a labor story

The night before I went into labor I asked Andy to rub my feet.  As he was lotioning them up I told him that one time when I was pregnant with Colt I got a pedicure and the lady at the spa said there was a pressure point on your foot that when rubbed can trigger labor...but they're legally not allowed to work on that pressure point.  He said that lady was a liar and continued my foot rub.  Before he was finished he looked at me with a dumb silly face,  poked the center of my foot like he was ringing a doorbell and told me that I should thank him cause he just pushed the 'magic' pressure point.

Later that morning at about 4am I woke up from a dream where I was having cramps and good lordy I was HAVING CRAMPS!  I rolled around for about 15 minutes or so then finally tapped Andy on the shoulder and told him I was crampy.  No longer comfortable I decided to get up.  Once I walked into the kitchen and made myself some toast gravity took effect and the pain factor of my cramps doubled.

Soon after I was having to pause and bend over to catch my breath during these 'cramps'.  I started timing them just for fun and they were now coming anywhere from 2-6 minutes apart.  I then officially started calling them contractions.  At 5:15a after seeing if the contractions stayed hard and lasted for an hour I decided it was time to wake Andy up.  During that hour I would go back in to the bedroom and whisper, Andy! I'm still having them...just wanted to let you know. Ok, goodnight.  Finally after the hour had gone by and I was having to blow hard and cringe during every contraction I went into the room, tapped him on the shoulder and said, Wanna wake up? I'm not kidding anymore. This is it.

Soon after I started packing my bag.  He was still in sleepy land, not really sure if this was 'it' or not...then he saw my first contraction.  He soon knew.  He called his mom to come and stay with Colt.  She was going to take a shower and head over but Andy so kindly let her know that I was ready to go to the hospital 5 minutes ago.  She showed up shortly after and we headed out.

Wanna know the two worse places to have a contraction? 1) the toilet and 2) the car.  That car ride suuuuucked.  My contractions were super painful but the worse part is they lasted a solid minute and were coming every few minutes.  There wasn't much relief.

We got in the parking garage and a few short feet from the door I tossed my cookies in a doctors parking spot.  I held on to the disgusting cement walls of the parking garage and breathed and barfed my way through a few more contractions.  A nurse walked by and asked if we needed a wheel chair.  Andy kindly said, Yes please, we also need an emesis basin.  An emesis basin is a fancy word for a puke bucket.  I ended up not needed the puke bucket because I left the 2 oreos, 1/2 glass of milk and the 3 bites of toast in the docs spot. ;)

The next 30 minutes went like this...
-got checked into triage.
-told the nurse I wanted an epidural. please. fast.
-moaned and groaned through some flesh ripping contractions.
-got checked. 4cms.
-made sure she knew I wanted an epidural.
-started to pee all over the place, oh wait, that was my water breaking.
-told a doctor that he looked like a young Dwight Schrute.  He didn't take it too well.
-more contractions.
-ate ice chips.
-nurse asked me if I wanted to walk to my room. I said yes, started to stand up, changed my mind, layed back down and yelped...I can't walk! [enter contraction!!] So they wheeled me away instead.

Once to my room I made my new set of nurses aware I would like an epidural.  They got the anesthesiologist lined up and started pumping an IV into my veins.  I was afraid that I was going to progress so fast I'd miss my epidural window and have to go au natural like I had to do with Colt in the very end.  Didn't want that. No sir!

Within 30 mins I had my IV fluid in my system and the anesthesiologist was pumping the goods in my spine.  Man, I love drugs.  I got checked again right after my epidural and I'd progressed to 6cms in an hour.  I spent the next 3 hours visiting with friends and family, enjoying my pain-free contractions and eating Jello.  Orange flavor.

By 11am I had progressed to 10cms/100%.  The doctor came to check on me and since she could see the baby's head she decided I should do a few practice pushes just to make sure I remember and to see how the baby moves when pushing.  On my 2nd practice push Molly started to come out! haha. Practice pushes are for sissys.  It's like riding a bike folks.  Just hunker down and PUSH!  I was really good at it apparently.  The nurses and my doc prepared for delivery while I snacked on some ice.  Andy started laughing and gave me a crazy look.  I didn't get why so I asked and he just said, She's coming with those kind of pushes.  This isn't going to take long at all.  He was excited. 
 
A few minutes later with my hubby by my side I gave THREE good pushes and out she came. THREE! T.H.R.E.E!  Uno, Dos, THREE!!  I pushed for 4 hours with Colt and with Molly... I pushed THREE times.  It was awesome.  I felt awesome.  Those first moments with Molly were awesome.  See, with Colt I was in so much pain I couldn't focus on him and enjoy the first moments of his life and I had prayed for a long time about being about to enjoy those precious moments with Molly. My prayer was answered.  She just layed there and snoozed on my chest like an angel. 

She is amazing.  I didn't think it was possible to have two awesome, perfect little babies.  She is perfect.  Sleeps good. Eats good.  I think she likes her life.  She's really happy.  I love her so much.  I kiss her on the lips all the time because they're so adorable and juicy.  I was always told growing up that you don't kiss babies on the lips, but I do what I want because she's my baby :)