Throughout the week, I had a few times where I was sure the Braxton hick contractions were no longer just Braxton Hicks ones. I would get all prepared mentally for what I thought would be labour in a very short amount of time... No such luck.
My due date came and passed, and I was trying all the "inducing tricks". Here's the thing. The baby will come when the baby is ready. On Saturday, Wes and I decided to go to my parent's house as his family was at a conference and I did not feel any contractions or anything at all so I figured it would be safe. We hung out there and went to bed. At 3 am I woke up to my water breaking. It was definitely surreal as I had been prepared for this all week and the one time I decided I would forget about it... now was the time she decided to come. We stayed a little longer, I had a shower (for those who are expecting... have a shower before you go to the hospital if you can... it will be a while before you may get the chance to again), tried to get a bit more sleep. At 7 am the rest of my water broke. I will keep from details. But I will say it's not like the movies show it. Not at all.
We went to the hospital, and I must say we were both pretty calm thinking back. My sister-in-law took our car to drop us off (so we didn't have to worry about parking). We had been prepared for this and knew where the "Delivery" door was, so we got her to drop us off there. In this case delivery was not baby delivery, in fact if we had driven a bit further in we would have seen the trucks for the deliveries made to the hospital.
I blame pregnancy brain.
So here we were both Wes and I walking around the hospital to the front door while I was having contractions... Looking back we must have looked like fools.
Finally we got to the labour and delivery rooms and got set up. I had my IV put in (after 2 failed attempts) and started walking around. I was so lucky to have so many people come to the hospital throughout the day, even though they were not able to come into the room. It was nice knowing they were there.
We found out that I was only 2 cm dilated and they started me on inducing drugs since my water had broken and they did not want the baby having to stay in there long in case of infection. As time went on my contractions got worse and worse and finally I decided to get an epidural. Honestly not as bad as they make it out to be. I'm a baby for pain and I didn't even feel it. This went on for 15 hours and they finally decided that since I had not progressed much ( I was still only 4 cm dilated- yes I was technically not even in labour... Ha) , the baby's head was against my pelvic bone and just pushing up against it wi each contraction (which were one minute apart on average) and her heartbeat was dropping even when I was not having contractions that I may need a c-section. Although this was not my plan, at this point I just wanted her out safe and healthy. After waiting one more hour they made the final call and within 10 minutes I was in the OR room and ready for this baby to join us.
Wes was able to come in with me which was a huge help. Unfortunately, some of the drugs did not kick in as they should have and I was feeling more pain than I should have been. They decided that they would put me under general anesthetic. But at this point I just wanted to wait until the baby was out ( they told me 7 minutes from the time they started). I remember just asking over and over again if my baby was out or how close until she was out. Finally she was here. They lifted her above the curtain and I saw her for a moment before she was taken away. As soon as they took her, I was put under.
I woke up an hour or so later, and though I was very much unaware of what was happening around me, I do remember holding her for the very first time( with help from Wes as I was still very weak).
The next few days, I had to both take care of Peyton and try to recover. The first day was tough, but slowly I began to gain more strength and really enjoy my baby girl.
I was so blessed to have both Wes and my Mom by my side throughout the day, as well as family and friends the following days.
Now begins the parenting!
Congrats Bre! She's beautiful! :)
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