All Right, Here's How It Went Down

Warren is reading cute baby his lesson plan for today and while baby is pretending to be interested, I have time to finally update this blog.

My water ruptured last Tuesday at about 2:30am. First let me clarify for those of you who commented on how awesome I was for blogging during labor, while I don't want to take away from my awesomeness, I do have to admit that early labor contractions are nothing compared to the contractions that really count. Early labor was exciting and only slightly uncomfortable. Although, don't feel like you can't still perceive me as your hero.

I called my doula, Tracy (who we will hereby refer to as Super Tracy) when I noticed the leakage and was pretty sure it was not pee this time. She told me to start to time my contractions and call her when they were five minutes apart. I woke Warren up to tell him I was 98% sure I was in labor, but since I had hours of labor left to go he should go back to sleep. He sat in bed and stared at the ceiling for about an hour then decided it was time for him do a little "nesting." From about 3:30am until 4:00pm Warren cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned what he had just cleaned. He did laundry, vacuumed, re-washed clean dishes, scrubbed bathrooms, mowed the lawn...twice. I'm not positive, but I think I saw him lick our kitchen floor clean.

At around 6:00am, I called Super Tracy to let her know my contractions were closer together. They still didn't hurt, necessarily, but they were starting to get more regular. Super Tracy came over about a half hour later to coach me at home. Since my water had not gushed, and would only leak every time I had a contraction, we weren't worried about rushing to the hospital right away. In Florida doctors have 24 hours to deliver a baby once they know when the mother's water broke. I knew that if I went to the hospital too early I would be induced, and I wanted to avoid that. Once Super Tracy arrived my contractions became irregular again--every five minutes, then every fifteen minutes, then two an hour. We went on walks, did squats, ate a spicy sandwich at Subway, did more squats, watched an episode of Wipeout (my new favorite show on T.V. because what isn't funny about watching someone face plant and take a fall off a 10 foot platform?) Unfortunately, nothing helped move my contractions along. At 6:00pm, I finally felt like we should head to the hospital. My water had been leaking for 15 1/2 hours at this point and I was nervous that something might be wrong.

At the hospital the three of us waited for nearly TWO HOURS to be checked. I guess since we were all laughing in the waiting room we didn't exactly look like we needed immediate attention. Plus, I had just been in about 3 1/2 weeks earlier thinking my water had broken when it hadn't, so I figured they thought I had peed again. It turned out there were no beds available because every woman in Pasco, Co. decided to have her baby that day. At nearly 8:00pm I was taken back to be checked. The nurse on duty checked three times for amniotic fluid, but every test came back negative. She would have discharged me except she noticed mucus and called for the midwife. The midwife checked the water that had leaked on the bed and it tested positive for amniotic fluid, so I was admitted right then. I lied (but I'm not sorry) to the midwife about when the leak started because by this time it was almost 10:00pm and if I told her the truth I might have been hooked up to pitocin immediately. Super Tracy advised me to get some sleep and she would either be back in the morning, or her back-up doula, Super Emily, would come. My water gushed right before Super Tracy left, but my contractions STILL weren't regular, so we figured I had quite a while left and should sleep before the hard contractions started.

About 25 minutes after we said good-bye to Super Tracy my contractions kicked it up about a hundred notches and they went from slightly uncomfortable but fun and exciting to active labor, beat-me-over-the-head-with-a-metal-bat- and-it-hurts-to-walk-to-the-bathroom-so-someone-get-me-a-damn-bedpan contractions every 2-5 minutes. I called Super Emily in tears begging her to come to the hospital. I wanted to sleep but these contractions were a bit shocking and not nearly as easy to ignore. Super Tracy made it to the hospital before Super Emily and found me lying in my bed suffering silently. Super Emily showed up not long after and both of them sat and breathed with me, rubbed my back, and helped me through my contractions. I can not say enough good things about having a doula for my birth. Warren was great and did all he could, but with neither of us knowing what to expect or how to deal with the pain, Super Emily and Super Tracy were lifesavers. I would absolutely recommend a doula to anyone, especially first time parents.

My labor lasted the rest of the night. Around 2:00am I finally agreed to have narcotics to help me sleep. They worked for about 45 minutes and then they just made me loopy. My midwife told me she wanted to start pitocin at 6:00am and by that point I had had enough. I hadn't dilated, regardless of contracting all night, plus I knew I had lied about when my water had broken and now my water had been broken for over 24 hours. When the nurse came in to start the pitocin drip I was exhausted. I hadn't slept in two nights, I was in pain, and I was almost delirious. So, I asked for an epidural before the nurse started the pitocin. I was afraid with how tired I was that if I didn't get some sleep I wouldn't have the strength to push. At 7:30am the anesthsiologist came and hooked me up with the epidural. Oh. My. Gosh. It felt AMAZING. I literally wanted to make-out with the guy. After 29 hours of labor being drugged was awesome. I felt like a quitter for asking for the drugs, but since the midwife was going to give me pitocin anyway I figured what the hell. Two hours later I was checked and I had dilated to an 8. Two minutes after that I felt the urge to push, and a little under 30 minutes later our daughter was born. Easy peasy, right?

So here is what a Tickner baby looks like on the outside of the womb.








She loves it when the flash goes off in her face.


I think I'll do that again someday.

For Sara: STATS
Born at 9:56am 8/7/08
weight: 6 lbs. 4.5 ounces
length: 21 inches...or it may have been 20 inches. I think it was 20 inches...bah, I'm not good with details.
And her cry sounded like a cat's meow.