On Saturday night, November 22, 2011 @ 38 weeks and 1 day, Mark and I were hanging out with Barney and Kendra. Mark went to get snacks and a movie around 10 because I suddenly had a craving for pumpkin pie. While him and Barney were gone, Kendra and I talked about waiting for the baby to get here. Around 11 PM I got up from the couch and my water broke. At first I really didn't believe it. I waited for Mark to get back and then let him start the movie while I had a piece of the pie. Turns out the movie wasn't what he thought it was so 30 minutes in he decided to stop it and Barney and Kendra decided to leave. During the movie I pretty much just stayed in my room so as soon as I heard the door shut I told Mark that my water had broke and we needed to call the midwife group. I called and talked to Tania who told me I could wait a few hours at home until contractions started.
While we were waiting for the contractions, a bad storm was heading towards us so we started getting everything ready. Garrett's car seat had not been installed yet so that was the first priority. We had planned to do it the next day after we had washed the cars, but obviously that wasn't going to be happening now. We tried installing it without the directions, but once it was all together it didn't seem right so we googled videos on car seat installation. We finally found the directions (they were in the car seat the whole time) and had to start over completely. Once that was finished, we finished packing and watched the weather waiting for the end.
By that time the storm was almost over and I was having contractions about 5-7 minutes apart. I called the midwife again but when she did not call back within an hour we just decided to go ahead and head to the hospital.
Once at the hospital I waited in the emergency room while Mark parked the car. Since I had not had a chance to take Mark on a tour of the hospital yet, he took a little longer to park than anyone expected. The ER guards kept asking me when he was going to get there. Luckily the contractions still weren't bothering me at that point. Finally he made his way in and they wheeled me up to L&D.
After stopping to register and get signed in they took us to the triage room. I was still having mild contractions and found out I was at 2 1/2 cm, but they couldn't really tell if my water had broken or not. It wasn't registering according to the little paper test they do, but since they could see the contractions on the monitor they decided I should just go ahead and stay. Finally, Tania made her way into the room. It was about 4 AM at this point. Turns out she had delivered 4 babies on her 24 hour shift and was napping. Mark called mom and dad so they could head down here from Ohio if they wanted.
They moved us into a birthing tub room at that point and Lindsay came on duty as our midwife. Pretty quickly my contractions started coming every 1 1/2 to 3 minutes and stayed that way all day with Lindsay checking on me from time to time. I asked to be checked around 2 PM and found out I was at 8 cm. I just needed to know I was progressing at that point. Until then I had spent time sitting on the birthing ball, time in the tub and tried the bed but it was too uncomfortable so I only stayed there for a couple of hours. Somehow I managed to sleep between contractions. Talk about 30 second power naps. Everyone was laughing at me for being able to sleep for such a short time between them, but I was just really tired. The tub wasn't much better for contractions. The ball was my best friend. Around 5 I tried the tub one more time and told Mark I was so tired that I just needed drugs. I had been more or less awake for over 30 hours by then and was more exhausted than anything. He left me to go talk to the Lindsay. Turns out he told her that I was asking for drugs but he knew that I really did not want them so he asked if she could just give me a sugar pill. (Aw, so he was paying attention to me every night when I told him a natural drug free birth was the only way to go). She came in to talk to me and said she could check me. I was at a 10 and could start pushing anytime, so no drugs were necessary. Unfortunately 3 other women were all trying to deliver about the same time. Since I suddenly stopped feeling contractions she was off to help all of them. By the time she came back in it was after 10 PM and I still hadn't had him.
At that point she had contacted the doctor that works with the midwives. He told her I had 3 choices since we were close to 24 hours now: find a new position and push him out, get a small dose of pitocin so I could feel the contractions again and push him out or head to a C-section. Once again Mark made the decision for me. Pitocin and get him out. Honestly that was my decision too but I was just too tired to care anymore. Even with the pitocin I barely felt contractions, but with Mark standing right next to me cheering me on at 11:18 PM, a full 24 hours after my water broke, Garrett came into the world.
Throughout my pregnancy Mark told me that he was not going to be able to handle the delivery room, that he would be in there, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to do much more than that. He was wrong. He barely left my side the entire day. He even ran to the cafeteria and ran back for some food hoping he wouldn't miss anything. Mark was pushing so hard right along with me that Lindsay joked that he was going to have hemorroids the next day. It was definitely a side of him I have never seen before.
The day didn't follow my birth plan completely but it was still perfect and just knowing that I was being heard made all the difference. So glad I found the midwife group. Even Mark could tell what a difference it made. Had I stuck to my original doctor I am certain the day would have gone much different and while I would still have my precious baby boy the labor part of the day would not seem as sweet. So much of the day was filled with laughter even through the pain. All in all it was one of the greatest days of my life. That day I became a mom, Mark became a dad and together we were a family.
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