Waiting on a Friend

The week of November 7th was spent on baby watch. We knew that any day now, our sweet little girl would arrive. Admittedly, I was really hoping for an 11.11.11 arrival, but at this point, any day would do.  We went to the doctor on 11.7.11 and were told we were still only 1 cm dilated and no new progress to really speak of.  Our doctor joked and asked if the baby was planning to home school in my belly (too funny!) and we went home.  We were then scheduled for an induction on 11.16.11 if Willie did not come on her own.  

So for the entire week, we waited.  And on 11.10.11 we stepped up the attempts at inducing labor on our own.  There were lots of walks, bouncing on birth/exercise balls, lots of raspberry leaf tea, spicy food, warm baths, Scott busted out the baby inducing banana costume... you name it, we tried it.

11.10.11 - The banana suit comes out!

11.10.11 - Spicy Japanese curry @ Tokyo Bowl

11.11.11 - Belly OUT for one of many walks

11.11.11 - Had a Guinness to try to speed up the process

11.11.11 - Hot wings and fried bananas should do the trick, right?!

11.11.11 - My last pregnant belly silhouette before delivery!

So after a fun lunch with the Butlers (hot wings, fried bananas and a Guinness (my first of the entire pregnancy)), we headed home on the afternoon of 11.11.11 to rest and wait some more.  I decided to take a bubble bath and really try to relax with some music.  I'm a lover of good random shuffles on my iPod and this time it really delivered.  I heard lots and lots of good songs that made me happy and excited for what was about to happen including one of my favorite Coldplay songs that I always forget how much I love until I hear it (God, Put a Smile Upon Your Face).  I was feeling good, but maybe just a little different.

B and I relaxing with the belly and waiting

After a few hours, I started to suspect my water had broken.  Around 7pm, we headed to the hospital to see what was happening.  But alas, even though the nurse and labs couldn't quite identify what was going on, no labor.  Although we did learn that unbeknownst to me, I had been experiencing some contractions (4's & 5's) and that we had dilated to 2 cms.  So we headed home around 11, grabbed some super late dinner from burger king (whoppers always remind me of SCUBA diving class with my dad back when I was 11) and went home to rest and wait some more.

Little did we know that the time was nearing faster than we thought!  At about 2am I woke up with a weird feeling in my stomach.  I went to use the restroom, felt a weird sensation in my uterus, almost like a pop, and tah dah!!! my first "real" contraction.  I'd been saying all along that I didn't know if I had had any contractions, but NOW I knew.  So we started to track the contractions and they were coming just as we had learned about in baby class, 1 minute long, every 5 minutes. After about an hour of this we headed for the hospital, this time knowing we likely weren't gonna be sent home this time. Poor Bacon didn't know what was going on, but she would soon be headed to slumber party with her Butler buds. And we were just thankful we had had the earlier hospital dry run.  There was no way I could have gotten my act together and gotten everything I needed with the way I was feeling now. (Mental note - No matter how much I want to avoid it, the bag (and everything else we need) WILL be ready to go for the next kiddo's delivery. :)

When we got to the hospital around 3am-ish, I immediately requested an epidural... kind of wondered if I'd go natural, but just didn't feel like being a hero that night.  Never have I ever experienced pain like that.  All of you natural childbirth ladies are BRAVE!!!  It took a few hours to officially declare me in active labor and get the anesthesiologist in the room, but as far as I was concerned it was time.  Finally around 7am, the epidural arrived and I felt a heck of a lot better.  Still couldn't believe everything I was experiencing and so ready to meet Willie.  As soon as the anesthesiologist was done, the doctor arrived (unfortunately our OB was not on call that morning, but we still ended up with a great doctor for the delivery).  She quickly let me know that I was already fully dilated and she was going to break my water and Willie was coming SOON! Only problem was that Scott was NOT in the room. Not because he didn't want to be, but because the nurse hadn't gotten around to calling him back to the room after the epidural was complete.  I was not happy that he wasn't there and ended up having to call him myself.  But in the end it turned out we still had several hours to go, but I panicked a bit without my awesome coach there, needless to say.

But finally Scott was back in the room (again after I called the nurse - the only real complaint I have about our nurse) and we began to push intermittently to try to get Willie to crown appropriately in order for the doctor to be ready to assist with the final pushes.  Our L&D nurse was a great coach, as was Scott and I worked really hard to get Willie down and ready.  But MAN is that tough!  There were lots of tough pushes and awesome encouragement from Scott & Maureen and a rainbow Popsicle and good ice chips to keep me going.  And finally we were ready.  

9:30ish... WAITING!

Maureen doing her L&D thing and me getting ready to do this thing

Not the most flattering photo, but I had to have a rainbow popsicle and it had to be documented!

:)

I honestly can't complain one bit.  Labor was not ridiculously long, Scott was AMAZING (like I knew he would be) and no complications for me or Willie.  Once she crowned, we probably only pushed with the doctor for about 10-20 minutes and finally after the most crazy, amazing feeling ever, our little girl was here!