Monday, May 6th, was my official due date and I went in to the doctor for my 40 week check up. The doctor I saw checked to see if I had made any progress since I hadn't felt any contractions or Braxton-Hicks at all and she said I was 2 cm dilated and 70-80% effaced already! She mentioned that they would talk about inducing if I made it to the next week but she said she would be surprised if I made it to the end of that week. At that point I felt like I would be pregnant forever since I hadn't felt any type of progress at all.
Well, Monday came and went, Tuesday came and went, and Wednesday came and went.... sigh, still pregnant. I went to bed Wednesday night feeling slightly frustrated that nothing was happening, not even a single cramp!
Thursday morning, around 1:30 am, I woke up to a crampy feeling and figured I had just rolled over funny or something. Then I felt another one and wasn't quite buying that it was a contraction so I went to use the bathroom incase that's what it was. Very soon after they started getting more frequent and closer together so I figured that I was definitely in labor and these were contractions. I downloaded a contraction timer app on my phone and started keeping track. The first few were 5-7 minutes apart and it didn't take long for them to become 3 1/2 minutes apart and lasting about 1 minute. I called my doctor at 2:30 to see if I should head to the hospital and she told me to give it another hour. I knew I couldn't last that long so I gave it 30 minutes and I started having really intense contractions that took me to my knees. I woke Adam up around 3 and we grabbed our stuff and headed out the door.
By the time I was admitted and checked into triage it was around 3:45 and I was in so much pain. The nurse checked my progress and said I was already 5 cm and she said I had a "bulging" water bag. I asked for an epidural at that point and was told it would probably be about an hour until they could get to me since they still had to get me in a room and get someone to me. Thankfully it was only about 45 minutes and the nurse I had was fantastic at getting me through the contractions until the epidural kicked in. The doctor on call came in to check my progress at that time, was told about my water bag, and as soon as she checked my cervix my water bag exploded all over her. It was so nasty and kind of funny at the same time. They were concerned because there was meconium present and they were worried about Nolan swallowing some of it when he came out so, they had special care set up in the room to check him out. I had progressed to 10cm right at shift change and my new nurse had me start trying to push just to see what I could do and where Nolan was at. I pushed for about 3 hours and the doctor said I was starting to tear a little and asked if I wanted an episiotomy and I really didn't so I asked him if we could go through a few more contractions and see how it goes then talk again and he agreed. Apparently that was the motivation I needed because 2 or 3 contractions later, after 10 1/2 hours of labor and 3 1/2 hours of pushing, Nolan Ruger Dietz was born at 11:47 am! He weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces and was 21 1/4 inches long with a bunch of dark hair.
Nolan!
First time I held him
First time Adam held him
Family picture :)
Congrats if you read that all :) Overall it was a quite the experience and I'm so excited to have my sweet boy!
