(Don't worry, I'm not missing sleep to write this blog post. I was taking a nap until my sister woke me up - ha ha, Nichole!)
Well, it looks like little Violet was waiting for Mimi and Papi to come visit before she made her entrance into the world. Her official due date was Friday July 30, 2010. As each day passed after that, I started to doubt my body's ability to do it's job evicting the baby. Maybe it forgot how? I had no signs of approaching labor. Mimi and Papi finally arrived in Madison on Wednesday afternoon, after an overnight journey from AZ including an unexpected bus ride from Chicago to Madison. The kids and I picked them up at the bus stop (Jason would have come, but there was no room for him in the car!), took them to the airport to pick up their rental car, and then escorted them to Culver's for some late lunch. All afternoon plans were scrapped with their delayed arrival - them being too tired and everyone being too hot - so we just stayed at home and enjoyed what little breeze there was in the shade outside until the mosquitos chased us in for dinner. The kids went to bed and the grown-ups followed not too long after them.
I woke up at 1am with a contraction. This was not too out of the ordinary for me; I had not been sleeping more than a couple hours the last few nights because of being hot, uncomfortable, and having a few random contractions. But this contraction, this one felt different. There was more of a purpose with this contraction than just the usual tightening. So, I stayed awake in bed to see if it was followed by any more. I almost fell back asleep when another finally came about 11 minutes later. I told myself, "Hmm, I'll see if one more comes." I think I did fall back asleep before the next one hit, again about 11 minutes later. So, I decided to get up and walking, because if the baby was even thinking of coming out, I was going to assist in any way I could! For the next two hours, contractions came and went, and they seemed so not-intense that I began to doubt if I was really in labor. Did I just waste 2 hours of sleep in hopeful anticipation? Eventually the contractions started to form a pattern, and I started considering waking up Mom and Jason. Since Mom had not slept the night before due to traveling, I hated to wake her for no reason. I was also hesitant to call my doctor, since I was not completely clear if I needed to call her or not. During the summer the doctors at my clinic seemed to always be trading vacation times and I never really knew who was on-call when. So, I made up my mind to wait until 4am to call the doctor, then wake up family if needed.
The reason this was such a dilemma for me is that Rowan's labor went very quickly. With him, I had been having almost constant Braxton Hicks contractions for a few days leading up to his birth. On his due date, I woke up at midnight with contractions, went to the hospital around 2am, and he was born a little after 3am. I was a little worried that Violet's labor would be even faster, but it turned out that she had her very own schedule.
The doctor told me to go on in to the hospital, so I woke up Jason and Mom. I think I scared both of them (well, I KNOW I scared mom) by sneaking up to them using my cell phone as a flashlight, but after a few seconds they each caught on to the purpose of my waking them up, and they jumped out of bed to get dressed. Once we started walking out of the house, I think I finally let my body go ahead into labor. During the car ride my contractions came closer together, and the walk up to L & D seemed sooo long. I came into maternity triage about 5am and submitted to the 20 minute required monitoring to check the baby's heartbeat. This point of the labor was the most painful with Rowan's birth, because with him I was required to lay down in the bed for monitoring, and my body DOES NOT like being flat during labor. I asked if we could raise the bed to sitting for this birth, and it was a lifesaver! The 20 minutes went by quickly instead of agonizingly as with Rowan.
A resident came to check my progress and I remember he said, "Let's see if you are really in labor." I laughed out loud, because I had no doubt, but I understood why he said that. When I am in labor, I am pretty silent. The only way you can tell I am having a contraction is because I might breathe a little deeper. Even near the end, I can still hold a conversation as long as I don't have to move or be touched. To them, I probably looked like nothing was happening. But, the resident checked me and I was dialated to six centimeters. He congratulated me that I would be allowed to stay and be checked into a labor room. He was about to leave, but I stopped him and told him that I would most likely give birth very soon. I told him that with Rowan I went from 5 cm to complete in less than an hour. I'm so glad I told him that, and that all the staff really listened to me and believed me! He took a quick ultrasound to make sure Violet was still positioned head down, and then they moved me into the huge, beautiful, and relaxing labor and delivery room. Too bad I wasn't going to spend much time in there :)
It was around 6am that we arrived in the room. I could tell that the contractions were getting even more intense, but still not even what I would call painful. When I would have a contraction, I would just relax my entire body and just breathe through the contraction, imagining Violet moving down cm. by cm. At 6:30 I told the nurse that I wanted to be checked because I felt a lot of pressure down there. She checked and I was around 9 cm with just a little bit of cervix left. For the next 20 minutes the contractions were the most intense, and I stayed on the bed just in case my body decided to push on it's own :)
Finally I felt my body trying to push during the contraction, so I called the nurse back in, and the doctor and resident followed right behind her. The doctor checked me and gave me the go ahead to push when I wanted. She told me that if my water didn't break on it's own during the first push, she would break it manually since she did not feel like taking an amniotic fluid shower :) During the next contraction I gave a tentative push, as I was still trying to remember how the pushing part worked. After that contraction, the doctor broke my bag of waters and we waited for the next contraction to start pushing again. Boy I forgot how hard the pushing part is! It is by far the hardest part of labor, even though it goes by so quickly. During each push I just chanted in my head, "I can do this, almost done!" I remembered the feeling of relief once the baby comes out, and I was looking forward to that feeling! I think it took three contractions before Violet was completely out, and boy did it feel good when she was lying on my stomach staring up at me. The time of birth was 7:04 am.
My first thought, and I think the first thing I said, was, "She is so tiny!" And for us, she was. Ellie was 8 lbs. 1oz., Rowan was 9 lbs. when he was born, and Violet weighed in at a (tiny) 7lbs. 7oz.
Violet was so kind to me, which made up for her making us wait for her to be born. I didn't have to have any stitches, and the only time I felt real pain during the entire labor was when her head was coming out. Oh, and every time after the birth when the nurses would push down on my uterus to keep it contracting - I hate that part!! Overall, I really enjoyed this labor experience the most. I really felt like I understood my body, was able to listen to it and do what felt most comfortable, and the hospital staff was very supportive.
I am really enjoying my hospital stay - much more than the Havasu hospital. This place is much more like a hotel - with free, on-demand room service! Let's just say I have been eating well :D The family is out canoeing the Wisconsin River right now, and I am resting as I can and eating as I can. Violet is eating as she can and being held as she can. I have the option of spending another night here, but I'll be going home right after dinner. It will be nice to be in my own bed, plus the hospital kitchen closes at 7pm anyway :) Hmm, I better go get the menu to pick out my afternoon snack... maybe a sandwich and a chocolate shake?
My next post will have pictures, although I cannot guarantee when that will be. This took almost 3 hours to accomplish, and I only have one child to take care of right now. I'll be using the grandparents as much as possible this weekend - I hope they don't think they are on vacation ;)
