I'm not even sure where to begin.
Wednesday was my last day of work. I had really been hoping this lil guy would make his appearance soon so that I wasn't wasting my maternity leave by taking off a few days before my due date. He didn't disappoint! Mom, Taylor and I had made plans to go to Gibson and eat lunch at the Bayern Stube on Thursday so that morning Taylor headed over to my house to ride with me and Asher. When I went to the bathroom I noticed I had some of what I was pretty sure was bloody show (remember that I never went into labor with Asher!). I just felt "different" that morning so when we were leaving for lunch I had The Sister snap a couple of pictures of Asher and me since I had a feeling that today was the day.
We went to Gibson and ate lunch. I ate a lot. That happens when I go there.
On the way home I felt what I thought might be contractions. I felt kind of stupid because I had no idea if they were real or if they were just bad cramps. By the time we were pulling into Forrest I was pretty sure thats what was going on. It was about 12:30 on Thursday May 17th.
We went back to Mom and Dad's so Asher could take a nap there since I wasn't feeling the best. My contractions just kept feeling stronger but I still wasn't sure this was it. I texted Dustin to make sure he was somewhere in the area and lucked out because he was just working in McDowell. I told him to be on standby just in case. I tried to take a nap but it wasn't working. At about 2:00 Mom convinced me to call down to my Dr's office and check with them so that it didn't get too late and they were closed. I called down and talked to my favorite nurse Nela. She told me to go lay down for an hour, try to time contractions and count kicks then call her back. So I laid down and timed contractions on an app on my phone and they appeared to be about 7 minutes apart.
I called Nela back an hour later to tell her what was going on. Dr Austman was out that day but the other Dr in the office thought I had better head down to the hospital to get checked out because I was a VBAC and positive for Group B. I called Dustin to come home and then went home to get the bags ready. I had a REALLY hard time telling Asher bye. I was gonna miss him and was pretty sure both our worlds were gonna change that day.
Dustin and I left town about 4:00 and as we were pulling out of the garage I got a text from Jodi. She had just left her appt and told me she had scheduled her induction for the next morning. I told her "ohhhh, thats funny. We're on our way to the hospital now!"
We got to the hospital about 4:30. I had been timing contrations on the way down and was amazed to see that they seemed to be 2-3 minutes apart. I still didn't believe it. When I got there they hooked me all up to check and see if they were real contractions - and they were! Every 1-2 minutes. I was staying! And I think Dustin was shitting his pants at this point. I had Dustin call Mom to tell her we were staying but it wasn't a big hurry for them to get there. Dr Austman arrived and checked me at about 5:00 PM and said I was completely effaced and at a 1-2. I was disappointed that I wasn't further along but she said she was happy with that since I wasn't dilated at all on Monday.
Contractions hurt. And they were close together and sometimes right on top of one another. Mom and Taylor arrived a little after 7 and I told Mom to go ahead and call Lynn. I spent my time swaying back and forth and holding on to my IV for dear life. That really seemed to help. And time on the birthing ball. Being stuck in the bed was awful so I was so glad when Dr Austman told them to hook me up to the wireless monitors. Lynn arrived a little after 8:00 and Dr Austman checked me again. 1-2. Seriously?
Lynn got to work. She is AMAZING. I loved her before but I love her even more after she stuck it out with me until about 1 AM. Not only was Lynn awesome - I can't say enough about the Nurses at GAH. During my stay I was the ONLY maternity patient. Gotta say I loved having their undivided attention :)
We seemed to have a pattern. I would bear through contraction after contraction - oddly swirling my feet around and back and forth was how I helped cope with the pain - weird right? I hated that I was going through so much pain and not getting anywhere. About 1:00 I got sick. My nurse was like "hey! You told me you haven't ate since noon!" Haha I said "yeah, but you didn't ask me how much I ate..." Every time Dr A checked me I was still at a 1-2. She said his head was there but she thought it was big. My nurse called him melon head :) at about 2:00 AM we were still 1-2 cm.
I was getting really tired. Dr Austman said that if I wanted to continue she could give me a very small dose of pitocin and see where I was in a couple of hours. She had told me the risks of pitocin with a VBAC since the beginning. I asked if she thought I would still be 1-2 in a couple of hours and she said she was pretty sure I would be but wanted to give me every chance to have my VBAC. After 13 hours of labor and absolutely NO progression I made the decision for a c-section about 2:30 AM on Friday May 18th.
At the time I didn't have time to worry about the fact that I wasn't getting the birth that I wanted. I was tired and in pain. I just wanted it to be over. So shortly after the decision was made I walked down to the OR and they sat me on the side of the table to get my spinal. At this point I don't think I was even coherent. I was soooo tired and was still contracting every 1-2 minutes. I started shaking and crying and was totally out of it. I waited over 30 minutes for the Dr who was assisting to get there so they could start my spinal. I think that was one of the longest 30 minutes of my life. I was in so much pain and knew that at anytime they would give me the spinal and the pain would be gone. Thank God for my Nurse Deb who took over and put her hands on my shoulder and reminded me to breathe and look at her. The nurses there are awesome.
Once I got my spinal things moved pretty quickly. Adler Weber Popejoy was born at 3:41 AM on Friday May 18th. He weighed 8 lbs 11 oz and was 21 inches long. He came out screaming and pooping and instantly made his Mama an emotional mess. I hate being stuck on the table and missing everything that was going on. My Nurse Deb yelled over the curtain that I had just given birth to Andre The Giant and that she was pretty sure he was going to wear a size 16 shoe.
They cleaned him up and gave me a peek before they headed off to the nursery. I got back to my room at about 5:00 AM. They brought me Adler and I was amazed that he looked EXACTLY like Asher. He nursed for a good hour and then we cuddled until he had to go get his first bath. I was too keyed up to sleep so I watched TV and waited for them to bring him back!
Dr Austman came into my room and told me that there was no way he was going to come out and that I made the right decision. She said that since his head was big it was just stuck and wouldn't come down far enough to cause me to dilate. Poor lil guy had a huge cone head and both of his ears were completely folded down from being stuck down there. Thankfully they've pretty much come out of it now :) I hate that I had to make that decision but felt better about it after Dr A and the nurses all told me that a c-section was necessary.
It was a VERY long day/night but my Little Big Bubby was there safe :)
PS - My Nephew Kaden Ryan Popejoy was born later that day. We have us a set of Birthday Boys :)
