Luke Is Here! Part 1

Bean, now officially Luke, is here! Despite some intense sleep deprivation, we are so happy to have him with us. Below is the first part of our birth story... the rest to come whenever I get the chance to get on the computer again:

I should preface this story by saying that the hospital we delivered at is about 45 minutes away from our apartment in Alexandria.

Hospital Trip 1: On Tuesday, I was getting a little worried that I hadn't felt him moving very much all day (as a side note, this is actually pretty common right before labor as the baby is saving up energy to make his move, according to Baby Center). I called my doctor and he said that if I was worried to go to the hospital and do a non-stress test. We drove to the hospital and they hooked me up and said everything looked good with the baby. She also mentioned that I was having almost no contractions, and that in this stage of labor (almost 40 weeks) it is common to have more small contractions. She concluded by telling us that it would likely be up to a week before the baby comes. You can see where this is going...

Hospital Trip 2: We got home from the hospital at about 9 pm and I went to bed and Richard stayed up to finish some work. About 5 hours later, I woke up to use the restroom and noticed that I had A LOT of red blood (enough to soak a pad and then some). I freaked out some and called my doctor who told me to come into the hospital to get it checked out and that this might be the beginning of labor. Richard and I headed to the hospital, bags in tow, and got checked in (checked into a room, IV put in, etc.). I was still 2 cm dilated and having some moderate contractions. They told me that my doctor would be coming in a few hours and to just hang out until then. A couple hours later, they came back in and said that they had several inductions scheduled that day and that they needed the room and we had to go home. I told the nurse that I was still feeling contractions, and she said that I should take some Tylenol and try to get some rest. Home we went.

Hospital Trip 3: We got home around 8 and Richard went to bed while I laid on the couch and waited for the Tylenol to kick in. And waited... and waited... and waited... Needless to say, no Tylenol would be strong enough to relieve what I was going through! I felt like my inside were being torn apart, but I KNEW I wasn't in labor because they had JUST sent me home about an hour ago saying I wasn't! I decided I was just a wimp with no pain tolerance and tried to tough it out. After 3 hours, I couldn't stand it any longer. I called my doctor and explained what was happening. He was really upset that the hospital had sent me home and told me that I should come back from the hospital immediately. I woke Richard up, and we headed back to the hospital getting there about 4 hours after after we left the second time. I was NOT a pretty sight, crying and screaming all over the place.

The labor and delivery unit was completely full, and so they had to put me in triage until something opened up. When they checked me, I was 6-7 cm dilated and almost fully effaced (although my water hadn't broken yet). It took about another hour to get an epidural, at which point I was 9 cm dilated and in more pain than I ever knew was possible to feel. However, right after the epidural kicked in, I was the most relaxed I had been in a long time. Not only could I no longer feel the contractions, but all of the pain and discomfort that I had in my last trimester was also gone. I didn't even have to get up to pee thanks to a catheter!

Stay tuned for the rest of the story...