On Monday August 13th, I woke up at about 3:30am with a lot of cramping and contracting. Now, if you know anything about me, you know that I contract a lot on my own and am always uncomfy at this stage of my pregnancy. I was one day shy of being 38 weeks and was quite ready for a baby to arrive. When I woke up, I felt that the cramping was slightly worse (hurting into my back) and by 5am, I woke Jaime up and told him that I was going to take a warm bath to try and relax. It didn't help much but I was able to rest a little before officially waking up for the day. Jaime had a quick meeting in Chapel Hill and my mom was coming to watch the girls while I headed to a 10am doctor's appointment. Jaime was going to meet me there and before I left the house, I made the decision to leave car seats behind for the girls, just in case we got sent to the hospital. I think I secretly knew that something was going on!!
At the doctor, they hooked me up for my regular non stress test and it became obvious to everyone that I was in the middle of a pretty great contraction pattern. Dr. Harris then checked me and said that I was between a 4-5 and decided I was officially in labor! She called ETMC and told them that I was heading across the street and to start getting things ready for me. WOW! I couldn't believe it!
We got up to a room sometime between 11 and noon, filled out last minute paperwork, did blood work and IV stuff, and waited on my epidural. My pain was beginning to increase and sometime between 12:30-1, the anesthesiologist showed up to give me some medicine. I was so relieved but as soon as he put the catheter in, I had a sharp pain to the left side of my spine. In my heart, I just knew that it didn't feel right and as I layed back down and continued to hurt, my instincts became reality. My doctor came in and checked me along with breaking my water and the pelvic exam was almost unbearable. We decided I shouldn't be feeling as much pain as I felt with the epidural and the anest' was called back to my room. He asked me some questions, debated on whether or not the catheter was in the right location, then pumped a huge dosage through and left again. It provided me some relief but not completely. It numbed my bottom but I still felt every single contraction and they did nothing but get more intense and hurt into my back. I had visitors in my room but they all whispered amongst themselves because I was in so much pain. Suddenly, the pain jumped up to the next level. I was moaning and crying and people began to clear out while the nurse checked me. I was almost a 9 and she decided to call my doctor and get ready to push. She also called the anest' back one more time to give me some more numbing meds. It kept my bottom numb once again, but I felt everything else and was in a ton of pain. I knew that the only thing that would make it go away was to have a baby. Dr. Harris arrived and I began pushing with each contraction. After 5 of them, Easton James was born and my stomach immediately felt better....thank goodness!
Easton was my big baby, weighing 8lbs 10oz and 20.5 inches long! I nursed him for a short time and then everyone came in to see our newest family member. It was such a sweet time introducing him to his sisters!
After things settled down, my nurse got me up to help me shower. Surprisingly, my left leg was pretty dead and all I could do was drag it. I needed a lot of help showering and getting back into a gown. We were almost done and getting ready to head back to bed and I told my nurse that I felt very dizzy and nauseated. She told me to grab a hold of her and we would get back to the bed as quickly as possible. She started asking me a few questions, to which I could not even respond to her, and then I vaguely remember her hollering at Jaime to put the baby down and come help her. The next thing I remember, I was on the floor outside of the bathroom, and I was being woke up to Jaime yelling my name and the nurse splashing water in my face. I had no idea where I was or what had just happened, but obviously I had completely fainted and according to Jaime, I was out for atleast a minute. He said it was very scary but the nurse assured us that it happens quite often. I got back into bed and after a few minutes of cooling down, began to feel a little better.
The next day, I still didn't feel well so we chose to stay another night to help control pain and have extra help so that I could hopefully sleep. It was a good thing that I stayed because I started to have some excess blood loss and they put me on medicine through the night to help my uterus contract a little more. The next day I still wasnt feeling well, but was cleared to go home!
We are now a week out and Im slowly rebuilding my energy. Easton is such a handsome boy and we are so grateful for our unexpected blessing!
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