The Long Story on delivery-
8am Tuesday morning- woke up with show, and felt what I thought were contractions every 10 minutes. They weren't strong, so I showered and got Nora up before texting Brian to come on home. Upon arrival he calls my mom, who speeds over to take Nora for The Day as planned.
9am- Took a walk with Brian and Molly around the neighborhood to get things moving faster. They got to about 6 minutes apart, but were still not painful, and honestly I was wondering if I was really having contractions. Called the OB, and was told to head over to the hospital for triage whenever I felt ready.
11:30- Checked in at the hospital, 5 minutes apart, still not painful. They weren't sure they were going to admit me because since I wasn't OMG IN PAIN WILL DIE they also weren't sure it was real labor. Upon checking my cervix and finding it at 6.5 and "stretchy" (it was 4 the day before at my office visit), my midwife changed her mind and sent me up to L&D.
Noon- Popped me on the monitors to read baby's heart rate and contraction strength, but left me free to walk around as much as I liked. The nurse gave me some tips about leaning over a table or chair on contractions and swaying my hips to try to encourage him to flip out of posterior.
5:00- Contractions picked up in pain, but still were only 5 minutes apart. Cervix was at 8.5, and my midwife gave me the option of taking pitocin to speed things up, since my contractions were making progress, but slooowly. I was bored out of my mind at this point, so I agreed. She broke my water, sent for pitocin, and called for the epidural.
5:45- Started pitocin, got the epidural. I made the mistake of agreeing to let the anesthesiologist show the process to two students, and got to hear EVERYTHING about what she was doing. Think things like "I have to get this needle through this stringy tendon, and if I just poke around eventually the fibers will open and it'll slide in" and "I aim for the bone, and when I hit that I know to point down to get into the epidural space." Also it took MUCH longer than my first epidural. With Nora it took all of 4 minutes, but with this one she kept PAUSING to explain what she was doing, and it took a good 15 minutes. By the end the description was too much for me, and my BP dropped to 83/50, so she FINALLY shut up, had me lie on my side, and finished up.
6:00-6:30- Contractions picked up in speed and intensity, but the epidural worked perfectly so I felt the squeezing, but no pain. I was able to move the whole time, and flipped from side to side a few times. At one point I sat up straight, but the baby's head was pushing on my vagus nerve and my BP dropped to 60/43 (YEAH), so I had to lie back down. I ended up doing most of the waiting on my sides instead.
6:30- Got the urge to push. At the start of the contraction I pushed for a count of ten, then rested for a second, then pushed for another count of ten, then rested and got one more set of ten pushing in before the contraction was over. I did that again for the next contraction, and then he started crowning and FLIPPED. The nurses were squeeing over it, he literally flipped 180 degrees from posterior to face down. I made it through one of the ten counts on the next contraction, and he was out! So it was three contractions of pushing on my right side, and 6:33 was his official time of birth. I could walk shortly after delivery, and had no tearing, no stitches. I can hardly believe it was so EASY.
He was 8lbs even, 21 1/4 inches long, EXACTLY the same size as Nora was. His apgar was 9, and I hate to say it, but he looks a lot like Gollum, minus the skeezy hair and pointy ears. Hopefully he'll grow out of that soon. His feet look HUGE, they're practically as long as his shins. I think he's going to be a tall one.
Being at the hospital sucked, but it wasn't as bad as last time. I took my hep lock out myself (OW, but it was better than leaving it in for a day after delivery), Brian went home at 11 so I could sleep and came back at 7, and all in all it was a much better experience. It's now Saturday, and I'm wearing my real jeans. Three cheers for pants with ZIPPERS!