Labor Day

[Warning: This is going to be a VERY long post! :)]
So it all started on Saturday, 2/28 around 9:30pm. Actually, let me go back to about 5:30pm when Mary, Nick's mom, came over to our house. She brought us a soup dinner in her crockpot. Mary had a feeling I would go into labor that night so she wanted to spend some time w/us. I didn't believe her because I hadn't had any signs of labor at all. I worked earlier that day and I felt pretty good outside of some lower back pain that I attributed to standing up and running around at work for a few hours.
Mary left around 8pm and I felt my first contraction at 9:30pm. Honestly, at first I wasn't sure that it wasn't an upset stomach. Nick and I had just finished packing our bags for the hospital. If Mary hadn't come over, I don't think I would've had everything as ready as we did. Around 10:30pm, I told Nick I was sleepy and I should go to bed regardless whether they were actual contractions or not. The first couple of contractions were 35 or 40 minutes apart. By midnight, they were 9 or so minutes apart. At that point, I knew I was in labor. I filled the tub with warm water and stayed there until we left for the hospital at 3:30am. Contractions were very manageable in the water. Nick had been sleeping until he heard the water running. He later told me he didn't know what to do when he saw me having contractions in the tub. He felt useless until I told him to start tracking the contractions. He said he felt much better after he had a "job" to do. Contractions started out in the front only but I soon started feeling them on my lower back. I was dreading the hospital ride b/c I knew the car ride wouldn't be comfortable for me. Fortunately, Nick made it to the hospital in 3 contractions.
When Nick and I had gone through the hospital tour, they told us about the wheelchairs for moms, I told him my first labor goal was to walk to triage on my own. I did walk to triage on my own but I did have to stop and hang on to the rail for a couple of contractions. I was the only one at triage so they checked me right away. I was at 4cm, 100% effaced at -1 station so they admitted me. I had already called our parents because I knew there was no way they would turn me away. The contractions had been consistently 5 min apart for a few hours. At that point, I was breathing through them and was managing the pain well.
The rest of the morning/day is a blur to me. The hospital did great with all of my birth plan requests. I did get the telemetry (wireless) monitors put on so I could walk around or soak in the tub if I chose to. They did not give me an IV at first, they just put the lock-in, in case I needed an IV or any other medication. I was really impressed with how every nurse asked to see my birth plan before treating me. The only thing they gave me a hard time about was laboring in the tub. The first nurse thought the telemetry monitors were not waterproof. I had to tell her that at the hospital tour they had told us that they were and that I would be allowed to soak. I hated the Dr. on call- he was a jackass (sorry for the language). The good thing was that he came to see me at 6:30am and the new Dr.'s shift started at 7am so I knew I wouldn't have to deal with him. He argued w/me on almost everything on my birth plan (not having an IV, fluids, soaking and episiotomies) to which I replied- look at the bottom of my birth plan and you'll see my Dr.'s signature. I gave him the death stare before I just simply ignored him.
I ended up not being able to soak in the tub. I used the birthing ball (and ipod) instead. I was very comfortable in between cxn's. Nick noticed that when I was on the ball during cxn's, Gavin would move much more than when I was just laying in the bed. They didn't feel any stronger to me so I think it allowed him to move down easier. I seem to have a negative effect on certain electronics and this was just one of those times. By the time they found the head nurse to let the Dr. and tech know that I could soak in the tub, the wireless monitors had malfunctioned (2 sets) and were replaced by the wired monitors. Back labor on a bed is not good! I tried to walk around but I could feel I was getting weak. I had gone to bed a bit hungry to begin with. I had an Ensure and a big bowl of mashed potatoes on my way to the hospital (I was trying to avoid foods that would make me go #2). I underestimated how much sweating and energy the contractions would take from me. I ended up asking for the IV because I felt like I would pass out if I didn't get it.
I would have to review the twitter updates to see how the rest of the labor went. I remember feeling the cxn only on my back. At one point my dad was in the room and as I tried to breathe and tune the cxn out, he stared at the monitor and said "that one is off the chart". I thought "no shit!, I know this!". I think I lasted about an hour after that cxn w/o an epidural. I had told Nick on my way to the hospital- if you see tears on my face, get me an epidural. I will NEVER forget the one contraction that caused me to tear up. Tears did not run down my face but it watered my eyes and it broke every bit of "relaxation" I could concentrate on that point. Once my concentration was gone, I couldn't get it back and I was done. I will tell you that I was terrified of the epidural. I almost cried the entire time the anesthesiology team was in the room. I had to keep myself together as they did it. I was so afraid that the guy would misjudge the distance, or that a contraction would come in the middle of it and I would jolt just as they would tell me "you can't move". I took a few deep breaths and made it through. However, it wasn't perfect. The epi was lopsided. Apparently sometimes when they insert the needle, the needle can curve up or down causing the Rx to go to the left or right only. Lo and behold, that happened to me. My right side was completely numb and my left side had nothing. The good thing was that it did eliminate the back labor. The anesthesiologist apologized and was giving me my options and I told him- "hey, you took away 2 out of the 3 pain areas, I can handle this". They had me lay on my left side to see if gravity could bring the Rx down to the left. It didn't kick in but with each cxn I thought "I'm so glad I did this, if this is only 1/3 of the pain I can't imagine what it would feel like w/o it". I didn't get any pitossin b/c it was on my birth plan and I was progressing on my own anyway. I progressed faster than the anesthesiologist expected. By the time they figured out how to fix my epidural, I was at 9 cm. The nurse hadn't inserted my catheter b/c she was afraid I would feel it. They did a test run and it wasn't bad for me so they went ahead and inserted the catheter. The anesthesiologist came in and clicked on the epi rx machine to give me some more meds to compensate for the lopsidedness. My left leg never went numb but the kick did numb the important areas so labor and repairs were pretty painless.
The nurse had predicted Gavin would be born at noon. At 12:15 or so she came in and asked if I had the urge to push. I told her I didn't because I still felt like he would come out of my butt so I didn't think that was the "right feeling" to push. She asked if I wanted to be checked and I said I didn't mind. As soon as she lifted the sheet, she said "you're there!". Gavin was born at 12:39pm on 3/1/09. He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz, and was 19 3/4 inches long. His hair is light brown (or dark blonde) and his eyes are grayish but with a hint of brown.