Thursday, September 25
I was 38 weeks and 2 days along.
4am- I woke up feeling some intense menstrual like cramps, but felt like they were a bit different than normal because they’d go away and then come back. I remembered my doctor said that’s how contractions felt. I got all excited and thought “is this it?!” I pulled out my phone and googled how to tell if your contractions are for real labor or not. It said to walk around, take a shower, lay on your side, and sip water. If the contractions stay, it could be real labor! I began walking back and forth in my house.
5am- I woke Kyler up because the contractions were still coming, and asked him to time them while I took a shower. I would call out when one started and when it stopped. He told me they were 2-3 minutes apart for a minute long! I got even more excited because my doctor said that if contractions stay that consistent for 2 hours, then it was most likely real labor.
7am- I still had contractions close together! We packed up and got to the hospital and I was checked in around 7:30am. They had me dress up in a hospital gown and hooked me up to a machine to track my contractions and baby boy’s heartbeat. They checked me and I was 3cm dilated and 95% effaced. (I had been a 1 and 80% the Monday before.) Because I was before 39 weeks, they couldn’t legally help me with labor (as in break my water or give me an epidural) until I was dilated to a 4. (let me tell you- that seems like cruel and unusual behavior to me!!)
8:45am- checked again- still at a 3. Now contractions were much more painful. I hadn’t cried yet but I was getting super uncomfortable! The nurse called my doctor and she said to have me walk around for a bit and to check me again. They put another hospital gown on me to cover up my behind and I proceeded to walk up and down the hall. I felt like a freak in the huge gowns walking repeatedly past the nurses station and having to grip the wall each time a contraction came. I’m sure the nurses were used to something like that, but I felt a little dumb. Kyler was great and kept walking with me and rubbing my back to try and ease the contractions.
10:00am – checked again- still a stinkin’ 3! At this point I’m getting angry because contractions hurt dang it! The nurse called my doctor and she said if I didn’t dilate any more by 11am they’d have to discharge me.
11:30am- still at a 3. :( When they told me that and prepped me to be discharged I lost it and started bawling. I hurt so bad and was scared to think I had to go home. The nurses told me they were sure I was in real labor, but their hands were tied until I got to that darn 4. They told me to go walk around and come back in a couple of hours if my contractions stayed. They gave me a shot of morphine which didn’t really help with the pain- it just made me feel drugged like a bystander watching my life go by. The nurses said if it was false labor, the morphine might stop my contractions. I really hoped it wasn’t false labor because I did NOT want to have contractions like that again on a different day.
12pm – Kyler and I went to get lunch. I was paranoid about being starving during labor since once you’re admitted you can’t eat anything. We ate some Wendy’s and went to a park that was close by. We ate in the car and then proceeded to traipse around the park for 2 hours. I felt weird and out of it, but still felt the contractions. We decided to go back! It was a sweet moment with Kyler and, looking back, I'm grateful we were able to relax together before our lives drastically changed. :) He was such a great support to me the whole day.
3pm- checked me again and I was at a 3.5! COME ON!!! The nurse called my doctor and she said (this shows you how AWESOME our doctor is) “Let’s call it a 4 and get this girl an epidural! I’ll come by soon to break her water.” YAY! When the nurse told us what she said I was overjoyed! We felt excited that this was really going to happen! Kyler went to get our bags and the nurses had me fill out some paperwork. Then they gave me the IV, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
4pm- the epidural guy came and gave me that sweet magic medicine. Props to you ladies who can do child birth naturally, but I was eager and excited to feel that sweet relief!
4:30pm- I felt a little nauseous when I got the epidural. It was mixing with the morphine that I still had in my system and I just felt gross in my head and stomach- like I was in my first trimester. The nurse added more fluids to my IV and then I felt much better. I felt no pain with the epidural, but I’m not going to lie, it also kind of annoyed me! I couldn’t even move or feel my right side. It was like a dead limb, but I could move my left side just great, I just didn’t feel anything. They had me lay tilted towards the left to try and get the numbness to drift but it stayed pretty heavily on the right. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to have the relief from the pain, but it had some quirks to it too.
5pm- My doctor came in and broke my water! I was completely numb and didn’t feel a thing. She told me since it was my first labor, I’d probably dilate about 1 cm per hour. Kyler and I just relaxed, tried to take a short nap, and had fun telling family and friends that we were HAVING A BABY! :) We had waited until we knew it was for sure, because we didn’t want to be embarrassed if it was only false labor.
7pm ish- we started an episode of 7th Heaven (nerdy I know, but that’s our guilty cheesey pleasure these days!) After a few minutes, Kyler paused it and said “we need to decide on this kids name!” I had been convinced that baby boy was my Henry Joseph for awhile, but Kyler just wasn’t sure. We said a prayer, and afterwards we both felt good about going ahead with that name. You might think we’re super silly, but we chose the name Henry because it is a strong, solid name, and Joseph is after the prophet Joseph Smith. We wanted to give our son a great example of a good man to be like.
7:45 ish- our nurse walked in to check me. She got quiet, and then said “oh my goodness, his head is right there! You are a 10! Keep your legs closed girl, and don’t you dare push, I’m calling your doctor.” She had Kyler come look at the baby’s head. He said it was misshapen and pointy. I asked for a mirror and yep, sure enough there was my baby’s head! It was getting real! The nurses started to prep for delivery. Kyler kept saying “I can’t believe this is happening!” I felt calm and super excited. We were meeting our baby sooner than later!
8:10- The doctor came in and said “wow, normally it takes women hours of pushing to get their baby to this stage! Let’s get started!” She told me that during contractions, I needed to push with all of my strength which I thought was funny since I was so numb. Kyler said the pushing part was so fun because it was like a sporting event- everyone was cheering and telling me that I could do it and that I was doing great. I pushed 3 times for 10 seconds long during two contractions. The doctor said I was pushing perfectly which I thought was funny because I couldn’t feel a dang thing- I didn’t think I was doing anything! Also when I pushed I would close my eyes, so the mirror turned out to be useless. After two contractions she told me he was almost out- and I thought for sure she was just telling me that to motivate me to try harder.
8:17pm – on the third contraction, I pushed one time for 10 seconds and felt a suction feeling and BAM. Henry Joseph McCarty was born into this world. :) It was the greatest feeling getting to hold my little boy- I still can’t believe he’s here! My doctor told me I was made to have 12 babies because of how quickly everything went after my water broke. Which was funny of her to say, because when we were dating Kyler said he wanted 8-12 kids. (um.. how about 4-6 instead?)
We did some skin to skin, they took him for his APGAR testing and then brought him back for breast feeding time. He latched on great, it was a good first feeding.
We then got cleaned up, and they moved us to a room in the postpartum wing. We were just in baby heaven. :) Breast feeding at the hospital continued to go well. We were so grateful for our doctor and the wonderful hospital staff that cared for us and made sure everything went smoothly. We were tired and eager to get home though, and my awesome doctor said since we were doing well, we could leave after 24 hours. She did Henry’s circumcision and Kyler and I got to watch. It’s a painful looking procedure, but guess what- baby boy did not cry at all during the whole thing! He only cried at the end when the doctor used a wet wipe to clean him up afterwards. He does not like cold wet wipes.
We are just so happy to have this precious boy in our family! He is so sweet and makes us so overjoyed.
(in order to see the pictures, click on the ones below and more will come from the side.)
