A couple of friends of ours are about to welcome their first little one into the world today. This gave me the motivation to continue Caden's Birth Story. Enjoy!
We arrived at the hospital at about 2:30am. We checked into triage where I got to change into my lovely hospital gown. Before I could get my own room, they had to make sure that I was actually in labor. In this area of the hospital they have several beds separated by curtains. The nurse put me in a bed that was right next to another lady in labor. This lady was very obviously in a lot of pain. Every time she had a contraction (and maybe sometimes when she wasn't having a contraction) she would moan VERY loudly. I was having pretty painful contractions still, but they were not painful enough to make me vocalize my pain. I started to get a little freaked out. All I could think was maybe I'm not really in labor or that I just wasn't as far into labor as she was and that the pain was going to get a lot worse.
The nurse got me hooked up to the fetal monitor and the uterine contraction monitor. Hearing Caden's heartbeat made my anxiety go way down. It was now time for the nurse to check me. I was already dilated to 6cm and 70% effaced! I could not have been more relieved (especially after hearing that the lady next to me was only at 4cm). I knew that I was going to finally get to meet Caden!
We stayed in triage for a while longer so that a doctor could come talk to us. Meanwhile the lady next door just kept on moaning. I was sad for her, but she gave Blake and I a little bit of comic relief. We moved to our labor and delivery room at about 4am and got settled in. We decided that it was time to call our families and let them know that Caden was coming.
At about 4:30am the nurse came to our room to check me again. I was at 8cm and 90% effaced! The contractions were coming very fast and very hard. I had to keep telling myself that with each contraction, my body was preparing for the arrival of my sweet baby. I would not have been able to get through this part of my labor without Blake and my battery operated fan. Blake was wonderful. He fed me ice chips and helped me remember to breath. But oh that fan! That awesome fan!
I was able to sit it right in front of my face. It kept air blowing on me through each contraction. I'm not sure why but it made each contraction a lot more comfortable to get through.
My mom and sisters got to the hospital at about 4:45. I was worried about not having our camera or video camera in the room so my sweet sisters went to our car to get them for us. They ended up bringing all of our stuff to our room. The nurse came back to check me again a few minutes before 5. I was between a 9 and a 10 and 100% effaced.
I was starting to feel the urge to push (a very strange feeling that I can't really explain). The nurse told me to go ahead and try to push. I pushed for about 20 minutes before I REALLY started to feel the urge to push. It felt so good to push at this point. I can't quite explain this either. It felt like I was pushing the pain of each contraction out of my body. After about 30 minutes of pushing and not making very much progress, we started to try different methods of pushing until we found the most effective method.
The doctor came in at about 5:50. I will save the rest of Caden's Birth Story for Part 3!
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