Baby Love: Labor and Delivery Story.... a year ago.

This was me a year ago right now (6:00 pm). A year has passed and I am thinking back to the night/day I was in labor and gave birth to the most beautiful baby girl in the world, Grace Catherine. I am not sure if I ever shared my story so here we go.

On August 12th, 2010 (Thursday), I had gone to my doctor for my weekly visit. He told me that there was nothing going on so he scheduled me for a non-stress test and an appointment with him for the following Thursday to talk induction. The next day. Friday, the 13th, Dan and I went to grab dinner at Sonic and home to relax. We watched a movie and went to bed. Around 2:30AM (Aug. 15th), I had the feeling that I had to pee. I went to get up and I could not stop what I thought was pee only to realize that my water had broke. It wasn't a gush like you see in the movies but a pretty good leak. I woke Dan up and told him what was happening. I got into the bathroom, kicked the rug away and leaked out. I got my phone and called the service that paged the on call doctor. Dr. Belder called me back and told me that since I was not having contractions to be at the hospital in about an hour. I hopped in the shower, Dan and I put the pack and play together, got our bags, and went to the hospital.

Got to the hospital around 3:30/3:45 and was taken into Triage. Dr. Belder came in and checked to see if my water had broke and it had. I was only 1.5 centimeters dilated and not having any contractions. Belder told me that he would see if I would dilate anymore but if not, they would start the Pitocin. I was officially admitted to labor and delivery and given a room around 4:30. My mom met us there and we were all so freaking excited.

I was so excited that I could not sleep. My labor nurse, Joan, came in to check on me often. Around 8:30, I had not gone past 1.5 centimeters so they started the Pitocin. A little while later, I started to feel the contractions. At first, they were not that bad. I was able to breathe through them because the dose of pitocin was low. Every 20 minutes or so, Joan would come in and turn it up. Fast forward a few, long, contraction filled hours, I was in PAIN! Dr. Devlin (Dr. Belder had left) was in ding a C-Section so Joan called her and said that she would be in as soon as she could to check to see if i was dilated enough to get an epidural. I was not sure if I wanted to get one but the contractions were excruciating. About 20 minutes went by, Joan came in and said that she could check to see if I was dilated enough and could call the anesthesiologist for the epidural. I was all for it! She checked and I was 5 centimeters dilated so she made the call and in came the epidural.

After getting the epidural, I felt much better but had to lie on my side and be moved every now and then if there was a change in the heartbeat.

I finally was able to get some rest. Meanwhile, my mom was pacing around and Dan was relaxing. They were both awesome during the contractions before the epidural. Dan's mom and sister were on their way over to the hospital and were going to tell the nurse when they arrived so that they could come back and say hi. About 20 minutes later, a nurse came back and said that they were out by the front of L&D. Dr. Devlin came in at the same time to check me and said "Her head is right there. I think we are ready to push!" Dan had to run out and tell his mom and sister that they had to wait to come back because Grace was on her way. I started to push around 6PM. My mom was up by my head to help support and Dan helped hold my left leg up when I had to push. Joan, the labor nurse, was at my right leg. At first I had no idea if I was pushing right but after the 2nd time, I knew it was the right way. After starting and stopping numerous times, I started to feel a lot of pressure. That told me that the end was near! That made me was to push even harder but Grace was hitting a speed bump on the way out. She gave me a episiotomy and according to Dan "She just slipped right out."

Grace Catherine Deming was born on August 15th at 6:31PM. She weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 21 inches long.