At 11:15pm, I woke up to my water breaking!! I woke Nick up and told him my water broke & we were going to have a baby!!!
I called first nurse to let them know my water broke and to determine what to do next. After giving them all the information, they told me to head to the hospital. While I was on the phone with the nurse, Nick was putting our bags in the car. {Good thing I had finished packing them the weekend before} And we were off to the hospital to have our baby!!
After being admitted to the hospital around 12:15am, we had some decisions to make. I was only 1cm dilated, so we could wait to see if I started dilating on my own or start on pitocin to bring on the labor process. After discussing it, we decided to start on pitocin since it could be several hours before I would start in active labor {according to the doctors}. I was hooked up to an IV and started on pitocin at 2:45am.
I started feeling contractions within about 30 minutes...and after about 3 hours of getting no sleep and feeling the contractions, I decided it was time to ask the nurse for an epidural. She said it could take an hour before the anesthesiologist could get there to start the process and asked if I wanted to use an IV medication while I waited. I decided to take the IV medication - and man was that an adventure! I can't remember the name of the medication they gave me but it made me feel drunk & I was seeing visions {I won't go into details, but it included rows of animated dogs}. Nick & the nurse got some good laughs when I was describing what I was seeing!! This drug eased the pain enough that I didn't feel much until the anesthesiologist could get there to give me the epidural around 7:00am.
At this point, my normal doctor was doing his morning rounds and checked in on me. I was 3cm dilated and 80% effaced. And now, it was a waiting game. I sent our parents a text to let them know we were in the hospital and we would be having a baby that day! Then I slept for about 3-4 hours. After waking up, I sent a text to a couple close family members and friends to let them know we were in labor!
I can't remember the time but sometime during the morning, the nurses had me use an oxygen mask because the baby's heart rate would drop every time I had a contraction.
Around 11:00am, my doctor came back in to check me and I was still at 3cm dilated. He also informed me that since I was not dilating and they were concerned about the baby's heart rate - that I might have to have a C-section. He said we could proceed with the C-section now or wait a little bit to see if I progress more. Nick & I decided to wait an hour or so to see what happened - which the doctor was fine with because the baby's heart rate wasn't extremely low and they were closely monitoring it.
After the doctor left the room, I was emotional about the whole situation. I was scared about the baby's health and that I might have to have a C-section {which I really didn't want to do}. Nick was very supportive during this time and sat beside me holding my hand.
At 1:00pm, the doctor came back in to check me and I was dilated to 9cm!! And the baby's heart rate was doing much better - as long as I laid on my right side. So we decided to continue with a natural birth {and not do a C-section}.
It continued to be a waiting game from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. During this time, I kept getting text messages from family & friends asking if there was a baby yet...nope, not yet! I was slowly dilating from 9cm to 9.5cm to 9.75cm and finally to 10cm. We were also waiting for the baby to drop more - the nurses had me switch between laying on my right side and sitting up to have gravity make the baby drop.
Around 4:15pm, they decided it was time to push. I remember thinking "am I going to know how to push?' and "am I going to do this right?". It's amazing how it's such a natural instinct on how to do this. After about the 2nd or 3rd push, I thought there is no way I'm doing this for 2+ hours {like some of my friends have had to do} so I pushed as hard as I could! The doctor and nurses were surprised how fast the baby was coming out...and within 15 minutes, at 4:26pm, the baby was here!!
Of course, the first thing I asked was "What did we have???". The doctor showed the baby to Nick and he {Nick} said "It's a girl!" Nick was able to cut the cord and the baby was placed on my chest. The second I saw her and her head full of red hair...I knew she was our Kimber Nicole that I had thought of during my entire pregnancy!! Kimber laid on my chest for about 30 minutes, while the doctor finished his process - this is when he discovered that I had a true knot in my umbilical cord which could be why we were seeing issues with her heart rate during labor.
After holding my baby girl, the nurses took her to clean her up and take her measurements. She was a healthy 8 pound baby and we were surprised that she was 20 3/4 inches since Nick & I are both on the short side.
After they got done cleaning her up, I was able to breastfeed for about an hour. She latched on right away and did a great job! While I was feeding Kimber, Nick was making phone calls to spread the news of our new baby girl!!
Overall, I was in labor around 17-18 hours but it wasn't too bad. I only felt strong{er} contractions for an hour before I got the epidural and I only had to push for 15 minutes - which I think is pretty good for my first baby!
The nurses & my doctor were amazing during the entire labor. Even though they were closely monitoring the baby's heart rate and it was probably more serious than Nick & I realized at the time - they kept calm and played down the seriousness of the situation...which kept Nick & I calm during the labor process.
We are so excited to start this new journey of parenthood with our precious little girl!! She has already stole her daddy's heart and I know she's going to be a daddy's girl when she grows up!!
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