My birth story

The past week has been a complete blur because everything happened so fast. I was suppose to be on an airplane coming home from visiting my sister in Kansas. At the last minute I decided not to buy my plane ticket because my sister had a bad feeling about me flying so close to my due date. I really wanted to spend Thanksgiving with her, but we have a close bond, so I knew if she thought I shouldn't come than I better not.

Saturday November 28th, I went to dinner with my dad and Donna at Cafe Anice. I had a hard time eating and getting comfortable. My back was hurting. Didn't sleep too well that night. Sunday November 29th I woke up with bad cramps. Which were actually contractions, but I thought they were cramps from not sitting on a toilet in the past 5 days! So I tried to use the restroom and noticed I was bleeding a bit. I thought it was from my infection so wasn't too worried about it. An hour later at 1pm I am still cramping and still bleeding so I decide to take a bath. While in the bathtub I felt what felt like I was peeing in the water and more blood came out. I thought man, that infection I have is bad! It never clicked that maybe my water had just broken. So I got out of the bathtub and wrapped myself in a towel. The cramps are still coming every 4-5 minutes and by this point I started to think maybe they were actually contractions and not cramps from being constipated. Right about that time, I felt more fluid drip down my leg, and when I looked down, to my horror, saw a huge puddle of water on the bathroom floor with blood mixed in it. Okay, now my brain starts to work- maybe I should text my dad? No wait, can't do that, he's on his motorcycle an hour away. So I texted my mom and Donna and we decided it would be best for Donna to drive me to the hospital while my mom tries to get ahold of my dad.

The entire way to Houston my contractions are coming every 4 minutes. Donna wouldn't take me to McDonalds eventhough I was starving, so she agreed to stop at a gas station and let me get a snack. So we went inside and I got some chocolate milk and a snicker bar all while having contractions and grasping the aisles as I walk. But hey, I knew once I got to the hospital I wouldn't be allowed to eat! When we get to the hospital and I get out of the car, more fluid soaks my pants the minute I stand up. Yup, positive now my water broke. During all this I am texting my sister who is texting Jennifer, who is hauling ass from the deer lease back to Houston so she can be by my side. It's a 4.5 hour drive she ended up making in 3 hours, and still ended up being 5 minutes too late for Oliver's birth.

Anyways, I get a room and the nurse checks my cervix. I'm not dilated at all!! That's when the nurse told me it would be 24 hours from the time my water broke at 1pm before anything would happen. Okay great, just great- this is gonna be a long ass labor. My dad finally shows up in his black leather motorcycle gear. And now here comes my mom freaking out. Okay everybody calm down, we got 24 hours to go.

At 6pm, five hours into my labor, I'm starting to feel like a wuss because I need that epidural- like now! But isn't it too soon if I still have 24 hours to go? The nurse said if the pain was too bad I could have it now. Yes please get that damn anesthesiologist in here as soon as possible. I think I was 4cm dilated at this point. So finally what felt like an eternity, the freakin anesthesiologist finally decided to end my suffering. Such sweet relief. Well sorta. It wouldn't work completely on the right side and I was having bad back labor, but at least I was numb on the left side. An hour after I was given the epidural, I decided to take a nap while my parents and Donna eat good smelling food right in front of me, laughing and joking having a good ol' time. The nurse comes in before I can even shut my eyes and says she wants to check my cervix. Ok, just hurry so I can take a nap. She checks me and her eyes about pop out of her head. You're ready to push she said. O.M.G I'm ready to what? Push? No, I'm not ready for that yet. Yes you are. But I've only been here for six hours and you people said it was gonna be 24 hours! I'm sitting here thinking okay just calm down and breathe and do what the lady says. So we do about 3 practice pushes and she yells at me to STOP! "I can see his hair" she said. Well go get the doctor then! So since he was going to be a preemie they made everyone except my dad leave the room and warned me the minute he comes out they have to take him out of the room to make sure he's breathing and then they'll bring him back to me.

So the nurse gets everything ready. The on-call doctor takes her sweet time. All while I am laying with my legs spread open and my sons head about to pop out of me. By this point it's 8:30pm (remember my water broke at 1pm) the doctor finally comes in and tells me we're gonna push with each contraction which I could still feel on the right side so I didn't even need to be told when the contractions were coming. So right before my first push, I decide to text Amber, my sister-in-law, and let her know I am pushing that they better hurry up and get to the hospital. So I push once for 10 seconds. Relax. Oh wait, gotta text Kristi before my next push. So I text her and tell her Oliver's almost here. I push again on the next contraction for another 10 seconds. Now I gotta text my sister before the next contraction because the doctor is telling me this is going to be my last push. The last and final push I gave it every bit of effort I had, and saw the doctor grab the nasal aspirator and I knew that meant his head was out. I looked up at my dad and his eyes were kind of teary. Next thing I know I see Oliver screaming bloody murder at excatly 8:55pm. My dad puts his fingers in his ears and says "He's crying, I'm never gonna get any sleep!!" The entire room starts laughing and they rush Oliver out the door. Five minutes later he's finally in my arms and breathing on his own. He's so alert. His eyes are wide open. He's looking me up and down, and left to right. He knows I'm his mommy.

To be continued....