This is the story of the birth of Maddox. My mom arrived on Monday, June 30, and after I got her safely home from the airport I thought for sure I would go into labor that night or soon after. After that didn't happen, I was on a little mission to get this baby out. On Tuesday evening, Rudy made his old standby dinner - sauerkraut and kielbasa. It was yummy, but I knew it would give me indigestion and my digestive system was already backed up and when it did try to move, let me tell you it was painful! My doctor on Wednesday said I was still dilated to about 1 or 1.5 cm and so we scheduled the induction for the following week which was a relief, but I really didn't want to wait that long! So, that evening we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and I chowed on some hot wings - lots of them thinking that would move things along. The caribbean jerk wings were hot and tasty, but no baby that night.
The next day it was Thursday, July 3rd, my actual due date, and I was working all morning at home trying to finish up a project. Around lunchtime I sent out all my files via email to the project team and went upstairs to take a shower. Rudy and I also thought we would try one other thing to get labor going and let's just say it did the trick. (Use your imagination, but don't think about it too long, hee hee!!) A short bit later as I was laying in bed, lo and behold, I felt and yes, actually heard this popping sensation, then a flood on the bed. I was in shock at first - oh my goodness, this is it! I couldn't believe it!! Rudy was there with me when it happened and he was shocked too at first. Then he kicked into "Mister organization" mode. "Here's a towel" he says, "I am going to take a shower and then finish packing up. You can shower then". Yea, we weren't completely packed and we had a lot to do! All I could think was I needed to send emails to people and grab this and that and oh yea, call the doctor! We were SO EXCITED!!!! I actually got in the shower first so I could relax and wash my hair and attempt to shave my legs. Ha ha, yea, I actually shaved my legs. And let me tell you, shaving your legs when 9 months pregnant takes forever and is really difficult!! Every time I moved around, more amniotic fluid would come out. It seemed like I was losing a lot and it made me nervous. I couldn't feel Maddie moving, so I was anxious to get to the hospital. Rudy called the doctor while I was in the shower and they said we were to come in pronto because of the rupture. We weren't going to rush right over there - we wanted to clean up and get all our stuff together. Rudy also called my mom who was at the grocery store with Jackson and told her, so she came home and said she would make us sandwiches because once we got to the hospital, they wouldn't let me eat or drink anything. She was right, from the moment I arrived, all they let me have were ice chips.
So, my water broke around 1pm - by the time we showered, shaved, packed, ate and emailed, we got to the hospital and were in our room by 3pm. I did start having contractions shortly after my water broke, they were pretty minor though, nothing too painful, but pretty regular at 3-5 minutes apart. But, they were definitely different than the Braxton-Hicks I had been having. There was more pain in the groin area, like my entire pelvic floor was contracting rather than my tummy. We started writing them down and they were coming pretty close together - about 3-5 minutes apart, but very mild and not painful at all really.
We arrived at the hospital and did the valet parking and went right up to labor and delivery and were in a room by 3pm. My nurse, Theresa (who was so cool), did the little test to make sure my amniotic sac had indeed ruptured (and yes, it had - duhh, I was gushing so much fluid it was freaking me out). Dr. Weeks was the ob/gyn on call that day and he came by and he checked me and I was still only dilated to 1.5 cm or so. The plan was to let me contract on my own until 6pm and then start pitocin if I wasn't making a lot of progress. So, I got off my butt and we went on a couple walks around the halls to get the contractions going. At 6pm they started the pitocin. I was still contracting on my own, but they were still around 3-5 minutes apart but not much stronger. They slowed down when I layed down and they wanted to get the labor going since my water had broken. The contractions got stronger and stronger and we switched from the deep, slow breaths to the faster "hee hee hee, whoo" breaths. The contractions were starting to hurt pretty good! But, they were manageable. Around 9pm the doc came and checked me and I was dilated to 3cm. He asked me if I wanted the epidural and I say "oh yea"! Rudy thought I should wait a little longer, but I didn't really want to experience contractions much worse than the ones I was having, and looking back it was a good decision because I was exhausted by the time I had him that having to suffer through more pain would have worn me out even more. I think I was very lucky in that I didn't experience really hard, painful contractions. But, I got a tiny taste of what contractions were like and knew I didn't want to experience any more pain! The anesthesiologist came in and I got to experience one of the more unpleasant experiences of the night. I had to pee and asked if I could go to the bathroom before he put the epidural in, but he was in a hurry and had to go do a c-section next so said he would leave if I went to the bathroom. He was not a very nice guy I have to say and he proved it when he stabbed me in the back with the first shot to numb my back. I wasn't ready for it and he just jabbed it in all of a sudden and I jumped. Then he shoved the catheter in and I could feel it go in and up, it was a very weird and very unsafe feeling to have someone jerking something into my spine. I had a really hard time staying still. I was holding onto the nurse for dear life. Rudy left the room and let my mom stay with me during because they only wanted one other person in the room, but she had to sit across the room and couldn't really do anything anyway. Once it was in, I had instant relief - I did have one contraction during but it wasn't too bad. The epidural made me feel a little woozy, relaxed and numb! I didn't feel any pain at all until the next morning. I couldn't even tell anymore that I had to pee. About 30 mins later, the nurse came in and put a catheter in so I could "pee". I couldn't feel anything and settled in to take a nice snooze all night long. Little did I know that I wouldn't sleep a wink!
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