life is but a dream: TJ's sorta natural birth, and lots of pictures!

First, one of the last pictures of me pregnant. Austin was telling baby brother to come out so he could hold him. He loved my big belly!

To continue from THIS POST, I basically had contractions for nearly a week more. I spent a few hours the night after I wrote that in L&D after having contractions 3 minutes apart for 2 hours. It ended up being 5 hours by the time I was sent home with an Ambien. I was still 4 cm and 70% :( (back story: contractions really started to pick up on our way to dinner. At the hospital, Wade kept saying his tummy was upset. I didn't think much of it, and felt bad the next day when I found out he'd been up sick all night. It ended up being a good thing I was sent home!)

I basically had constant contractions from that point on - no more than 15 minutes apart for the next 5 days. They were either not strong enough or close enough to send me into full blown labor. By Tuesday 10/12, I'd had enough. I knew my doctor was back in town and I didn't want to wait till my next scheduled appointment (the next day) to see him. They said they could see me at 11 and I gladly left work early. (I'm certain a lot of people there were happy too. I was like a walking bomb and making more than one person very nervous!) After the doctor checks me he says 3-4 cm and 70% effaced. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? I asked him about inducing me and he asked if I've been having regular contractions. UM, HECK YEAH!! Doc said "alright, let's go upstairs and break your water!" Now THAT's more like it!

Here's the brief rundown of the next few hours:
12:30, doctor breaks my water. DISgusting! I thankfully missed that lovely experience the last time. I was checked again and 4-5 cm already.
1:30, 5-6 cm and 80%. Contractions getting stronger but not increasing, so they order pitocin and an epidural.
2:30, pitocin starts
3:30, epidural is in! Contractions down to 2 minutes apart.
4:30, pitocin turned off. Contractions up to 3 minutes apart and I'm progressing pretty well. I'm dilated to a 7 now and the baby has dropped into position. (Epidural drops my BP pretty low. I'm feeling very very weak and nauseus, and was told the baby's BP was dropping a bit too. I start to fall asleep and wonder how I'll have the strength to deliver! I have to get some meds in the IV and I perk right up.)
5:00-5:30, I start to feel some of the stronger contractions on the right side of my belly. At first I can only feel the tightening so I figure my contractions are getting stronger and I don't worry about it. Slowly, with each contraction, I start to feel more and more pain.
6:00, 9 cm and almost ready to push! Now I'm getting worried about the pain. The nurse tells Wade to up the dosage of the epi and for me to wait 15 minutes for it to kick in. The pain is getting pretty terrible and I'm worried I don't have enough time. It's unbearable and I can only wait 10 minutes. Wade hits the button again. I wait 5 minutes and he does it again. I think he hit it 4 times total, and it was absolutely no help at all, the pain is getting worse and worse with each contraction.
6:45, everyone is kicked out of the room and we get busy. By this time I'm clutching the side of my bed and my contractions are piggy-backing one another, not really stopping at all. It was truly the worst pain imaginable. I did not plan or want a natural birth, but I sure felt everything. The urge to push wasn't exactly what I had imagined. It was more of an urge to go #2, which I quickly realized was the baby. So I put all my focus on pushing onto that spot and could feel him moving down and out. It is true that pushing helps. I only felt the terrible pain when I stopped. My doctor, the nurses and my amazing husband were so encouraging to me. I had 2 nurses, and the doctor was actually in there the whole time I was pushing, so this time Wade was able to stay by me instead of being put to work. They all kept telling me that I was really close, pushing really well and he was almost there. I kept thinking, these jerks better not be lying to me! They weren't. I had him out in 6 or 7 contractions.
7:04, Travis is born!

Delivering Austin was a breeze. My epidural didn't take on half of my body so I got it put in twice and couldn't feel a thing after that. But I had a harder time recovering (think sitting on a doughnut for a week). With Travis, the delivery was much tougher, but the recovery has been MUCH easier. I mean, considering I had a huge baby and all... My dad asked me which way I'd go next time and I still say epidural without a doubt. I'm very thankful that I was able to get the epidural at all because it got me through most of the delivery and only failed at the end. And then, thankfully, he was out quickly.

Anyway, here's more pictures from our hospital stay: