the birth canal to get out. Within 36 hours, his color was back to normal, though.
He checked out perfectly by the nurses right after his birth and by the pediatrician the next morning. We are so very blessed and thankful to have another healthy addition to our family. The girls are in love with their little brother and Robby & I are pretty smitten with him, too.
