Introducing Hayden Rose

The baby is here!

I was scheduled for induction on Wednesday, but Miss Hayden had other ideas (thank goodness - I wasn't hot on the idea of induction because of the greater chance of a C-section).

I awoke Monday, crampy (as usual) and feeling unwell. I got up, used the restroom, and got back into bed as it was only 6:15 a.m. I decided to time my cramps, even though they weren't contractions (I didn't have contractions with Colin, either). They were 10 minutes, then three minutes, then 12 minutes, then eight minutes apart. Hubby got up, and when he came back to bed, I was nearly in tears. I said, "I just don't feel well... I'm so tired of this!" He said, "Don't worry - it will be over soon."

Just seconds later, as I was sitting there, I felt this huge scraping feeling up inside - I swear I could practically hear it. I thought that was weird. Then, about a minute later - a gush of amniotic fluid! I jumped out of bed and said, "Matt - my water broke - call your mom!" He's like, "WHAT????" I said, "Call your mom! Call your mom!" I knew that it would take her about 45 minutes to get to our house - and the doctor had told me, "Don't wait for your water to break to come to the hospital, because things could go quickly after that... just call when your contractions are eight to 10 minutes apart."

Considering that, once again, I didn't have straight-up, traditional contractions, I didn't know that I was in labor until my water broke!

So I was gushing everywhere, and Matt was getting last-minute things together, and Colin woke up (of course). He wanted breakfast (of course). So I wrapped a towel around myself and walked him to the kitchen. I served him cereal ("Barbara's, Cheerios, and big milk, Mommy.") and tried not to focus on my discomfort, while PRAYING that Janine would hurry up and get over to the house.

Colin wanted seconds, but I was feeling so poorly, I told him, "Mommy's not feeling well right now, so you'll have to wait for Daddy." He looked at me, seriously, and said, "Go to hospital - get baby sister - feel better?"

Wow.

Then I started feeling even worse, so Matt called his mom. "Mom, where are you??????" Turned out she made a WRONG TURN. She has been to our house thousands of times in the last five years, and she made a WRONG TURN. Nerves! So I got in the car, started doing some directed breathing (I think!) and clutched the door handle for dear life.

Janine pulled up while Matt was pacing at the door of the garage, trying to watch Colin in the kitchen and me in the car to make sure I wasn't giving birth in the front seat. (He kept saying, "If my mom's not here in five minutes, we're taking Colin to the hospital with us!" And why didn't we have a neighbor watch Colin while we raced out of there, you might ask? Because our neighbors to the right had left for work, and the neighbors to the left weren't answering their phones or door, although they seemed to be home! ARGH!)

Then, of course, there was tons of traffic, so I told Matt, "Put on your hazards, cut people off, I DON'T CARE - JUST GET ME TO THE HOSPITAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

By the time I was checked in Labor and Delivery - about an hour after my water broke - I was already at 5 cm.

I got an epidural that was uneven, leaving me still writhing in pain. My left leg ended up numb, while I had rib pain on the left side, abdominal pain on the right, and searing pain (worse-than-my-worst-sciatica-day) through my right butt cheek. The nurse told me to lay on my right side to try to even it out, which ended up helping somewhat, though much whimpering was involved.

Matt and the nurse monitored my contractions, and I saw the nurse's surprise registered in her eyebrows. "You poor dear - your uterus is staying pretty much constantly contracted - I could say that you're contracting every minute or so, but your uterus is pretty much staying hard all of the time!"

Really!

Two hours after I checked in, the nurse said, "Do you feel any pressure?" I did, so she checked me out. She said, "Oh my goodness, the baby's head is right there. I need to call the doctor."

Five minutes later, the doctor arrived. I suddenly felt very serene and calm. I said, "Just tell me when to push, because I can't tell when I'm having a contraction."

The first two pushes, I kind of forgot anything I learned when I had Colin. (As Matt later chided me, "You totally half-assed those first two pushes!") By the third push, it all came back to me. The doctor said, "Okay, we really need to get her out now. Give me one more good push."

The fourth push was the charm, and Hayden Rose was born.