CAUTION! If you had a super long, difficult, painful labor and delivery you may not want to read this post. If you choose to read this post, keep in mind that I spent the first 17 weeks of my pregnancy REALLY sick!
Sunday 7/24/11 I'm officially 38 weeks pregnant and not very happy about it. Autrey is really low and my back, hips, basically everything aches. I spend most of Sunday morning having contractions and feeling miserable. The contractions never get closer together and eventually go away so no baby:(
Monday 7/25/11 Jackson wakes up before 6am...I think it was around 5:00am or 5:30am. Bad start to the day:( Phillip leaves for work around 7:30 and I get ready for my 9:30 Dr's appointment. This is my first appointment where my Dr. is going to do a pelvic exam. I'm hoping to hear that I am at least a little dilated and on my way...and ready to beg my Dr. to put me out of my misery. My dad stays home with a cranky and tired Jackson and my mom and I head to my Dr's appointment.
My appointment starts out the same as any other prenatal appointment. I close my eyes while the nurse weighs me (cause I really just don't want to know), I pee in a cup, and then go to the exam room. My Dr. comes in and takes my fundal measurement, and listens to the babies heartbeat. Then it's time for the dreaded pelvic. As my Dr. is examining me he starts making faces and says, "You said you've been having contractions?" Which makes me think, crap...I'm not dilated at all! I tell him about having them on and off for the last couple weeks. When he finishes the exam, he asks me if I came to the appointment alone. I tell him my mom is in the waiting room. "Good, cause you are going to the hospital. You are 6 cm dilated." He wasn't sure what he was going to do with me because I didn't appear to be in active labor, but he couldn't send me home 6cm dilated when I live a good way from the hospital. So he tells me to head to the hospital and he'll call ahead and let them know I'm coming.
So mom and I head to the hospital and I call Phillip so he can meet us there. He has to go home first and get my bag and the camera. We get to the hospital around 11am. Once I get in my room at the hospital the nurse has me put on a gown and then hooks me up to the fetal monitor and the monitor that tracks your contractions. She needed to track my contractions for 20 min to see if I'm really in labor. My contractions were 2-5 min apart but they weren't really painful, just uncomfortable. This was SO different from my labor with Jackson. (You can read about that here
Jackson's Birth Story)
Phillip arrived about 11:30am.
The nurse calls my Dr. and lets him know how far apart my contractions are (2-5min) and then he asks her to check me and then call him back. So she checks me and thinks I'm 9 cm dilated! So she asks another nurse for her opinion, and she agrees 9cm, so they get a third opinion. She thinks I'm 6-7 cm dilated. (For those of you who have had babies you know this is not a fun experience!) They are all trying to be careful because they are nervous about breaking my water. They all think as soon as my water breaks the baby is going to come very quickly. They tell me my Dr. is headed over. My Dr. arrives around noon and after he checks me he decides I'm about 8cm dilated.
Around 12:30 he breaks my water. Within 15 min I start having REALLY painful contractions. The rest is a little bit of a blur but before too long I start having the urge to push. My Dr. comes back in and checks me again and tells me the baby is "sunnyside up" (face up instead of face down) so they have me roll to my side to see if the baby will turn at all. They aren't sure he will because his head is pretty much already lodged in the birth canal. Then the urge to push is so strong there is no more breathing through it. They have me roll back over and at 1:48pm after about 10 min of pushing (sorry everyone who had to push for a long time) Autrey Joseph Boykin was born! Everyone in the room was saying what a big boy he was. You didn't have to tell me that! I knew he was a big baby! My Dr. put him on my chest and the nurse worked on drying him off while I finally got to see my new baby boy. He had a lot of hair which was pretty exciting to me since Jackson was pretty much bald for the first 18 months of his life:) Phillip didn't want to cut the cord so my mom did it (I cut Jackson's).
Once again God blessed me with an amazing birth...not too long...no drugs of any kind...and a healthy baby and mommy. Both times I have been amazed with the feeling that God created my body to do this and so thrilled that I was able to do it with no drugs and pretty much no intervention. (I know this is only because my labors are so short. I wouldn't be able to endure that for hours and hours and I don't fault anyone who has an epidural, etc.). My Dr. is very much a supporter of doing it naturally and didn't even have the nurse put in an IV. He also didn't have them give me the shot of pitocin they normally give to help with the afterbirth. I really appreciate that about him. Being able to do this all naturally really helps my recovery.
Within an hour of Autrey being born they move us upstairs to the maternity floor and the room that would be our home for the next two nights. Jackson and my dad were at home with no vehicle so Phillip went home to get them.
We are now a family of 4 and I couldn't be happier.
Autrey is a really good baby and I can't imagine life without him!
