That Woman Screaming Down The Hallway...Sorry but it's ME!!!

Our second little guy arrived with a bang bright and early Tuesday morning (just like his brother). As the last post stated, he had tried to come early 3 weeks ago and I was put on bed rest for 2 weeks. I was allowed off of strict bedrest when I reached 36 weeks in my pregnancy and even got my doc to write me a go back to work note and had scheduled myself for 4 weeks of work...Kingston obviously had other ideas!!!

I had been feeling kind of crappy all weekend long, headaches, irregular contractions, just a general blah feelings. Monday night, I had started feeling pretty regular contractions about every 5 minutes apart (730)...since I never went through the whole contraction counting thing with Lowe, we waited an hour before calling the doctor's office. I wasn't sure if my water was broken either and I really didn't want to make my mom come spend the night and drag Tyler to the hospital for no reason but the doc said to go ahead and come in. So off to the hospital we headed after hearing back from the doctor and my parents arriving at the house to spend the night with Lowe.

We get to the hospital around 1015ish and my contractions were about two minutes apart. So the nurses get me all hooked up to the monitor, check to see if my water's broken and to see if I've changed at all from my last dr's appointment (which was the wednesday before). I haven't changed, the contractions are already slowing down but my water's broken so I'm staying whether I want to or not...we get taken to our labor room and the contractions pretty much stop...ugh to that!!! Around 1am, the nurse checks and surprisingly I have changed to 6 cm even though my contractions have slowed down a ton. Just before this, Tyler and I had wandered down to the cafeteria and had had some tater tots and a burger...more on this later...

So for another hour and a half we kind of wait around to see what happens and...nothing much. The doc on call for my doc happened to be up and around for another patient so he can in and broke what the nurse was calling a fore-bag (apparently my broken water wasn't completely broken and this half sac thing was probably to blame for the non-labor I was in). So around 3 am, he broke this and than the fun began...

I just want to say I have never felt such exquisite pain in my entire life and am pretty sure I do not want to feel it again. Ever.

The contractions started coming very hard and very often. I tried walking around to see if it helped, rocking in a rocking chair, sitting on the exercise ball...nothing was helping and when I finally decided it was going to get to be too painful and asked for a possible epidural, the nurse checked and I was too far along!!! Well, let me re-phrase that...by the time the doctor would make it to put it in and get it in I would be too far along so I was stuck with the pain!!! I had wanted to try it naturally this time since the contractions I felt with Lowe were never that painful or spread so far over all my body. With Lowe, I felt the pain in about a quarter sized spot in my lower right abdomen...with Kingston...the pain was everywhere from my abdomen to my knees!!!

Now remember the food I mentioned that I snacked on about 1230ish...well...it made a re-appearance, twice...the contractions were so painful that I couldn't even concentrate on breathing while Tyler was counting for me. I kept having him count even though I knew I wasn't going to be able to follow it because just hearing some form of sanity was helping me through each one. I guess I kept crushing his fingers too...sorry!!!

So by this time...about 45 minutes later, there were two nurses in the room and they were getting everything prepped for the doctor. I was in severe (doesn't even cover it) pain with each contraction and I was really starting to feel like I needed to push. My nurse, Kris, kept calmly telling me I needed to make it through a few more contractions without pushing because I wasn't quite complete yet and we didn't want me to tear anything because that would be even worse than what I was going through. I listened to her through two more contractions but just could not keep from pushing past that. The doc was called to the room as I told the nurse I had to push and she finally relented and said I could.

Kris had said the pain would subside a bit with the pushing but let me tell you...it just shifted to another place!!!!!! So the time to push Kingston out had come and yes, I was that woman screaming down the hallway...it actually felt like the yelling was doing something so I kept doing it...I pushed 2 or 3 times before the doc was ready and than with the first push for the doctor, I got Kingston pretty much through the birth canal. So the second push for the doc got his head out and the third his shoulders than the rest of him in one or two more. It was the longest few minutes of my life. Everyone kept telling me I was doing such a good job and to keep it up and how awesome I was but all I wanted to do was feel that baby come all the way out so the pain would stop!

And at 0414 am on Tuesday, September 20, 2011...that's just what happened!!! Kingston was born and Tyler got to cut the cord. I had enough mind about me to sit up and point at the doctor and tell him my husband was cutting the cord. They laid Kingston on my belly and being the NICU nurse that I am, I started helping to dry him off and stimulate him and was kind of doing a quick assessment on him...he looked great!!! His entire face was purple from being born so fast so he looked really beat up from that. They cleaned him off a little bit more, the doc made sure everything with me was fine and than it was all over.

Mind you, I had been shaking uncontrollably since the doctor had broken the fore-bag and the shaking was still around. I kept apologizing to Tyler over the next hour because I seriously did not move a muscle (voluntarily) for the next hour. The shaking subsided finally and I got some pain meds...finally ;) Around 6am, they changed shifts and Kingston was acting hungry already and much to my relief, he latched right on and ate for 15 good minutes. Lowe and I took 3-4 days before he would behave himself for feedings.

My day nurse, Debbie, got me up and walking and than we were transferred to the postpartum floor. We got up there around the same time my dad did and I just could not believe how much better I felt than I remembered feeling with Lowe. My brother pointed out later that his wife had heard from a friend that if you go naturally, the recovery is faster and less painful...and it so has been.

We got to come home from the hospital Wednesday morning (a day sooner than we did with Lowe) and Kingston continues to nurse great. He loves to cuddle but wants to be awake or constantly eating between the hours of 9pm and 4am. My mom has a theory about when babies sleep and it's based off of when they are born: If they're born in the early hours or the morning, they will sleep all day and be awake all night and vice versa for if they're born in the afternoon/evening, they will sleep through the night and be awake all day. So far, it's been very true for both my boys!

So there you have it...I can say I've had a child naturally, with no pain meds or anything to speak of other than the awesome support of my loving husband! I could not have made it through all of that without Tyler being there with me and letting me try to break his fingers. We're all home and trying to get used to having a baby around. Yeah to families!!!