Hospital Time

Daddy dropped me off at the front of the hospital to sit on the same bench i sat on when my water had broken with Gwen and Cole. The parking attendent kept asking if we wanted the van valet parked but Daddy refused. The man shook his head and i nicely said: "Don't worry, i'm not going to have the baby on this bench!". He left me alone after that!

When we made it upstairs to Labor and Delivery (around 11:30 am) I was told that I passed "the towel test" (yes, i had a towel in between my legs and my water was gushing. That landed us directly in a Labor room. Dr. Thomas was there and informed me that i was only 1 cm dialated. She started a low dose of Petocin and we waited...and waited... My contractions were getting close to together and more intense but unfortunately i was only 1 cm. again when I was checked. I was very uncomfortable and finally agreed to try a little Stadal to take the edge off. It definitely made me feel a little loopy but I was able to relax and breathe through the contractions. After it wore off, I was about 4 cm and we started talking to the anesthesiologist about an epidural. I was in a lot of pain until I got it and once it was in, only one side took so i could still feel intense contractions on one side. The anestesiologist was able to adjust it to get the other side to work, thankfully. After that i just hung out for a few hours and tried to get some sleep. I was checked about 2 hours later and was 9 cm. The Labor and Delivery floor was extremely busy so Dr. Thomas said if i was comfortable that I should rest and she would go do a C-section. That was fine with me so i just hung out.

Around midnight it was time to start the pushing process (yep, successful VBAC here i come!!!), which was very difficult because i could not feel anything. The nurse, Dr. Thomas and a med student told me when to push. I was having a difficult time figuring it out and also felt like i couldn't take deep breaths because of my acid reflux, allergies and asthma. I could take one good breath at the beginning of the contraction but the second and third breaths were not great. Also, i was feeling pretty sick to my stomach. I pushed for awhile and then Reid's heartrate went down so the doctors wanted me to lye on my side and to push through every other contraction. After a few times of trying that Dr. Thomas said that she was going to help with the delivery by using the vacuum. A few more contractions (and a lot of puking) and Reid Robert Stamps was born at 1:14 am. He weighed in at 6 lbs, 10 oz and was 19 inches long. I had to remind Daddy to put down the puke bucket and go take pics :)