Her little brother decided he was nice and comfy just where he was. At 37 weeks I was 3 cm dilated. "it could be tonight, it could be weeks" the doctor said and then she offered to strip my membranes to try to induce labor. Nothing happened.
At 39 weeks I had a cold, the whole family did, there was a horrible storm inbound and Oma was still 3 days out of being there to take care of E. It would have been a horrible weekend and I was already 4-4.5 cm dilated. The doctor mentioned she really didn't want me going past 40 weeks because the baby was already seeming large. She mentioned that maybe we should do an induction if nothing happened. Of course we figured Tank would try to be dramatic and make his appearance then, probably at the height of the flooding and rain, just to keep this interesting on the 45 minute drive to the hospital.
I started freaking out. What if it was flooded? Where would E go? Who would take her? Would we have to take her to the hospital with us? Would Ken have to miss the birth? I think at one point we had 5 friends on standby to come up/ take E. Shelby drove up Saturday when the rains started to get really bad, just in case, so that E would have someone at home if Mommy and Daddy needed to go. I had contractions for a few hours in the middle of the night, I lay awake on the couch trying to time them and not freak out.
But...nothing happened. The contractions fizzled out. The rain stopped. The flooding abated. Oma arrived safely. No baby.
So at my "40" (39 weeks 5 days) week appointment I mentioned induction. The doc said they'd call me with a time once they'd contacted the hospital. Less than an hour later we had an eviction time and date. 5 am the next day!
They made me come in and pick up some instructions and after reading them I started to freak out. The instructions made it sound like I was going in for surgery. No food or drink after midnight. Not even water. I had to take two special showers with a pre-surgical prep soap "paying special attention to the lower abdomen and crotch". Did they think I was going to have a C-section? Why were they having me do pre-surgery prep?
After not much sleep I called in to the hospital at 330 am to see if they still had space for me to come in. Got the green light. So into the shower for the second special shower and off to the hospital we went.
This time was so different...no triage room, no checks, no monitoring. Just straight into a birthing suite. IV in, medical questions asked, and at 6 am they started my pitocin drip.
Started getting some contractions, tried to rest and watched a lot of NCIS. Around 830 the doctor arrived and checked me. She guessed he was going to weigh around 8 lbs. Progressing along, but he was still super high up, he didn't want to leave. She broke my water and let me get out of bed. I opted for the birthing ball and that felt much, much better than the bed. Watched some more NCIS, chatted with Ken. Labored along. The contractions started getting much stronger, though they didn't register as so on the monitor. I was waiting for the kick you in the crotch kind of sensation I'd gotten with E when active labor really started, because I knew I wanted my epidural at that point.
Around 1030 I still hadn't had the sensation, the monitor was still reading very small contractions, but I was feeling them so much more than the monitor showed. So, I asked for the epidural. They ran a bag of fluid into me (SOP), it took about half an hour. Then they kicked Ken out of the room (SOP) and the anesthesiologist came in. I had two nurses with me, one was shadowing my actual nurse and she was a midwife. It was nice having the extra support there, especially since Ken could not be in the room for the epidural. They numbed up my spine and then tried to insert the epidural needle. I felt the needle going in and down my spine like hot acid shooting up and down my right side. I cried out and told them I could feel it. They backed the needle back out and tried numbing my spine some more. They tried again. Hot acid down my right side and a contraction at the same time. I started sobbing. They tried a third time, waiting a little longer for the numbing medicine to work and success. So much relief.
It was a different epidural experience for me than with E. I could still easily move both of my legs, and I could still feel the contractions, but only in my butt. It was a really odd sensation. Everywhere else was numb. It was really distracting and made me totally fearful of pooping during delivery.
They checked me 6.5 cm dilated but he was still too high up. So they brought in the peanut ball. It's like an exercise ball but it's shaped like a peanut. Since I was stuck in bed I had to lay with it instead of sit on it. To help take my mind off things Ken and I played some Star Realms. We played two games (I won the first, he won the second) and then they came to check me again. In the 40 minutes we'd been playing I went from a 6.5 to a 9.5 and he'd come down into place. It was go time!
I pushed for about half an hour. I could still feel the contractions and had a good sense of when I needed to push. I'd debated trying for a med-free birth, because I wanted to experience it, and I kind of got my wish. While I couldn't feel any pain in my back or stomach, I could still feel everything else. I could feel him emerge (and they aren't joking when they call it the "ring of fire"). He had the cord around his neck when he came out, they had to cut it immediately and then he was up, out and on my chest.
He was so big and he was so purple. So purple. And not really breathing. And my heart sank into my stomach. They whisked him away to the warmer and kept saying "he's okay, he's just in shock, like when you jump into cold water. He'll breath in a second. We're going to make him mad." They were rubbing him vigorously on the warmer. All I could see was how purple he was.
And then he cried and the world was okay again.
They gave him to me and delayed all the newborn measurements so that he and I could snuggle and bond.
Eventually they did weigh and measure him. They heard us call him "Tank" and said it was an appropriate nick name for him because he was so big.
at 1:35 pm on 10/28/15 Tank was born weighing in at 9lbs 0.4 oz and 20.5 inches long.
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