Lucas Edward is here! :) 9/20/13

Well, our baby boy is finally here! I had an exam on 9/17. I was 3cm, 100% effaced. I had horrible back pain the whole way home. For the next couple days I was getting back pain and cramps but no regular contraction. On Thursday (9/19) I was finally feeling better. I went shopping at Sam's club with my mom & walked on the treadmill for a little while when I got home. While on the treadmill, I kept getting strong braxton hicks contractions but they would subside after I stopped walking. When I told my mom I was finally feeling better, she told me that maybe this is the calm before the storm..... she was right! I slept pretty well Thursday night. I only woke up twice during the night which was a nice change from 3-4 times per night. I woke up when David was getting up for work around 7:00am. I stayed in the bed and told him that I'm getting bad cramps. I got out of bed when the cramps went away and went into the living room. The cramps kept coming but they seemed to be getting stronger. It would start out like a wave of back pain that would wrap around to the front. I started timing them. They started off around 7-8 minutes apart but quickly progressed to 5 minutes apart. They lasted about a minute and peaked at around 45 seconds. I wasn't sure if this was real labor or not so David headed out to work. I was getting really worried. It was getting to the point where I had to sit down during a contraction & couldn't really talk through them. I texted my mom and tried calling her 3 times but couldn't reach her. I started crying because I felt a bit helpless. Once I calmed down, I called my doctor and explained my symptoms. They told me to go to the hospital. David had only been at work for 10 minutes when I sent him a text telling him what the doctor said. He came right back home. In the meantime, I sent my brother a text to see if he could wake my mom up. My mom finally called me and I told her that we were going to the hospital. Once David got home, he threw my hospital bag in the car & we headed out. The drive seemed to take forever. The contractions were getting more intense and I wasn't very comfortable in the car. Once we got there, David dropped me off at the front doors and went to park the car. I couldn't walk through the contractions so I sat and waited for him so we could walk in together. Once we got inside, an employee ran right up when he saw I was struggling a bit & he grabbed me a wheelchair. He asked if I was in active labor and I said "oh, this better be active labor!!" He wheeled me up to registration so I could quickly give them my name and then we went up to L&D. They took me right to a room. What's funny is the fact that it was the same room I was hoping to get when we did the tour of L&D in August. The nurse checked me and I was at 4cm, 100% effaced. They asked me about an epidural and I didn't hesitate to say yes. Those contractions were horrible!

 They went through the whole intake process and got me hooked up to the monitors. My contractions were around 3 minutes apart at this point, I think. They placed my IV and started some fluids. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything except ice chips. They drew some blood to check my hemoglobin, etc.. I'm assuming just in case I required a c-section. I finally got my epidural around 9 or 10am. It's been almost 2 weeks and it all feels like a blur now! The epidural wasn't too bad but the guy didn't tell me he was about to jab a needle in my back so I jumped and he got a little pissed at me. Things were much better once the epidural kicked in. I felt a warm sensation down my left leg but not on right. They had me lay on my right side for a while to see if it helped but it didn't really make a difference. I wasn't in as much pain but I could still feel the contractions on my right side. They gave me a bolus of the epidural medication and I was finally starting to feel better. They put a foley in. I think around 11am I was already at 6cm and they broke my water. By 3pm or so, I was at 8cm. They had to bolus me again because the pain was getting bad again. Right before 5pm, I was getting the urge to push with each contraction. They said I was only 9.5cm and told me not to push. I didn't feel like it was something I could control at this point. So, around 5:15pm they told me I could start pushing. At first I tried pushing while laying on my back but it didn't seem very effective. They had me try lying on my left side and also tried a trapeze bar that I put my feet up on. David was GREAT the whole time! He was right there with me the entire time. He held my left leg while the nurse held the right. He jumped right in and helped me when I felt the urge to push and the nurse had stepped away. I wasn't sure how he would react during the whole process so to see him doing this made me so proud of him. I'm so blessed to have such an amazing husband. Anyway, I pushed for a little under 2 hours. I think at one point I could see him crowning in the mirror. Pushing was hard. It's hard to catch your breath & push again when you're bearing down from the first push. They had me do 3 pushes with each contraction. The doctor came in and decided to do an episiotomy (OW!). Thank God I had the epidural. After that, things progressed much faster. I felt my biggest motivation when he told me that I only had about 2 more pushes! I got my second wind and our little Lucas was born :) I was pushing with my eyes closed to I didn't realize he was out until they told me to reach down. They placed him on my chest and all I could say was "oh my God! oh my God!" I couldn't believe I just gave birth to a little miracle. :) I was in such disbelief. They took him over to get weighed, etc.. while I got stitched up. David had his eyes on him the whole time and was even holding his little hand. I've never seen a more beautiful thing in my life. :) So very blessed to having a beautiful son and amazing husband!

Lucas Edward was born on 9/20/13 at 6:37pm. 8 lb 12 oz, 19.75 inches. :)