To get the full picture, I have to start back the weekend before Dylan was born. My good friend in town had said she would watch James IV overnight whenever I went into labor; however, there were two weekends she would not be in town. The weekend before I had Dylan was one of them. We were fearful of being stuck with James IV if I went into labor, so we invited Peep and Grandmother (James' grandparents) to stay the weekend with us. They arrived Friday afternoon, and we enjoyed our time with them just waiting to see if this would be the time.
During the night on Friday, James (Daddy) starts running fever. I give him medicine and hope it is just from working really hard outside that afternoon. We woke up and he was fever free, but around noon his fever spiked again. All weekend he did this. I slept on the couch, which was not very comfy at all. Peep and Grandmother stayed until Monday to help me and make sure we got James to the doctor.
Monday morning I call to make an appointment and when I tell them I am to be induced Wednesday they told us to come right in. He was diagnosed with tonsilitis and started antibiotics right away. I had one last OB appointment just to make sure we wanted to induce. At the appointment my doctor stripped my membranes and said I was 4 cm and 70% effaced. While she was in there with me I had two mild, painless contractions. She said if those mild contractions form a regular pattern to leave for the hospital. She even suggested we just go to the mall for an hour to see, but we had James IV and I wanted to get him back home so we left.
On our hour and a half drive home, I started noticing these same contractions every seven minutes. I didn't want James to freak out, so I waited until I had already had about 4 before I said anything. Of course he freaked out and wanted me to turn the car around (I was driving because James was tired and still recovering), but I was determined to get home to drop James IV off...and I was in denial. I thought these were braxton hicks and they would pass. Needless to say, they didn't pass, and we loaded up the car and were off again.
Dropping James IV off was the hardest thing I have EVER had to do. I wasn't in pain yet, so that wasn't bad, but I have never left him overnight with anyone before. I was scared and nervous and just sad to not see my baby each morning. James IV of course did great. He was so excited to play with his friend Judd, and he didn't even want to hug me goodbye.
Now remember how James had tonsilitis and neither one of us had slept well all weekend? Well, that was starting to catch up with James. He stopped at the local grocery store to buy some Red Bull because he was tired and wanted to make sure he could make it through the night. We drove the hour and a half back with my contractions staying at a steady 5-7 minutes apart. Good thing I wasn't in too big of a hurry because we had to wait for a train in one small town, and we had trouble figuring out the parking situation at the hospital. We arrived in our parking spot at 7pm. My contractions then picked up to 3-5 minutes, but were not hurting. I was still skeptical that this was it. We wandered around the hospital trying to find the elevators to take us up to L&D, which is so funny to me now. I got checked in to room 4020. They hooked up the monitors and checked me. I had not changed since the appointment four hours earlier, but I was definitely contracting. My doctor was there for a C-section and she came to talk to me.
My doctor said we could let me labor all night and she would come back in the morning to break my water, or she could just get this show on the road now. Of course I chose for her to break my water because who wants to labor lightly in the hospital all night? Yuck! At 8:39pm she broke my water, and slowly my contractions picked up. They were not too painful for awhile, and we just tried to relax and gather strength for the long night ahead. Of course we were both super excited and relaxing just wasn't happening!
I labored until 11pm when they came to check me. I hadn't had too many horrible contractions, but I was hopeful I had made great progress...nope. 5cm! I started thinking oh my gosh this is going to be a long night. At 1219am (April 13th), I was checked again and was 6 cm. I didn't want to have a catheter, so my bladder was causing the baby to stay high and not decend. I finally used a bed pan (yuck) because they wouldn't let me get out of bed and he dropped significantly. I was worried I wouldn't tell them soon enough to prepare the room, so I kept having them come check me. At 1244am I was 6-7cm. Ten minutes later I was 7cm. My labor was hard at this point and I started doubting if I could do it naturally...especially since it was taking longer than I had thought. Twelve minutes later I was an 8. I was in a great deal of pain during my contractions, but in between I was laughing and having a great time with James and my awesome nurses. Twenty one minutes later I was 9cm. This last cm took the longest! At 156am I was finally ready to push. During my first push I emptied my bladder, which really helped progress the delivery. They said that is why my last little bit of cervix took so long because my bladder was SO FULL!!! I pushed through three contractions (I think) and he was born at 204am!!! I pushed less than 10 minutes! It seemed like longer than that, but I guess my time was all mixed up! Now, this was the most painful thing ever! But I am so glad I went all natural because I feel like I was so aware of everything! I know that Dylan did not receive any medication (just like my entire pregnancy) and this is something that is important to us.
Thanks to my awesome husband for taking such detailed notes of my labor I am able to provide you with this information. This must be the little engineer coming out in him! From my water breakage to timing contractions to fully dialated, he was the best!
The doctor laid Dylan on my chest, and I was able to admire this precious and wonderful gift from God. Babies are truly amazing, and we are so blessed to have two! James cut the umbilical cord and boy did Dylan scream! The baby nurse did all the work on Dylan while they cleaned me up. James then was able to walk with the nurse to the nursery to weigh Dylan. He was a chunk at 8 lbs. 1 oz.!!! They brought Dylan back a little while later and I nursed him with no problems.
This experience was absolutely wonderful and we are so thankful everything went better than expected. Dylan ~ we love you so much! You have brought such joy into our lives. Your brother absolutely adores you. He always wants to give you kisses, pat your back, or rub your head. You may not always like it, but he is your big brother so you had better get use to it!
