Labor and beyond…

Well here is the “story” of when I went into labor…

Ty had class on Wednesday night, so I had stayed up until 11:30 pm to make sure he got home okay and to say “goodnight” well when I tried to go to bed around midnight I couldn’t sleep, so I went on the couch and watched TV until I fell asleep around 1:30am. Around 2:30 am I was awoken by my contractions. I was so excited because I knew this was “it”. When you’ve had one baby I found that you kind of just know when it’s time. So I started timing my contractions, showered, called the labor and delivery and then woke Ty up around 4:00am. Then I called my mom around 4:30 to have her come over and watch Riley. (She of course was up anyways–probably sewing) My mom got over around 5:30 and Ty and I took off to Borgess Hospital-bags packed and all, hoping this really was it.

We got to the hospital, had a quick exam and was hooked up to the monitors for a while. Then they got me up to walk the halls to help labor progress. After another exam I was dilated to 3 and was admitted!!! YEAH! I was so excited and of course a bit nervous. The past 2 weeks or so I had been having A LOT of pain in my abdomen, I had mentioned it to my OB doc. and he just seemed to think it was because the baby was moving into position. However, the last 2 days or so the pain had become almost unbearable. After getting settled into our birthing room we just waited and waited for labor to continue. My contractions were about 4-5 minutes apart but becoming much harder. Around 1:00 in the afternoon I finally couldn’t take the pain anymore and requested an epidural. It wasn’t that the contractions were unbearable, but it was the combination of the pain I was having EVERY time Lincoln moved and the contractions. Well, the doctor figured out that the pain was because the baby’s head was hitting my pelvis when he moved it was rubbing bone on bone and that (come to find out) his head was so big that it was pushing my pubic symphasis bone apart…yeah VERY painful!

I got the epidural once the anestheologist got to my room and to make a long story short Ty and I both almost passed out. He gets light-headed when watching that stuff and I don’t know what my deal was. Then come to find out after I got the epidural she accidentally messed up and put it in the wrong space, so I had to get it done again an hour later!! I was bummed because I wanted the pain to be gone and didn’t want to have to get an epidural again because it’s a little painful :)! But it was totally worth it in the end…

Once I got the epidural it was smooth sailing until I stated to need to push. Around 2:15 Dr. Saffold broke my water and I had to get a catheter. That really sped things up and at 3:30ish I started to push. I specifically remember the doctor telling me that there was no way I’d push for as long as I did with Riley (45 minutes) so I was excited to hear that. Well, I started to push and I never thought he’d come. An hour later, our sweet boy had arrived. I pushed for almost an hour. The only thing I can really remember was when his head came out the doctor and nurses ALL said “Wow, that’s going to be a big baby”. Then when he was totally delivered all they kept saying was oh my goodness, what a big boy!! Little did I know…

They put Lincoln on my chest and began cleaning him off, it was the most incredible experience. All of a sudden I felt no pain and I didn’t care that I had just pushed for an hour and was in labor for 10. My boy, the baby I’d been praying for, had arrived and with my hubby by my side we held him and kissed him and stared into his “squinty Paulk eyes” in awe of what God had created.

So that’s it…there is SO MUCH MORE I could write about but I’ll spare you the details (plus I have to give Lincoln a sponge bath and get Riley to bed).