Catching Up and Catching my Breath

My last post was on August 5th. I was lamenting about how uncomfortable and hot I was...how ready I was to have my labor induced...how concerned I was about dividing my attention between two babies...
It's only been three months, but it seems like I was writing that a lifetime ago. I can't imagine our lives without our little Wes. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I was scheduled to have my labor induced on Tuesday, August 18th. My prior exams showed I was dilated to 3, and had been for 3 weeks. We were in a holding pattern.
The weekend was nothing unusual. Jerry worked on Friday. Grace and I went grocery shopping and played outside. On Saturday, the three of us went to Cape Coral to look at another Craig's list find; a fabulous computer armoire. We made arrangements to pick it up the next day.
On Sunday, Jerry and Mike went to pick up the armoire while Grace and I attempted the 9:00 mass. We made it almost to communion! When the guys got back, I picked up lunch: awesome wings and fries from Buffalo Chips. I ate a ton. I spent the day nesting; I set up the bassinet and washed and dried a mountain of laundry. My plan was to fold it after Grace went to bed...the universe had other plans.
Grace went to bed around 7:30. I was feeling tired, but I was 9 months pregnant and had chased a one-year-old around all day. I didn't feel much like eating dinner. I told Jerry I was feeling "crampy". I showered and had a contraction. But it could have been my imagination...I told Jerry, "just so you know, I had a contraction, I think." Just about that time, I had another one.
Jerry: How long since the last one?
Me: ummm....four minutes? That can't be right. I don't know. Maybe they're not contractions.

Jerry suggested we eat ice cream. I whole-heartedly agreed. Four minutes later, there was another contraction. I was confused, because the doctor had said in my exam the week before that I wouldn't be able to walk or talk through real contractions. I was walking and talking fine, so I just assumed it wasn't the real thing.

Jerry: Maybe we should go to the hospital?
Me: They have to be like this for an hour. I'm sure they'll go away.

But an hour later, Jerry was pretty sure I was in labor, with contractions coming every four minutes. Here was the problem: Grace was sound asleep in her crib. My aunt wasn't coming until the next afternoon. I called a friend of mine whose daughter had babysat for Grace once before. She arrived within 20 minutes. During that time, Jerry took the truck to get gas, and I FINALLY finished packing my hospital bag, AND I finished my pre-admission paperwork, too!

When we were on our way to the hospital, I was still insisting that the contractions weren't real, and that the hospital staff would send us home when we got there. But the contractions intensified as we were on our way, and I finally convinced myself I was, in fact, in labor.

When we got to the hospital, I was ushered into a room by an obviously disbelieving nurse (WHY do they think everyone's NOT in labor?), but when she checked me, she changed her story.
Nurse: Oh my. You're at about 7. Give me one minute.
Nurse steps into the hall and quietly closes the door before shouting: We've got to get this girl upstairs!

Two hours later, we were holding Wes in our arms.



The gory details? I got some awesome drug combo in my IV. Contractions still hurt, I just didn't care. I did have an epidural, because I informed the staff that I would not be doing anything with out one. Unfortunately for me, by the time I got one, I was past 8 cm dilated, so the relief wasn't the complete-can't-feel-a-thing-numbing I had with Grace. I still felt. Ouch. My OB wasn't available, but I had seen the on-call doctor before. She broke my water, and there was meconium, which means the baby had had an in-utero bowl movement (lovely). His heart rate and everything still looked fine, though. But we have to have a team from the NICU present when he was born. And we didn't get to hold him immediately; they took him to suction him out really well, to make sure he didn't aspirate any of the meconium (blech). I pushed four times. Seriously. He was HUGE! 8 pounds, 13 oz....