Monday, February 26, 2007

Birth Story

On December 31, 2005, we were in San Jose, visiting my SIL in the hospital (she was due on Jan 15 and gave birth to a girl on Dec 30), then we went to my other SIL’s house for dinner (a small New Year's celebration) and I was having some contractions, but nothing regular. We left there around 10 pm, and when we got home, we put the kids to bed and started watching a movie on HBO (Phantom of the Opera). I started timing my contractions around 12:30, because they were coming regularly, just not at regular intervals (like, 20 minutes apart, some 15 minutes apart, some 10, etc). Larry was sleeping during this whole time. Anyway, around 3 am, I called the hospital and said I was in labor, but I wasn’t sure when I should go in, because my contractions were consistently coming, although irregular in time, and she said she needed to ask me a bunch of questions to evaluate me. I gave her my full history of quick labor and told her I did NOT want to miss my epidural again like the last two times. She said it didn’t sound like I was in active labor and discouraged me from going in. Again, I reminded her of my quick labors and said that they were always inconsistent, but then started building upon each other quickly. Then she said to call back in one hour and let them know how I felt and what my status was, but they generally didn’t want me to go in until my contrax were 5-7 min apart for an hour. I told her that they told me that last time I was pg and in labor and I gave birth 30 minutes after arriving to the hospital. She said to call back in one hour, which by that point, my contrax were getting more intense, but still irregular and around 7-10 minutes apart. But I told the lady I was coming in, because I really didn’t want to miss my epidural again. I called my mom, and by the time she came over, it was 4:20 and my contrax were 5 minutes apart. On the way to the hospital, my contractions became 2-3 minutes apart. I think we got to the hospital around 4:40 in the ER, then by the time they wheeled me into my room and I got changed into my gown and they put the monitors on me, I was begging for my epidural and it was around 4:55, and they said they need to get me checked into the hospital and check my status and get an IV in me and blood work to the lab, yada yada yada. I knew at that point that I was going to miss my epidural again. She put the IV in my and got my blood drawn and the nurse checked my cervix at 5 am and I was 6 cm. She said, Plenty of time! And I was like, yeah, right! The doctor came in 15 minutes later to check me and I was 9 cm, with a bulging bag of waters and she said as soon as she breaks my water, I could probably start to push, so she got into her scrubs and broke my water and at 5:20, Ainlsey arrived! I think I pushed about 5 times, and boy did it hurt! I was screaming at them to get her out! It felt soooo much better when I finally pushed her all the way out and I could feel her body just sliding out of me, my pain just went away! Oh, relief! But man, was I mad that I missed my epidural again because that nurse refused to listen to me. I should have just gone in when I called at 3 am. I’m glad I got to the hospital on time and didn’t have her in the car! Ainsley Madeleine was born on New Year's Day 2006.