The Birth Story: Madison

Saturday was a busy day.  We had been invited to two different birthday parties and then Tim had a Men’s event at church that evening.  We decided that we go to the first Birthday party and then see how I was feeling before making a decision about the second party.  The first one was a blast, but I overdid it a little and my hips hurt so bad when we got home (from sitting on the ground outside) that I decided a nap (for all of us!) was a better option.  After waking up I joked with Tim that he should take a picture of me because it was probably my last day being pregnant EVER.  At about 5:00 Tim started to get ready to head to his Men’s event.  I had been having contractions all day here and there, but nothing serious or out of the ordinary.  But at about 5:30 I noticed that they started to feel a little bit different.  I happened to say something to Chloe and she became instantly concerned and told me that I NEEDED to have Tim stay home.  I reassured her that I would have plenty of time if it was the real thing and that I would bring Tim home if it got worse.  So, we said goodbye to Tim (at which point I DID mention that the contractions were feeling stronger) and he headed off to his event.

Just after he left I fed the kids supper and then Luke called to chat and see how I was feeling.  I talked with Luke and Krista for the next hour on the phone.  It was during this phone call that I started to time my contractions and noticed that they were getting closer and closer together–and increasingly more painful.  By the end of the conversation I noticed that I wasn’t able to talk through them anymore–simply using “mmmm-hmmmm” and other sounds instead of words to mask my pain.  It was then that I decided I needed to excuse myself and get Tim back home.

I called him, then called the midwife and we figured out who would need to come and watch the kids.  Jen was coming back to spend the night again, but at that moment was still at a wedding, so we called Alisa who came right over and helped put the kids to bed.  They were so excited as I left knowing that the baby was finally going to arrive.  I finished packing my hospital bag and Tim and I hopped in the van when he got home.

We checked into the hospital right about 8:00 pm.

My contractions were about 2 min. apart.  The nurse joked with us about guessing how dilated I was. We thought I would be a 5 or 6.  I got checked in and hooked up to all the monitors and then they checked to see how far along I was.  Three and a half.  But my water still hadn’t broken, and I remember in the past that once that happens things progress quickly.

They decided that they were FOR SURE going to keep me in the hospital at which point I made it clear that I would like an epidural, which meant they needed to hook up an I.V.  My midwife still wasn’t there yet, so I had to wait for her to arrive in order to give the ok for the I.V.   She arrived shortly (a new midwife who just joined the staff at St. Francis within the past month, so I didn’t know her, but she was really nice) and things started rolling.  We joked about how my other babies all arrived at 40 weeks 4 days and how I was so close to 4 days with this one… so we made a plan to have this baby at 12:01 am to make it match.  🙂

The next little bit is a blur.  They got the IV in, ordered the epidural, there were many, many contractions, nurses in and out, the epidural guy came (and was a hoot by the way), then we waited for it to kick in, more contractions, then decided I needed to lay on my side with the “peanut ball” between my knees for a while since the baby was twisted a little inside of me.  This was going to help turn the baby during contractions.  But at this point we discovered that the epidural works based on gravity.  Meaning the side I was lying on was feeling great, but the side up in the air was NOT feeling great.  So, we got that fixed, switched sides and she checked me again.

Now it’s 11:17 pm.

At this point she could see the head coming out and asked me how important it was that I made it to midnight…

I laughed and said, “not that important…”

Interestingly I asked if my water had broken (I thought I maybe just didn’t notice).   She checked and surprisingly, it had not.  In fact the baby was pretty much coming out in spite of my water not breaking!  So she broke it, I pushed for two contractions, and she was here!

It was a fast labor.  I was checked in at 8:00 and had her at 11:23.

And that, is that!