Zac’s Labor Story

Labor Story – short version

-Saturday, March 23rd I had my first contraction at 7:20am

-Labored at home for 3 hours then went to the hospital

-Arrived at the hospital at 10:45am dilated to 5cm

-Contractions were 5 minutes apart and lasted at least 60 seconds when we arrived at the hospital.  My contractions were so intense that they admitted me minutes after walking through the doors.  The nurses were thinking things would move really quickly so they  got me the epidural after just a half of bag of antibiotics.  Although my contractions stayed 2 minutes apart after receiving the epidural my dilation completely stopped.  At 2:45pm I was given the smallest amount of pitocin which helped me to dilate to 7cm in just an hour.

-At 4:45pm I was fully dilated and started pushing and at 7:20pm he was born!  Exactly 12 hours after my very first contraction.  We love you little buddy and are thrilled you are apart of our family.

Labor Story – long version

Monday, March 18th I finally had enough courage to get my membranes stripped.  I had the option to the week before but totally chickened out!  I went to the doctors office all ready to have him do it, but ended up waiting 40 minutes in the waiting room and another 30 minutes in the exam room, and by the time he came in to see me I had talked myself out of EVERYTHING! Not only was I not interested in him stripping me, but I had no desire for him to even tell me if I had dilated more!  Shouldn’t there be a rule that those getting their membranes stripped for the first time should not wait more then 5 minutes?!  I had heard from so many people that it could be quite a painful 15 seconds, and since I already knew how painful it was to get check for dilation, I was really nervous about the whole thing.  Turns out I was scared of nothing.  Seriously, it didn’t hurt at all.

I was a little disappointed that after being brave enough to finally get things stripped, nothing happened.  Tuesday came and went, and so did Wednesday.  The doctor said if it was going to work I would go into labor within 48hours.  Since that didn’t happen a I accepted that he probably wasn’t going to come before his due date… and most likely he would be late.  We had an induction scheduled on Easter, but I was really hoping that he wasn’t cozy enough to stay in me that long!

Then came Saturday, March 23rd.  Whoa!  My first contraction hit me like a ton of bricks.  I went from being dead asleep to leaping out of my bed! It was 7:20am, and I knew from the “false labor” we had three weeks earlier, that what I was feeling was definitely a contraction.  I opened my Full Term app on my phone and hit start.  Then I waited.  Fifteen minutes later, BAM same thing.  At this point I knew that my contractions were for real and that they would only get closer together, so it was time to shift things into high gear.  My first priority was to shower.  Since it was first thing in the morning I really wanted to get ready for the day.  After all, I had been shaving my legs for the last 3 weeks (which was no simple task) so if I was having a baby today, my legs were going to be shaved!  Not only that, but since we hired a birth story photographer, I really wanted to have cute hair and makeup.  I somehow managed to get showered, hair curled, and makeup on all while having contractions.  By 8:30am I no longer could stand, walk, or talk through the pain.  The pain was so intense it literally took me off my feet.

At this point Jason got on the phone with our  Doula Stacie.  He told her that my contractions were getting really intense and that we thought today was the day Zac was going to come!  She told him to have me get in the bath.  When he told me that I immediately rejected the suggestion, after all I had just finished my hair and makeup and was looking awesome for the big day.  I did not want a bath to mess that up!  After a few minutes I got in the bath anyway… holy cow, that was a BAD idea!  My contractions were so intense and here I am in the slippery bath, Jason is on the phone with Stacie bringing her up to speed, and I have nothing to hold onto.  After one contraction I jumped out of the bath and told Jason that as soon as the contractions were 5 minutes apart for 1 hour we were going to go to the hospital.  At this point I started to pack a bag and during each contraction Jason helped me through them. We knew we were going to have a baby today.

After 3 hours of laboring at home we finally left for the hospital.  LONGEST. DRIVE. EVER!  Although, it was only about 12 minutes from our house, I seriously felt like we drove to St. George.  We had pre-registered so once we arrived we went straight up to labor and delivery.  Once they let us in and I saw Dr. Ollerton (our favorite doctor) I totally started to cry.  I was so overwhelmed with emotion.  The pain of the contractions, the relief that we were finally at the hospital, and the thought of knowing that after this day things would be different.  I would be a mom. Jason would be a dad.  and we would have a new little person in our family forever.

Just minutes after walking through the door I was taken straight back to a delivery room. Since I was having contractions in the hall that all could see, they knew it was the real deal. No exam needed.  I got changed into my gown and at this point was begging for an epidural.  The nurse finally checked me and said I was dilated to 5cm with contractions about 3 minutes apart. Since I was Strep B positive they had to get a bag of antibiotics in me BEFORE they could give me the epidural.  And in order to give me the antibiotics they had to first get an IV started which was not easy to do since my veins are not and easy to find.  After three attempts and two nurses they finally got it.  The nurses felt so bad that it took so long, that they asked the if I could get the epidural after only going through half of the bag of antibiotics and the anesthesiologist said YES!  Thank heavens! At this point I am non-stop crying.  All that hard work on my hair and make-up was out the door!  I never thought that my reaction to everything would be just to cry!  Sobbing really.  Had I known that I would have gone with waterproof mascara!

After getting the epidural everything changed.  Life was happy again.  The crying stropped and out came the jokes!  Seriously, talk about a mood swing. I was pulling out my best material for the nurses.  “Say 8! Say 8! ”  Now that things were happy again and I was in a normal state of mind Jason had something to tell me… our doula Stacie who we’d been building a relationship with, and who was suppose to be there every step of the way, was not coming! (that is a story for another blog post).  But, at that point the drugs felt so good and the nurses were doing such an awesome job that I was able to handle the news pretty well.  From here we just hung out chatting and laughing with our birth story photographer Jalene Taylor who is such a sweetheart.  She hung-out with us all day as to not miss anything.  At this point my contractions were still 2-3 minutes apart but after getting the epidural my dilation stopped.

After a few hours of watching me with no more progress the nurses decided to give me the smallest amount of pitocin to see how I would do.  Within an hour I dilated 2 cm (now at 7cm) and 2 hours after that I was at 10cm and ready to start pushing!  All I could think was HOLY COW I can’t believe it is time… and then the fun really began.  It took 3 hours of pushing to get this little guy to make his big appearance but it was worth every second.  We love him so much and are so thankful for his safe arrival.  We waited a long time for this little guy to join our family, and are thrilled beyond words that he is finally here.  Dreams really do come true.