Friday, June 17. 6:30am:
*POP*
ZZzzzzzzz-Wha-… what was that? Did I hear that or feel that? That was weird. P-squared must have kicked me really hard or something… Well, I gotta go pee. Wait a sec, why are my legs wet… did I… did I wet the bed???
::rolls out of bed and looks at mattress::
Yikes, that’s a big puddle. Why do I still have to pee? Weird.
::Goes to bathroom, comes back to bed::
Me: Hey Babe?
Derek: Hmm?
Me: I think I’m leaking.
Derek: {cracks eyes open, concerned} What?
Me: I think I’m leaking fluid. I don’t know… maybe my water broke?
After some discussion, we decided to make “The Call” to my Mom so she could start the drive from Austin. Better be safe than sorry, right?
Derek got up and got ready for work and I crawled back in bed to get whatever rest I could. Even after the contractions started, I still wasn’t convinced that it was my water that had broken. Or that I was really in labor. After all, my due date wasn’t for another 8 days. I’ll admit, I was scared of going to the hospital and having them turn us away because I wasn’t actually in labor. I had the same fear when in labor with Addy.
I laid in bed for a while, eventually deciding to get up, shower and have breakfast. All sorts of things were running through my head.
Should I call my doctor?
What if they want me to go to the hospital immeditaely?
What would I do with Addy, Mom won’t be here for another several hours…
We haven’t gotten the crib set up in our room yet.
Thank goodness we put the car seat base in the car.
I have to finish packing my hospital bag.
Do I have time to vacuum before my Mom gets here?
I woke Adelyn around 9am, savoring what could (and would) be our last morning as just the two of us. We spent the rest of the morning coloring, reading, doing last minute packing and riding out contractions that, honestly, were not too ridiculously painful. Derek came home around 11am and helped me with last minute things before my Mom showed up around noon.
Laboring on our bed while Addy drew pictures.
Instead of leaving immediately for the hospital after my Mom arrived, I got Addy’s lunch ready. Addy knew that we were getting ready for “Baby” to show up and she was so excited. She teared up when she realized that she wouldn’t be coming with us to the hospital right away, but luckily Grandma was able to distract her with a brand new book!
Last pic as a family of 3 until we meet P-squared.
Addy enjoying lunch with Grandma and a new book.
When Derek and I left the house at 1pm, I sent a text to my sisters saying “Thundercats are goooo!” (a quote from the movie Juno, when Juno goes into labor). Mikaela got it right away. But Kim? She laughed. I suspected she hadn’t caught the reference, so I followed up with a “we’re heading to the hospital, Mom’s watching Addy” text. She definitely caught on then! (Hehe, Love you Kam!)
The contractions were painful on the ride to the hospital, but not overwhelmingly so. I was starting to feel really nervous that maybe we were heading to the hospital too soon. Were my contractions slowing down? Getting less intense? I started to psych myself out. But when we arrived at the hospital 20 minutes later, it finally dawned on me that this was happening. The next time I got in the car, we’d have another child.
Derek and I weren’t sure what we were supposed to do, so we went right up to the Labor and Delivery floor. As we were getting on the elevator, all giddy and nervous and smiling, a young nurse got on with us and rode up to the same floor.
She looked at me and asked “Are you here to have a baby?” Yes.
“Did you check in downstairs?” Oh, no. Were we supposed to?
“We make anyone who is in labor ride up in a wheelchair.” Oh.
And then she dropped this gem:
“Are you sure you’re in labor?”
::blank stare::
Was it because I wasn’t hunched over, clutching Derek’s hand? Was I not grimacing enough? Hmm, maybe I actually wasn’t in labor…
Of course, we said yes, I’m in labor and we think my water broke. She accompanied us to the L&D wing, where another nurse escorted me to a triage room to be checked out. Poor Derek was taken back downstairs to fill out paperwork. During the 45 mins that he was gone {I know! 45 mins for paperwork?!}, I had bloodwork done and was checked for dilation and effacement (5 cm, 80% effaced) and it was verified that my water had indeed ruptured! Side note: To check for amniotic fluid, they use a slip of paper kind of like a pH test. Unfortunatley, the lubricant they use when checking dilation and effacement makes can make the test inaccurate. So after getting no results from the slip of paper, my nurse, Jelaine {sweetest nurse ever!} used a Q-tip-like device…up there… and had to swab for a.solid.minute in order to get an accurate result. Voila! Test showed water had definitely ruptured.
So there, nurse-in-elevator! I was definitely in labor and deserved to be there.
By 2pm, Derek was finally through with the registration process and had rejoined me in the room. My contractions were painful but not excruciating, and they varied from 5-7 mins apart, but we decided to start the process of getting the epidural (it took over an hour and a half to get the painkiller train moving with Adelyn’s labor). We had to explain to the anesthesiologist the problems we had last time with the epidural {namely, the membrane around the spinal cord was punctured, leaving me with a spinal headache, a blood patch to try to fix the problem and then being practically bed-ridden for over a week after Addy was born}. By the time I had to sit up for the epidural to be administered, the contractions were becoming more painful and I had started to shake. Shivering uncontrollably but not being cold is a weird sensation…
So, 2:50pm, I’m getting the epidural. I have no fear of needles and I was looking forward to being more comfortable, but when the catheter went in, I could feel that it wasn’t perfectly in the middle. It felt like it was angled to the left but I didn’t want to be that woman and complain. {Note to self: BE that woman if it happens again} The contractions kept coming and the pain was starting to dull on my left side, but not on my right.
Numb, heaviness on my left side and left leg.
Intense pain on my right.
By 3:40pm, it was clear that the epidural wasn’t working on my right side. The anesthesiologist said sometimes people get hotspots where the epidural just doesn’t kick in. When I told him that none of my right side was numb, including the leg, he gave us two suggestions: redo the epidural (risks: puncturing the spinal membrane, the epi still not working on the right side – or worse, both sides) or try some other drug to take some of the pain away. We decided to redo the epi, so at 4:20pm, he put a new epi in. This time it felt much more centered in my spine (is it weird that I could feel that?), so I took that as a good sign. Unfortunately, while both my legs went numb, I could suddenly feel everything that was happening in my uterus. Contractions? Oh ya. Pain like I’ve never experienced before (I felt nothing at the end of the labor with Addy. I had been literally and completely numb from the belly down). Of course by this time, they had started me on very low dose pitocin to regulate the contractions and, man, was it effective.
4:45pm: I was ~9 cm dilated, 90% effaced. Contraction after contraction hit. Every 1 1/2 minutes I was sent into a moaning, writhing fit. I suddenly felt like I needed to push. My body just knew what to do. Every time a contraction came, I pushed. And honestly? The pushing helped. I don’t know if it actually felt better or if it just took my mind off the pain of the contraction, but all I know is that pushing helped.
At 5:05pm, we prepped the room for delivery. My OB came in and watched as I pushed. I kept pushing, waiting for her to tell me what to do, but my body took care of that instead. I pushed and out came P-squared’s head. My OB came forward and said “Oh, he’s so handsome!” {note: she didn’t know the sex of the baby either but told us later that P-squared just looked like a boy} and then said “Okay, one more push.”
I pushed.
P-squared’s shoulders came out, and then there he was.
5:22pm. All 7 lbs 11 oz, 21 inches of him. That dark head of hair, just like his sister’s.
And I cried tears of joy.
Derek cut the umbilical cord, and then they whisked our son away to be cleaned up and have his stats taken.
Straight legs! No longer in Momma’s belly!
Then they handed him off to Derek, the proudest Daddy in the whole wide world.
First photo of Colton with Momma and Daddy.
Colton and Momma getting to know each other.
My family arrived later that evening, and Adelyn got to meet her little brother for the very first time. She was very curious and seemed to understand that this was “Baby”, and he wasn’t in Momma’s belly anymore.
Such a sweet big sis.
Colton and Grandma Lo
Colton and Grandpa Joe
Colton and Auntie Kim
Colton and Auntie Mikaela
Great-Grandmother Dollins (Derek’s Grandmother)
Great-Grandmother and Great-Granddad Dollins
We didn’t have a name picked out for our little man, and although we had 3 or 4 names that we liked, it took two days to finally decide. As it turns out, “Colton” wasn’t even on our list. Oh, we had considered it in passing, but we didn’t write it down. But as I was nursing our boy at 3am that first night, I looked down at him and the name “Colton” just struck me. He looked like a “Colton”.
I told Derek and we thought about it, trying to get a feel for it. We didn’t want to rush into anything and then regret our choice a month down the line. By the next day, we just knew that it fit him. And now, I can’t even picture him as anything but Colton Derek.
This labor and delivery was so different than with Adelyn. Faster, more intense, even more emotional. But just as awe-inspiring. To know that a brand new little person has just joined the world, by way of ME, is an incredible thing. And to know that your heart can instantly double in size when you first lay eyes on this little person, your little person… well, it makes everything feel right in the world.
Welcome to our family, sweet baby Colton!
Adelyn is 2 years, 2 months old and Colton is 6 weeks old.
Disappointing Monday overall…
