My Labor Story!

First of all this picture was taken Monday, March 31st at 10:30 p.m, right after we arrived at the hospital. I didn't have any other pictures to prove how big I was....

For those of you who don't know my past labor stories I'll quickly update. I have never gone into labor on my own, and am started almost a week overdue. My labors are not short by any means.

My due date was April 6th, 2008 which I was really hoping for this time because of the date for two reasons--church history and 04-06-08 would be a fun date to have for a birthday. More than half way through my pregnancy I switched doctors because our insurance switched and I wanted to go to my doctor that delivered Katelyn because he is an excellent doctor. Before I switched I called to make sure he was not going to be going out of town around my due date. At that time he was not going to be gone. After a few appointments he tells me his family is going to Cancun and will get back 2 days before I am due. I was not too concerned because of my past. The day he left on vacation I saw him for my regular appointment and he told me that I hadn't made any progress in the past 3 weeks---dilated to a 1 and the baby was very high up, not anywhere close to coming down. He also was concerned because the baby seemed to be around 9 pounds already and if I went a full week that she would be closer to 10 pounds and a harder delivery. He was sure that I would be fine until he got back.

On Monday March 31st at 1:30 in the morning I woke up like usually to use the bathroom and had a hard time going back to sleep because of "braxton hicks". It happened again at 3:30, then at 5:30 the "braxton hicks" weren't just tight, but starting to hurt. I really wasn't able to fall asleep again because of them. They were not too close together---ranging from 5-10 minutes apart. Katelyn was supposed to go to Mothers Day out that day and I ended up calling a friend to take her because I was not feeling up to it. I was able to stay home and get some cleaning done and packing---since we hadn't gotten ready at all. I did call into the doctor's office and they said to not come in until the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart for a good 2 hours. Well, mine were 2-3 minutes apart when I was up, and then they'd go back down to 8-10 minutes when I was sitting down. So along with my day I went. I took Lyndee to the Ear, Nose, Throat Doctor---what a fun wait, it took us 2 hours to see the doctor and schedule her surgery to get her tonsils and adnoids out. I just wanted to hurry since my contractions were not feeling good. When we got home, we finished packing, which took forever!!! Lynar even had to pack when he got home.

At 6pm I had finally made the decision that I should go to the hospital sometime that night so we were going to take the girls down to Fayetteville to stay with their Aunt Jeni and Uncle Deryn. It took us until 8 to get out of the house though. The girls had to pack everything--Lynar felt like we were going out of town for a week!!! He finally had to start drawing the line on what was being packed in the van.

We dropped the girls off in Fayetteville and Deryn and Lynar gave me a blessing before we left. I really did not want to go to the hospital yet, so we went to Wal-Mart to pick up our new baby car seat which had come in that day. I had a couple people ask me if I was ok and if I needed to sit down. I guess I didn't look very good since the contractions were coming 2-3 minutes and harder. It was a sight to see me walking down the isles using the cart as a crutch. I decided right now it was time to go into the hospital.

I was smart this time and we stopped at Subway to get some more food because out of experience I know that they won't let you eat once you get there.

We arrived at the hospital around 10:15 pm and when the nurse checked me she said I was dilated to a 7!!!! I was so excited and the nurses were worried the baby would be born before I was fully admitted. I was not so worried since I know how long it can take for me to get from 7-10. I told them not to worry and to relax. From past experiences I did not want my epidural right away either. At 2 am the nurse talked me into taking some Nubain in my IV, which knocked me out the rest of the morning. At 6 am I was still only a 7! The doctor at this point wanted to start me on pitocin and break my water. Around 7 am I got my epidural which did not work very well at all. By 11 am I was only a 8 1/2 and the baby still had not dropped. We had been trying different postitions to make the baby turn her head so she could come down the birth canal, but she would turn it completely the opposite way and then turn back by the next time they checked me. We were all getting frustrated and so I had Lynar give me another blessing around 11:30 am, knowing that we were on the verge of having to have a c-section. Right after the blessing we both looked at each other and knew that a c-section was the only way to go and was the right way. I had been so against it, but felt comfort at this time. I did have an on-call doctor who was not quite as good as my doctor and did not want to do anything else. He was also nervous about delivering a 9 pound baby out of me, especially since her head was not turning. He decided that on his lunch break around noon that they would take me in for a c-section. My epidural was not working so after they gave me tons of medicine through the epidural and then me being able to feel them pinch my belly, they decided quickly to put me completley out! Lynar was not able to be in the operating room to see the baby born.

Brooklyn was born Tuesday April 1st, at 12:28pm (14 hours after being admitted to the hospital). I woke up around 2 pm and just remember being so tired and weak. They wheeled me out to my room and we stopped by the nursery and Lynar handed me Brooklyn, but I was too weak to hold her at that point. Finally around 5-6pm I was able to nurse her for the first time, but I was weak and tired until the next day. I stayed in the hospital until Friday which I was grateful that they let me stay that long to get my strength back (they wanted to send me home 48 hours after delivery).

I am just grateful that Brooklyn is here and healthy!!!