Peanut's birthday

I wasn't sure whether to do a birth post or not, but since many of you asked, here's Peanut's birth story (no worries, I won't get gross on you).

Friday morning Jon and I woke up early to get ready for my 41 week appointment.  I decided that since I was already showered and dressed, we should take a 41 week picture.

P-nizzle, 41 weeks in my belly

We made it to the New Haven doctor's office as scheduled and got to see our little Peanut on the Ultrasound machine.  As usual, she was moving around and kicking.  Next, I was hooked up to the stress test to watch the baby's heart rate since I was past my due date.

Jon and I settled in for the 25 minute test and were chatting eagerly when I suddenly felt very uncomfortable and my belly got really hard.  We looked at the machine and it showed that I had a contraction.  I'm not going to lie, we got a little excited.  The midwife came by, looked at the monitor and told us to hang out for another 30 minutes or so to monitor the contractions.  Shockingly, they kept coming on average every 5 minutes and were getting stronger.  We were so excited!  Who else goes into labor while at the doctor's office?

41 weeks

After 30 minutes and continuing contractions, I was checked over and told that I was likely starting labor and should hang out close by since there was quiet a bit of snow on the ground.  Jon and I decided to go to IKEA nearby and grab some meatballs for lunch and see how things go.  By the time we finished our meatballs, the contractions stopped coming and we decided to head home, disappointed.

I sent reluctant Jon in to the office with promises that I would call him as soon as I felt anything and logged on to my work computer to get some stuff done.

Around 3pm I started feeling the same as I did at the hospital and messaged Jon.  By 4pm the contractions were getting stronger and closer together so Jon decided to head home.  We were both still excited (obviously I was in very early labor).

The rest of the evening was uneventful - the contractions kept getting stronger and closer together.  I was no longer all that excited.  I also started - how do I put this nicely - leaking.  Little did I know, I had broken my water.

By 11pm we headed to the hospital with strong contractions between 2-3 minutes apart.  We were checked over and admitted.  The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur as I was in ridiculous amount of pain.  I know that by 2 am I asked for an epidural because I couldn't take the pain anymore (ps- I had back labor as well, which, if anyone had it, is not fun).  Lucky for me (sarcasm doesn't work well online...but that was a sarcastic statement), there were about 13 other ladies in labor at the time being and 5 of them asked for an epidural minutes before me.  I continued "dealing" with my pain until about 3:30am when the anesthesiologist (yes, I used spell check for that one) finally got to me.  Honestly, at that point I was willing to do anything to get it.  Once the epidural was in I was told that it would take another 5 contractions for me to start feeling some relief and I am pretty sure that I cried.

Admitted and hooked up to all the monitoring machines.  Yep, we took a picture.

Right after we got to the hospital.  I have no idea how I managed a smile between those contractions.

The midwife came by to check on my progress as soon as the epi was in and smiled at me because it was time to start pushing.  I think I cried again.  Or begged for everything to just stop.  Then I think I pleaded with everyone that maybe they were wrong and it wasn't time because there was no way I was ready to have a baby.  I may have cried a lot.  But Peanut was ready and apparently so was I (obviously not mentally) and so we proceeded.

The next part took about 3 and half hours.  After about an hour and a half Peanut's heartbeat started decreasing with every push and everyone started paying way too much attention to what I was doing.  I got nervous and tried my best to be a trooper for her although I am pretty sure there were times when I pleaded with Jon to make it all just stop.  At 7am (3 hours of pushing) the doctors were crowding and talking about some alternatives to help the baby along, starting with some Pitocin.  I refused to take any drugs and asked for a few more minutes to see if I could do it.  Thankfully, Peanut's heartbeat evened out and she finally joined us at 7:35am.

There were a bunch of tears, a lot of kissing, and some more pain on my end as we finished the whole birthing thing.  Then everyone left us for a couple of hours to bond as a family. 

Peanut - 1 day old

I'll tell ya about the first 36 hours and our first day home in the posts to follow.