My happy little family
<3
So in love
Such a good daddy
Piper's coming home outfit my wonderful sister made :)
Waiting for the first time at the hospital
My very last bump pic!
Wednesday, October 12th, I had my 39 week appointment with my dr. I was a little worried when we got there because Piper had slowed extremely in her movements to the point where I spent an hour and a half before I went to the dr trying to get her to move without much luck. So my dr listened to her heartbeat and declared it good, but we still went ahead and hooked up to a stress test monitor to see her movements. All was declared good and we finished the appointment. As I mentioned in my 39 week post (& multiple others) I was starting to get a wee bit over pregnancy. Which sounds so terrible esp considering I really had no major issues but sleep was really becoming an ordeal and I LOVE my sleep. We talked it over with my dr and decided to induce Piper on Monday, October 17th (her due date), if she didn't come before then. My dr seemed optimist we'd see her before then & she turned out to be right!
Wednesday night we went to serve at youth at our church like always. It was a little bittersweet because I knew it would be my last Wednesday helping out for the foreseeable future. Towards the end of the night we split into small groups. While Sean was leading ours I had several sharp pains in my belly but didn't think too much of it.
Once we're home I decide to take a hot bath to see if that helps the sharp pains. It didn't really and then I decided to try to go to sleep. But I really couldn't because I kept feeling like I had to pee. So I would get up and not be able to and then have a ton of pressure down south. Around this time Sean went to sleep (it was almost 10) and I started to clue into that maybe what I was feeling was contractions.
At this point I downloaded an app that could track the contractions for me and just kind of settled in to see what was going to happen. By this point it's 10 and this is when I count labor as "starting" for me. I proceeded to track them until almost 2. I talked with my friend Kayla about them until about midnight and then she went to sleep. Around 12:30 I started talking to my friend Ashley about them and she went into freakout mode when I told her it'd been about two hours. The problem was the timing between them wasn't very consistent and I didn't want to go in and be sent home.
I called L&D around 1:45 and explained that I was having contractions every 4-5 mins and had watched them increase since 10. They told me I could come in and get checked. I decided to wait till 2 to wake Sean just to make sure. He was so cute when I woke him up.
Me: hey I think we should probably go to the hospital
Sean: *eyes widen* did your water break?!
Me: well no but I've been having contractions since 10 so I think it might be a good idea
We get to the hospital around three and my friend Ashley meets us there. At this point my mom and sister (who it was planned would both be in the delivery room with us) knew we were at the hospital but were waiting it out to see if it would amount to anything. We get settled in and they check me and I wasn't any further along than I had been at my appointment earlier that day, between a 2-3 & 80% effaced. So that was discouraging especially because we could see that my contractions had increased in pain and number. They decided to have me walk for about 25 mins and check again.
At the next check I still hadn't changed and was given two options. I could go home and come back when either my water broke or my contractions were stronger or we could wait another hour and do more walking and be checked again. But if still nothing had changed would have to go until something else happened. So even though I really didn't want to leave we chose to just go then because I really didn't want to waste anyone's time.
Sean and I decided to stop for donuts on the way home but I was feeling pretty nauseated and didn't want to eat. So we head towards home and are no more than a block from our house when my water broke. At this point I essentially burst into tears. I couldn't believe we were just going to have to turn around and go back and I was terrified my water hadn't really broke and we would be sent home again. Sean tried to immediately turn around to head back but I freaked out and said I wanted to go home first. We pulled over in a church parking lot and I told Sean I needed to get out. At this point water is still basically pouring from me and I made Sean smell it to make sure it really wasn't pee. LOL He confirmed it wasn't so we went home. I changed which was dumb. I was even warned not to change but your brain just doesn't work! Immediately soaked through that and just said whatever. We grabbed a towel and went to leave.
Once outside again the first of the after water breaking contractions began. It was very intense and caused me to start to throw up. So I'm standing to the side of our driveway heaving without much luck of anything coming up because I hadn't ate since before church the night before. I joked with Sean as we went to leave when I was done that I sure was glad he loved me because I knew I was looking a hot mess!
We make it back to the hospital around 6 without any major complications. Because of my nauseousness they gave me a small bucket to hold in my lap for being wheeled back up to labor and delivery (which I never used to throw up in thank goodness). Y'all I became attached to this bucket, think Tom Hanks and Wilson his volleyball in Castaway!
For the next two hours I got blood drawn, an iv put in, and checked (I got to a 4 in the almost hour we'd been gone) all before getting my epidural WHILE having horrible contractions. Let me tell you right now, I have the highest respect for those who go through childbirth completely naturally! Whether you 100% chose to or you had no other options doesn't matter you are AMAZING!!! I was dilated to a 6 by the time I got my epidural and I know there is just no way I could have labored on through all that!
Sean was such a trooper. During that two hours it was just us at the hospital and I know I was not a lot of fun. I was having off the charts contractions about every two minutes and basically wanted to die every time I had one. This isn't an exaggeration for me, but I also have a low pain tolerance! I didn't want to be touched or talked to really. Back to the bucket, I held it in my right hand the whole time until I got my epi. At one point Sean tried to take it from me because I was essentially just holding it up in the air and I semi freaked out! It had become something for me to focus on during contractions haha and I very much needed it!
The time before the epi and after are like night and day. Once the epidural was in I was a much happier person! My mom got there right after I got it and my sister arrived soon after that. At this point it was around 8 and then it was just a waiting game. Our pastor came by and prayed with us and then later brought us some snack goodies. Mostly we all just sat around talking. I tried to take a small nap since I'd been up over 24 hours by this point but it's hard to rest when you're so excited.
A little before 12 my nurse and nursing student came in and checked me and I was at a 10 so we practice pushed. Y'all, LOL. With my epi I couldn't feel anything so the first practice pushes were a big waste as I did nothing. They came back after 12 and I'd say around 12:30 I'd kinda figured out what to do and we got down to business.
Pushing really wasn't that bad for me either. I could feel some pressure with the contractions which would let me know when to push. I did end up getting pitocin to help make the contractions closer together so we weren't just sitting there for like 5 minutes in between. They also turned my epidural down so that I could push better. When my dr came we were worried I wasn't progressing a lot and they might have to vacuum Piper out but luckily it wasn't necessary!
Our perfect baby came into the world at 1:57 pm and I could not stop crying right after! I knew I would but it's still so shocking when you see your baby & are like this, I made this!! This feeling hasn't gone away in the past 4 days. We are so in love and awe of our perfect baby girl. Sean is such an amazing dad and my heart is just so full!!!
& that's Piper's birth story! Congrats to you if you read the whole thing! LOL
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