After my miscarriage, the thought of losing another baby was horrifying. My innocence was gone and I feared that I would just miscarry again. After a year, I was finally ready to try again and got pregnant on the first try (in case you hadn't noticed, I'm pretty fertile).
My due date was the day after christmas. Pregnancy went perfectly.
Knowing myself, I knew I would have my baby before christmas, but was worried that I would be in a hospital instead of at home with my family. I tried like hell to get my doctor to induce because it would be convenient for us both. He found my argument rather persuasive, but still declined! I did talk him into sweeping membranes as I had begun having nightly contractions around 36 weeks (this was typical for me). We did that on a monday morning, just 6 days before christmas. This simple procedure sent me into early labor. I was thrilled to finally start laboring and looking forward to my natural birth.
That evening, I went to the hospital to get checked as I was contracting every 3 minutes. I was only 1.5cm. So, we were sent home. We had my inlaws take the kids earlier and it was late so we hit Wal-mart. I had to stop and concentrate on my breathing regularly. It was fixing to be a long night. However, my labor would come to a halt, just long enough for me to sleep.
I woke up in the morning and within about an hour of being up, labor began again. I was incredibly thankful for the good night's sleep. I was having more show, but thought "this is probably nothing". That was around 10/11am. By 2pm, I was still contracting and they were getting more painful. One of my friends from church stopped over and as soon as she saw me, told me I need to get rolling to the hospital because this was it. I was like "Eh, I want to make sure". I knew how long my previous labor was and how it went, so I really wanted to be sure. Then, I got to where I couldn't stand. It was labor alright!
We arrived at the hospital around 3pm. As I tried going from wheelchair to bed, I had a contraction, so I got on hands and knees right there on the floor. The nurses picked me up and had me get in bed where they helped me get in a gown. I knew then, well ASSumed, that this meant no natural birth. I called my mother who reassured me that it was ok to get an epidural, I didn't have to play superwoman. So, I requested an epidural. Good choice! When I had arrived, I was 4cm and contracting every two minutes. My dad arrived and sat with us. I don't recall exactly why the doctor checked me when he did, but my dad was told to step out so I could push.
Due to the tear I had with my previous baby, I did ask the doctor for an episiotomy and he agreed to do that for me. At 4:56pm, after about 15 minutes of pushing, my 7.5lbs baby boy came into the world. I was ecstatic! Adding to the christmas element of his birthday, he was born with pointy little elf ears that left everyone chuckling.
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