If you're not into detailed birth stories, this post probably isn't for you...
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Our Bean was late.
Very late.
11 days late.
I know most pregnant women go overdue, especially with their first pregnancy, but my mom went early with all three of us and I was convinced that I would go early too.
Not the case.
I tried everything. I walked. And walked. And walked some more. You name the old wive's tale, and I probably tried it.
So at nearly 42 weeks pregnant we decided to give our jumping Bean some more serious encouragement to come out.
I headed to the hospital for a dose of prostaglandin gel, in the hopes that this would soften the cervix and perhaps induce my labor. They also took my blood, and all this induced was a spike in my blood pressure (I hate needles), so they decided to admit me and keep me overnight.
After another dose of the gel around 11pm, I started feeling some contractions. I remember thinking "Yes! It's starting. I'll get some sleep and have a baby tomorrow!". Forget the sleep. The contractions were just uncomfortable enough that I couldn't sleep and by 4am I was up and walking and timing them.
The Doctor was asleep on the cot. Sound asleep. Poor man had been on call and up all night the night before.
At about 6am I realized that the contractions were increasing in intensity and were regularly 2 minutes apart. I woke the groggy Doctor (that is, my husband) and by 8am we were heading down to labour and delivery.
Now my "birth plan" (not that I wrote anything out, since it rarely goes according to plan... but what we had discussed with my doctor,) was to try to labour and deliver without any medical intervention or drugs. Not knowing what to expect, I really wanted to give natural birth a good try because I felt it would be best for me and my baby.
So I won't bore you all with all the mundane details, but the main events are as follows:
At noon I was contracting regularly, but still only 4cm dilated and my doctor decided to break my water to further encourage labour.
At 3pm I was only 5cm dilated and one tired lady. My doctor wanted to start pitocin (which would make the contractions more intense. more? yes, more). It had been 15 hours of labour, I hadn't slept in over 30 hours and so at 4pm I opted for an epidural.
I slept for one blessed, lovely, pain-free hour.
I had control of my epidural pump and was nervous to press it. My worst fear was that I would be too numb to push effectively and would end up with a c-section. It was one of my main reasons for trying to avoid an epidural.
So I continued to labour, and by 7:30pm I was ready to push. For the first few contractions I had to rely on the machine and my medical team to tell me when I was having a contraction and when to push. But after the first few pushes, I was certainly not feeling numb anymore.
One hour later, at 8:37pm on August 25th 2010, our beautiful baby Bean was born. My husband had asked if he could announce the sex, so as she was placed on my chest he looked at me through his tears and blurted "It's a girl"!
I can still remember that moment so vividly. The wonder and amazement of this new little person that was ours. The instant, fierce, overwhelming love that filled my heart.
I remember thinking "how could I ever love anyone else as much as this?"
I remember thinking that was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life.
And I remember thinking that I would do it again in a heartbeat.
... stay tuned for part II
