Grey's Big Day

For about 48 hours leading up to the real thing, Sean claimed I was in early labor. We would go for long walks and I'd get regular contractions that wouldn't go away when changing positions. But they only made me feel uncomfortable- not paining me much. My mom would keep looking at me skeptically, saying, "if it doesn't hurt, it's not real." Sure enough, I'd go to sleep and all was quiet.

So I was still in that state of mind when counting contractions Wednesday night. At about 11pm, one of them actually started to hurt. And so did the next one. After a few more, I became pretty confident that this was the real thing. We went to bed and I had some very interrupted sleep for a few hours. At about three, it hurt enough that I could only manage a twilight, limbo sleep. In that groggy state, I thought my contractions were about 7 minutes apart, though my ability to tell time was entirely unreliable. I woke Sean up and told him it was time to go!

I thought I could get ready pretty fast but I did not factor contractions into the mix. And then with all the activity, my contractions sped up. By the time we left, they were two minutes apart! Sean was freaking out a bit.

One thing I learned about my mom was that she cannot french braid under pressure. After Sean went to tell her that we were hospital bound, she came out to see me. I then asked if she could french-braid my bangs like she had practiced the day before, which only took 5 minutes. But in the middle of the night, it wasn't happening. Hair falling out all over the place. I can't really complain, I can't french-braid at all! And let me just say how fantastic it was to not have to disrupt Liam and Dash and leave them in the hands of someone I trust and who's so capable. Thank you Mom!

So, it took me forever to get ready and we didn't leave until after 5am. The contractions slowed down in the car to about 5 minutes apart (phew) and MAN it is hard to deal with a contraction in the car. Ow ow ow.

We make it to the hospital and they put me in a sort of triage room where they measure my contractions and Grey's heartbeat for a while. During this, my contractions were getting really painful, especially in my back. Plus I was becoming pretty nauseous.

Now, you probably didn't know I was planning a natural delivery. Meaning, no epidural. Why would I ever do such a thing, you ask? Well, I, like many of you, used to think that giving birth without medicine was idiotic. It's available, so use it! I started rethinking things when several women I respect gave natural births. So the reasons that made me eventually decide to try the natural side was (1) women who do it, with preparation, say they learned so much about their body in the process, (2) it felt utterly rewarding to have a baby at the end of all that work, (3) it seems to be a very spiritual experience to have to deal with so much pain, and (4) it would be a beautiful bonding experience between Sean and I as I'd depend on his support for hours. Plus, last time I really didn't like being stuck on my back for so long and the epidural gave me a wicked headache afterward.

Back to the triage room, I was having way painful back labor and felt like I was going to lose my breakfast. The nurse checked my progress and I was only at 4 cm dilated. Four! And it already hurt this bad? My natural birth motivation began to waver. The kicker came when I had a huge contraction, spent the next few minutes dry heaving hard, then immediately went into another major contraction. I just couldn't do that for hours, I was already miserable. I decided I'd get an epidural after all. That's the reason I didn't spread the word that I was going to try natural because I didn't want to look like an idiot if I flaked. And flake I did.

I eventually was taken down to my labor and delivery room around 7am where they immediately called for the anesthesiologist (I spelled that right on my first go, sweet!). They also hooked me up to the contraction and heartbeat monitors while on my back. Which made my back labor even awfully. So the epidural doctor was a pleasant sight and he got me all hooked up. That slow relief was splendid.

There wasn't much going on after that for a while. My nurse got a kick out of my low round belly but it kept making my contraction monitor slip, so a lot of time was spent re-placing it. She also commented on how I have "dysfunctional" contractions, meaning I'd have big contractions every few minutes with smaller ones tucked in between. Around 10 am, I was 6 cm dilated. Moving slower than I expected.

The view was really nice, not something you really think about when delivering a child:

Though this was my favorite view of all:

He's secretly really happy that I got an epidural so he didn't have to see me in such pain.

My nurse had settled me into laying on my left side because she could get the best contraction readings that way. Problem was, I was beginning to feel my contractions on the right side again. It was getting pretty bad by the time the OB resident checked on me so she had me lay on my right, just to let gravity help the epidural spread. That meant my contraction monitor didn't read very well but I was happy when I stopped feeling those silly contractions. Around noon, I was about 7 cm dilated.



My OB came to check on me in the afternoon and commented about the poor contraction readings. That made my nurse determined to get them back, so over on my left I went. Somewhere around 3pm, I started to feel the contractions on the right really really strong. But my nurse just wouldn't do anything about it. Finally the OB resident came again and I told her my complaint. She wanted to check my dilation first to see if the pain was any hint at being complete. I was quite skeptical as last pregnancy I felt the distinct urge to push and I hadn't yet this time. But guess who was right. Not me. Baby was ready to go!

During all this, it was discovered that my pitocin line, which they were using just to speed up labor (the epidural slowed it down), was not connected to me but dripping on the floor. We're not sure if it was ever connected or somehow became detached along the way. Hmm.

Since this time I got to stay in my room to deliver (twins have to go to the OR as a precaution), it was very calm and simple as everyone got ready to welcome the babe. My doctor came and I was ready to push. I think I pushed through about five contractions. It seemed so funny how during the contractions, there was such a flurry of voices and activity and then after the pushing ended, everyone looked sort of bored, waiting for the next burst. Grey finally emerged and I fell in love with another sweet little babe. The best part: Sean was able to deliver him! Grey's daddy was the first to hold him, something that makes me really happy. Then I actually cut the cord, something I probably would have declined had I not been in such a happy happy state.

Grey was then placed on my chest and I admired his wonderfulness. But then the nurse said he wasn't "pinking up" they way she wanted to took him over to the little baby station, where Sean stood guard. She did some tests and gave him some oxygen.

We were all shocked when a nurse announced that Grey was 9 lbs 8 oz. Where did that come from? I thought I'd always have little babies with Sean as the daddy- the Bradleys come small. But not this guy! That would have been quite the delivery had it been sans epidural!

After what seemed like forever, I got my baby back and we cuddled and he nursed some. It was so splendid! All very calm and sweet.

And thus began my new life as Grey's mommy.