The night before Charlie was born, I was up for several hours with painful, consistent contractions. They went on about every 10-15 minutes for over 3 hours and then they stopped completely. That morning, Wednesday, October 25th, I went to the doctor for my 39 week appointment (I was 39 weeks, 2 days). My blood pressure was high at my appointment. They checked it 3 times with 3 different people and each time it was high. My doctor asked where my kids and husband were and then said, "let's have a baby today." She sent me next door to the hospital and I called Grant to meet me there and my mom to tell her she'd be keeping the girls! Thankfully, I already had my hospital bag in the car and my mom had the girls' overnight bag just in case. It was a little bittersweet this time because we were at a different hospital. Our other girls were not only born in the same hospital, but in the same room at that hospital! My doctor's office was relocated, so this time I got to deliver at a brand new hospital that just opened this year. It was really nice! We got everything situated and by 10:45 they started me on the pitocin.
This pregnancy, while still pretty easy comparatively, was the most difficult for me of the 3 so far, so I don't know why I expected the delivery to go just like the other two. It was definitely my hardest delivery! With my first two girls, other than the way I went into labor, the actual labor itself followed pretty much the exact same pattern. Usually I wait a while to get the epidural, so that's what I planned to do this time. Unfortunately, things progressed a lot faster this time, so by the time I was able to ask for the epidural and then wait to get it, I was in A LOT of pain and the contractions were coming very close together. I got the epidural around 1:40. We waited about 20 minutes for it to kick in and then the nurse inserted the catheter and measured me. While it was not painful, I could feel the catheter (TMI?), so I knew the epidural wasn't fully in effect yet. The nurse said I was 7 cm dilated. She turned to call my doctor to inform her and I started to feel an intense amount of pressure and an urge to push. I had never felt that with my other 2 because of the epidural. I told the nurse and she checked me again and said, "you're complete!" She rushed the nurses in and my doctor ran over. The doctor barely had time to get her robe on once she got there! Charlotte was born at 2:12 pm. I could feel everything that was happening during the delivery, but thankfully the epidural had kicked in enough that it was not too painful! I think next time we'll get the epidural right away ;) The nurse said I barely missed the mark of having a precipitous labor, which is labor under 3 hours.
^cameo by Beth Powell from our ward ;)
We had an hour of skin to skin time and then my parents brought the girls up to meet her. They were so excited! Emily told my parents on the way up that she was so happy she could cry, and then when she was holding Charlotte for the first time she teared up. It was such a precious moment that I'll never forget! Addie has done so much better than I expected. I was worried she would be angry about losing some mommy attention, but she's actually done the opposite and has become more independent (though she's still good for mommy snuggles pretty often).
