I've always heard that you'll KNOW when you are in labor. I beg to differ. Had I KNOWN I was in labor, I probably wouldn't have opted to go to Chili's for dinner. I definitely wouldn't have ordered their Honey-Chipotle Chicken Crispers. I probably wouldn't have insisted on going to Jack's Custard shop afterward for a double scoop of blue moon frozen custard (although that is open for debate). And I probably would have insisted on staying home instead of wandering around the park in Brighton for an hour afterward so that Greyden could see the ducks. But no, since I didn't KNOW I was in labor, that's exactly how we spent Wednesday evening.
The previous Thursday I had been in to the doctor for my weekly checkup. She saw that my blood pressure had gone from the 100s/60s to the 120s/80s. Based on my previous induction due to elevated blood pressure, she said that we should think about inducing me over the weekend. Hold the phone. A blood pressure of 120/80 means I need to be induced? That's a better blood pressure than 90% of the population! Since I didn't want to be induced again, I convinced her to let me monitor it over the weekend and be rechecked at my next appointment on Tuesday. I agreed that if it went to 140/90, I'd call the office. I quickly discovered that the easiest way to keep your blood pressure high is to worry about it all weekend. I was checking my blood pressure every 2-3 hours. Sometimes it was 110s/80s, other times it was 130s/80s. We did have a couple of 140s/90s, but 15 minutes of rest was enough to bring it back down. Luckily I had my parents and my sister and niece here to remind me (constantly) to sit my ass down and rest.
Over the same weekend, I also begin having some pains in my belly that felt like running side stitches. On top of that, the baby wasn't moving much at all compared to the Olympic gymnastics of the previous week. I called the doctor to see if I should come into the office for monitoring. They told me instead to go to Labor and Delivery to be checked out. With my history of high blood pressure at the end of my previous pregnancy, and the fact that my blood pressure was up at my doctor's appointment the previous Thursday, I was sure that this was it and they were going to induce me. I figured it would be a liability for them to discharge me with my blood pressure "issues". I'd like to say I took the instructions to head to the hospital with excitement and anticipation, but I was a sobbing mess for the entire hour I waited for Kevin to get home. I was terrified. You'd think I'd have been ready for this, after all I had been pregnant or breastfeeding for the last 2.5 years straight, but not so much. I wasn't ready for another baby. Plus induction was not on my to do list. I was going into labor naturally with this one. After seeing Greyden in the NICU for the first hours of his life, I was hellbent on letting my body do what it was supposed to do, which is why I argued with the doctor over the induction in the first place. So we called Kevin's parents to pick up Greyden from daycare and off we went to the hospital where they hooked me up to a monitor and stole my blood. Two hours later................we were on our way home. They couldn't find anything wrong and the baby's heartbeat was perfect. I was thrilled!
Aaaaaaand by Tuesday morning I was not so thrilled. I was so uncomfortable that I was wishing they had induced me after all. Plus I realized that I had NO idea when I was going to have this baby. Was it going to be a day? A week? Another month? (Okay, a month might be a slight stretch, but at the time it felt like that could be a real possibility.) Tuesday night came and went without incident. I was having some Braxton Hicks, but nothing too bad. My appointment on Tuesday had me at 3 cm and 80% effaced, but the
By Wednesday morning, the Braxton Hicks had become stronger and I was really uncomfortable. Woo hoo! I unpacked and repacked my hospital bag because I was sure we were going to the hospital that morning. I even told Kevin to stick close to home. I sat down at my desk and frantically started working to get as much done as possible before I had to go in. 2 hours later, the BH contractions stopped. Besides still being really uncomfortable, there was nothing. Not even a twinge. Talk about frustrating. I was SURE (again) that we'd be having a baby that morning. Nope, instead I was planted in front of my computer working all day. Kevin's parents were still here watching Greyden (and waiting for me to go into labor. We all knew that the second they left I'd pop). I was fine all day until the BH contractions came back around 5 pm, but since they were straight up, normal contractions like I'd been having the entire second half of my pregnancy, we decided to go out to dinner. I figured would be a nice distraction (because dining out with a toddler is always a distraction).
While we were out, the BH contractions did get a little stronger, but still not much more than menstrual cramps, and definitely not strong enough to make me think that this could be labor. After dinner and frozen custard, we let Greyden run around the Brighton Imagination Station for a bit and took him for a walk around Mill Pond. I was definitely starting to notice the contractions more and had to pause a bit through them. While we were walking, I pulled out my phone to begin timing them just in case these were the real deal. By this time they were about 5-6 minutes apart, but sometimes 7, and sometimes 3. As we were packing Greyden up into the car, I told Kevin that I wanted to go home since I was getting more and more uncomfortable. He asked if we needed to go to the hospital instead, to which I responded that these were still BH contractions and there was no reason to drive all of the way over to the hospital again.
By the time we got home at 8:30 pm, they were slightly more uncomfortable. I started timing them again and realized that they had went from sporadic to almost exactly 6 minutes apart. I called the doctor because I had no idea what to do. I was still sure they weren't real contractions because while I now had to pause slightly when one came on, it wasn't like in the movies where I was doubled over and screaming in pain (which is odd, because I would have totally expected that from me.) I described my symptoms to the doctor and she told me to go to the hospital. Thank goodness Kevin's parents were still there, because we could just grab our bags and head out the door and didn't have to wait for them to arrive to watch Greyden.
The ride to the hospital was loooooooong. The contractions were definitely a little stronger and I was starting to close my eyes and moan my way through them instead of just holding my breath until they went away. (I know, I know, I'm supposed to breath through them. But trust me, I do much better holding my breath). By the time we arrived at the hospital around 9:30 pm I didn't even want to talk through them. I'd just close my eyes and put my head down until they went away. They got me hooked up to the monitors and saw that my contractions were about 6 minutes apart and I was 4 cm dilated. The started pumping the fluids into me and told me that I had to get a full bag of fluids in me before I could get the epidural. It was 2 hours later that they finally gave it to me. 2 HOURS. And yes, it was the longest two hours of my life. With contractions coming every 4-5 minutes, I was having approximately 1,267 per hour. (Yes, I did the math in my head. Twice.) I have no idea how or why people would intentionally do this naturally. It was hell. My epidural, however, was perfect. I had all of the feeling and movement in my lower body with just some slight numbness, yet I couldn't feel the contractions at all. If I had had to get up and walk I would have been able to. It was 180 degrees different than my last epidural where I could still feel the pressure of the contractions, yet had numb legs that felt like lead weights. Plus, I hadn't been able to feel the pressure that I needed to in order to push, which meant that I had to tense up my entire body instead and hope that at least some of the tension was pushing in the right place. It was exhausting.
After my epidural, things were much better. Mom and Dad showed up around midnight. The nurse checked me shortly after they arrived and I was still at 4 cm with contractions that had slowed waaaaay down. We all figured we were in for a really long night.
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| Relaxing before my big performance. |
It was 2 am when I suddenly felt a lot of pressure. I wasn't expecting it since my contractions were pretty much non-existent by then. I didn't say anything at first and instead figured I'd wait and see if it happened again before sending Kevin for the nurse. It took about 3 minutes before I felt it again. I told Kevin to get the nurse NOW. She came in the room and checked me. She looks at me, said that she doesn't feel any cervix at all, tells me not to sneeze or laugh, and runs out of the room to call the doctor. So THAT'S what it feels like when a watermelon decides to evict itself. I literally crossed my legs because the pressure was so intense. The baby was ready to make her grand entrance and it was all I could do to force my body not to reflexively push.
While we waited for the doctor to arrive, the nurse tried to reassure me that regardless of what it felt like, the baby would not just fall out. (I'm confused, how is that a good thing?) She also told me that this part of the process was called "laboring down", meaning that the baby was working her way further into the birth canal. She said that the benefit of laboring down is that when the time came for me to push, the baby would be completely in the birth canal and I wouldn't have to push nearly as long or hard to get her out. (As good as she made this sound, I'm pretty sure it was nurse code speak for "the doctor is still at home and in bed and I'm not delivering a baby without her". I continued to labor down for about 40 minutes all the while keeping my legs tightly crossed. I swear if I would have uncrossed them the baby would have popped right out. Around 2:40 am the doctor arrived, checked me, and told me we were ready to go. She broke my water at 2:45 am and by 2:52 am I had a beautiful baby girl. It took approximately 3 pushes for her to come out. Now before you get up in arms about how easy I had it (again), hear me out. The pain was intense. There is nothing harder than telling your body to push when your mind knows that all pushing is going to do is make the pain worse and is telling you no freaking way. All I wanted was for the doctor to pull her out so I didn't have to push. (She told me that this wasn't an option. Yes, I asked.) FINALLY I gave a big push and out came the baby. "Her head is out!" the doctor announced. I believe my exact words were "THAT'S IT?!?!?!" I could believe after all of that there was still more to come. Luckily the rest of her came out a lot easier with only one more big push. She started crying within seconds of being born and they plopped the amazing purplish and white blob on my chest.
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| 6 pounds, 11 ounces |
And can you believe it? We decided on a name right away! Just in case you're wondering, she was only Baby Girl Hockenberry for a couple of minutes. Emerson Kate Hockenberry was born July 12, 2012 weighing 6 pounds, 11 ounces, and was 18 inches long (although we think she was closer to 19 inches, since we took her to the doctor the day after she was discharged and she was 19.5 inches. Her own pediatrician measured her at 19.8 inches at her 1 week checkup.) She was born a whole half a pound larger than her big brother was. I'm thankful she didn't come out with the breathing issues that he had, although she did have a ton of mucus in her nose and lungs that the nurse had to suction. And the amount of hair this kid had was amazing. It was jet black and THICK. Her forehead, ears, and back were all furry too. She looked like a little Eskimo baby. Right after they got her weighed they let me try breastfeeding her. She took right to it like a champ! The only issue we (I) had was the incredible cramping I got every time she did it. I had heard that it was expected to be worse with the second child, but I had no idea it would be that bad. These cramps were way worse than the contractions, so much so that the nurse kept me on a steady supply of Motrin.
Besides that, I had none of the normal issues associated with childbirth. I had no tearing and didn't need to be cut to get her out. I was up and walking within an hour and shortly after that was in the shower. Breastfeeding is slowly becoming less painful (I'd forgotten about the feeling of razor blades being sucked out for the first couple of weeks). I had crazy back pain for a couple days which eased as soon as I was discharged and allowed to sleep in my own bed. We're now home and doing great. My mom stayed with us for the first week to help, which was great. We came home from the hospital to a completely clean house. She had scrubbed it from top to bottom, and even dusted. It was amazing. She also made us dinner almost every night while she was here. And since that darned baby always decided that she was hungry about halfway through dinner each night, Mom also cleaned up the kitchen for us each time too. :-)
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| First family picture |
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| Greyden isn't quite sure what to think of her just yet... |
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| Greyden trying to escape from mommy. Story of my life! |
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| Baby Sis and I. This one can't escape yet. |
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| My sleeping beauty. |
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| Getting ready to head home! |
One last thing, remember how I said that Emerson was born at 2:52 am? According to Kevin's parents, Greyden woke up around 2:50 am (almost the exact same time) and refused to go back to sleep for almost 2 full hours. As strange of a coincidence that it was, I'm really hoping that it isn't a sign of things to come!
I'd love to say that this post is so late in coming because of how busy I've been taking care of a newborn, but unfortunately that's not the case, being as she does a lot of sleeping. The reason I'm so far behind on posting is because my home computer crashed on me the week we got home and I just got it back. I've actually had this post written for almost a month. Now that I can finally upload my pictures, I promise I'll get busy. Stay tuned for a 4th of July post and Emerson's one month post. And, sadly, stick around for Greyden's 1st birthday post. I think it's safe to say that it has officially become a flashback post!
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