Layla's Birth Story

Continuing from Pregnancy post. I was due on October 7th, 2012. Well, as what happens in many pregnancies, October 7th came and went. I was still pregnant at my "past due" appointment on October 10th. I was 2cm and 80% at that appointment, and was able to look at the call schedule and picked Sunday October 14th, 2012 for my induction date, as Doctor McKinnie was the OB on call that day. I hadn't had a Braxton hicks contraction in weeks, and hadn't had a real contraction ever. I was tired. Tired of being pregnant. Tired of everyone asking "are you ever going to have that baby?". I was tired of the skiddadled people freaking out when I said I was past due. I was ready to have this baby. I had I knew at that point that Layla's godmother, Jen, and Chris would be there for Layla's birth. I hoped that my mother in law would be there as well, but she said she was planning to come at the end of October. October 13th, My amazing mother in law showed up and was ready to be there for her grand daughters birth! I was so happy! It made me feel good, because my mom will probably never see Layla. We had dinner that evening and I prepared myself for "tomorrow is the day" all evening long. The doctors office called and said I was scheduled for a 4am call slot, which meant, starting at 4am, they could call whenever and tell me when to come in for my induction. Chris knowing that the next six weeks I wouldn't be able to have any sex, caved on his "no more sex til the baby comes" stance at about 10pm, and well...we did the deed. He immediately fell asleep after making sure I was ok at about 10:30. I tried to relax and go to sleep as well, but the fact that I had to pee every few minutes prevented me from being able to. I thought I was getting a UTI, and thought "ggggreeeeaaattt ...just what I need on delivery day!", but I noticed that the pee had an odd smell to it. I passed it off as maybe just being sex and all that joy of finishing up. (Sorry..TMI I know). Well, as Chris continued to saw down the redwood trees and logs with his snoring, I kept peeing. and peeing. and peeing. Finally about 12:50, I noticed that I had to pee AGAIN. I was tired of getting up, so I kinda did a kegel to see if I really had to pee, or if it was just an urge. A minute later, I felt a surge of wetness "down below". "Grrrrreeeaaatttt now I just peed on myself! LOVELY!" I ran to the bathroom to change underwear and shorts in aggrevation. As I reached the toilet and began to undress, a whole flood of fluid gushed out of me and all over the bathroom floor. It smelled weird, and I didn't know what just happened. "did I just pee on myself, for real?" I cleaned it up, peed, and went to grab my phone to call Jen to ask her if my water broke. No one told me what to expect when your water broke, so I was flying blind. It was like 12:53 am October 14th when I called her. She asked me what happened, and if it smelled. I told her yes, it smelled like medicinal and that it just gushed out as I was standing there. She said "YES! YOUR WATER BROKE!! " I was dumbfounded. "Do I need to wake up Chris, or do I have some time?" and shes like "oh no honey, you are in labor, go wake Chris up!! I'll be at the hospital as soon as I can and get a few hours rest."
I hung up the phone and waddled back into my bedroom to wake my sleeping snoring husband. Funny.. just 9 months ago, I was waking him up to tell him I was pregnant. "Babe, hey..I think my water just broke." "WHAT? Are you sure?!" "uh, no..but its either that or I really can't control my bladder anymore. Anythings possible at this point." "Do you want to go to the hospital?" "I think that's the best option..." "I think you just peed on yourself and they are going to send us home and they will make us come back a few hours later for the induction. This sucks. What's that smell?!" "whatever just came out of me" "Ok, well lets get showers and grab our stuff and go" Turk and Kasey were both sleeping, but Kasey flinched and groaned as the lights turned on. Turk, who had been "guardian" of me, followed my every move with anxious shaking. I headed to the bathroom to take a shower when another flood of fluid gushed onto the floor, and again as I got into the shower. GEEZ. How much fluid is in me?! I finished my shower, and threw on PJs and wrapped my hair into a bun and saw Chris had finished his shower and was packing. I sat down to wait as he mumbled about "picking a great time" and "im sure you just peed on yourself". I told him I had three more gushes of fluid come out as I was in the shower. That's when my first contraction hit. The painful, crampy, tightening deep within my stomach. "Ouuuuuuuucccccchhhhhhhh.. HURRY UP!". Chris went to do his hair, floss, brush his teeth, shave, and put shoes on.. by this time, I felt another "urge to go" and headed to our spare bathroom, when I had a huge bowel movement (tmi..again sorry..but this IS a labor story!) and noticed I lost what appeared to be a huge glob of something. I freaked out momentairliy until I realized it was my mucous plug. I was in labor. Another few contractions later, Chris was finally ready. I kissed Kasey goodbye. She didn't even move. Of course, she didn't move much now a days anyway.I told her I loved her and that someone would be by in the morning to feed her. I was going to miss her. Turk had been beside me every step I took, and was ready to follow us outside. We kissed him goodbye. Our living room reeked of amniotic fluid. My contractions were 3 minutes apart as we headed to the hospital at 2am, I thought I was going to die on the half hour ride on the way to the hospital. I worried about Chris, but he seemed to be awake enough, but he had only had about 3 hours of sleep. We got to the hospital at about 2:20, and as I checked in I said "I was scheduled for induction today, but I am pretty sure my water just broke", and I finally got into a room about 20-30 minutes later. By the time I was seen, my contractions were going off the chart, and I was having contractions ever 2 and a half minutes apart.
By 5:30, I was ready for the epidural when they offered it to me. I kept saying "fuuuuuuuccccckkkkk" everytime I got a contraction and everytime I said that, Chris lectured me on how that wasn't very lady like of me to be saying while I was in labor. I resisted the urge to take the computer monitor that was monitoring my contractions and throw it at his head. Then he kept telling me to "breathe". I had to remind him and the nurse that if I wasn't breathing, I wouldn't be alive, so SHUT UP! Lol Both of them.. if looks could kill, they would have dropped dead a thousand times over. The nurse left to check and see if a labor and delivery room was ready yet (as I had been waiting for 2 hours in a triage room ) and then came back to report that if I "wanted the epidural, theres a half hour wait". She offered to give me an IV with narcotics, which would take 20 minutes to kick in. I did the math contractions every 2 minutes now ..half hour wait...15 more contractions? I could wait. The dialation checks were GOSH AWFUL.. they hurt worse than any contraction I experienced!! She said I was 5cm
At 6am, I was moved to a labor and delivery room, I was 6cm dialated at this point, and contractions were 1 min 45 seconds apart to 2 minutes apart. I think if I could have married my anistesiologist at the moment he gave me my epidural, I probably would have. He said as soon as they turned it on it would take 20 minutes to kick in..however, I felt nothing else.
As he finished at about 6:30am, Jen walks into the room to give chris a break and let him go find something to eat, as he was getting low blood sugar shakes. Never have I been so happy to see a friend!! I felt so good from the epidural and lack of sleep, I was giddy. Chris swore I was high. She had me get ready to rest, and then made sure everything was quiet for awhile so I could rest. Apparently, I did fall asleep for awhile, because I woke up to a nurse coming in to tell me her name and that she would be taking care of me. It was only 8am. Doctor Mckinnie was now on call, but in an emergency C-section. They checked my dilation. Progress had slowed and I wasn't having many contractions since the epidural was started, so she said they may have to start Pitocin and left, and we didn't see her for a few hours. They came in to rotate me around 10ish, and the nurse returned and said I was between a 8cm-and 9cm.. and it shouldn't be much longer. She said to call them if I feel any pressure in my bottom, like I have to poop. I couldn't feel anything. My damn legs and asscheeks felt like a rubberized frog. My Mom in law arrived around about this time, and my grandfather said my grandma should be coming soon At about 11:15, Jen was asking how I felt besides having dragon breath and hungry as hell. She asked me if I felt anything. I said no, I just felt pressure on my leg/thigh/pelvic bone. It kinda hurt, but it felt like something was pushing and stretching on it. Jen, thank goodness, decided to go and have the nurse come check me anyway. Just in case. The nurse came in and wasn't even able to check me, Layla's head was right there!!! While another nurse held my legs and mom and Jen held the other ones, the main nurse got layla into position. However, I almost gave birth right then in there because Mom noticed that my foot happened to be on one of the nurses boobs! We all started cracking up laughing, and everytime I laughed, Layla's head emerged some, then retreated. The nurse then ordered me not to laugh and raced to go find doctor Mckinnie ASAP and she said whatever I did, DO NOT PUSH until they got back. At 11:35, Doctor Mckinnie entered with the nurse and did a quick check of things, before telling me it was time to push. At 11:53am, Layla Rose Hargrave was officially introduced into the big wide world at 7lbs 14oz, and 19inches long. And so my journey into motherhood began.