Labor, take 2

Well, I went into what I thought was labor on Monday, September 17th after returning home from our friends home after a fun activity. I could hardly walk and I remember thinking that this is surely it. I waited a few more days and things died off a little. I began to feel more contractions on Thursday and they seemed to come every 3-5 minutes. I called the doctor on call and he told me to take it easy and try to make it to the weekend because the baby would be 4 weeks early. Friday wasn't much better, but that didn't stop me from cleaning the house from top to bottom, which I recognized as nesting so I knew the moment was not too far in the future. By Saturday evening, they were getting stronger and every 2-3 minutes. We got the go ahead from the doctor to go to the hospital for observation. We dropped Laurel off at the Nuttall's around 11:30 pm and arrived at the hospital at midnight. They hooked me up to monitors and discovered that I was 0 centimeters and pretty much not in full-blown labor. I was shocked! We walked the halls for several hours, hoping to get things moving, but nothing happened so they gave me a sleeping pill (I asked for that because I knew I wouldn't sleep with the contractions) and we headed home. We stopped off at Steak N Shake for a hamburger, because that was all we could find open at 4 am. All I remember from that drive through was the dancing hyacinth flowers I could see all over the menu . . . yes, I was experiencing a form of hallucination from the sleeping pill. I took a few bites from the burger and I don't remember anything else! Dale had to take the hamburger out of my hands as he drove home because I kept dropping it in our new car . . . oops.

I woke up on the 23rd rested and ready to go pick up Laurel from the Nuttall's. About 11 am, everything changed because my water broke. Once again, we were on our way to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital, they told me that my water was not broken . . . so, what was that supposed to mean? Did I wet my pants? No way! I assured them that I had, but they disagreed so I was back to square one, walking the halls for hours and hoping that this baby would really want to come. I was fortunate to have a great nurse who was on my side. She kept me there longer than they would have. By 4pm, I was finally a 2 and they decided that they would keep me.

I was so relieved that it was finally happening. I was only in my bed for maybe an hour or less before the nurse came in and said that Andrew's heartrate was dropping. They watched it a few more minutes and then the doctor was called in. I was only dilated to a 4 and had at least 8 more hours to go. The doctor made the decision to take me immediately in for a c-section. He didn't think that Andrew would be able to go 8 hours with increased contractions and a dropping heartrate. He said that it could be a cord issue, or something else. My doctor was called and at the hospital in 10 minutes. Next thing I know, I'm being wheeled into the OR and prepped for a c-section. It was all a little surreal. It was very different from Laurel's delivery, but there was a part of me that experienced relief because I didn't have to go through all of the labor and pushing for the next 8+ hours. Within a few minutes, Andrew was welcomed to the world. As the doctor suspected, he had a cord issue. His cord was tied in a know and then wrapped around his neck and legs. He never would have come out on his own. After cleaning him up, they placed him on my chest, and in my drugged out state, I feared I would drop him. I immediately handed this precious boy to my husband and shut my eyes. I had finally brought this long awaited boy into the world and I was exhausted!