Sunny Side Up

The day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, I had my weekly doctor appointment. Matt and I discussed at length if we wanted the doctor to strip my membrane. We knew Dr. S would not be on call until Saturday at midnight, so we planned to wait until Monday or Tuesday, make an appointment and have her do it then.

I'm laying on the table, while the dr does the weekly ultrasound. I begin telling her my plan. As soon as I mention Monday or Tuesday, she interrupts and informs me she will be out all of the week following Thanksgiving due to having surgery. I realized my window of having her deliver this baby was very small but I was going to change the plans and shoot for the weekend.

So I had her strip me and figured it wouldn't take until maybe Friday night. Well it took and it took Thanksgiving morning. The contractions hit at 4 am almost on the dot and they were every 7-8 minutes, but pretty painful. I decided to get up, get a shower, pack our bags and get stuff straightened. I knew once they started in a rhythm they weren't stopping.

We had plans to go to my Dad's for Thanksgiving dinner. He lives just a few miles from the hospital. We dropped the kids off with him and headed to the hospital just to see if anything was happening. Since 4 am the contractions would get closer, then would further apart, but they were getting progressively stronger.

We roll in around 3pm. They check me and I'm a 2cm and 80%. Not what I wanted to hear because that's what I was at the doctor just the day before, but I was having lots of bloody show. The nurse said I could stay and she'd check me in an hour. The hour went by, contractions are getting intense enough I have to breathe through them. She checks me; no change. We decide I will walk the halls and they'll check in another hour or two. We walk. Contractions still pretty painful, and only require me to stop and breathe. I get checked again; nothing. So we continue walking. The contractions are so strong now, I can not stand through them. I have to squat on the ground or lean on a counter. They were so painful. I begin to lose it. I can not control the crying. I'm crying because I'm hurting and crying because no one wants to help me feel better.

By now it's nearly 7pm and I can have no meds until I show progress. A new nurse comes on her shift. I have a glimmer of hope. "Maybe a new set of hands will feel something different than the other lady." She tells me to get on a ball, so I reluctantly do. I sit, cry a little and rock. My mom calls, I cry some more. She tells me to get angry at the contractions. So I decide that's sounds like a great approach and it was. I got pissed with each one and with each one I felt a little stronger.

Then the nurse comes in, it's do or die. She says I'm a 3 maybe a 4 and around 90%!!

Great news! Now call the anesthesiologist.

By 8:30p, I had my epidural and I was able to relax.

The night goes on and I predict the birth to be around 4 or 5 am Friday. That would be 24 hours of labor, which is standard for me. Chloe was 24 and Cooper was 23.

Around 3:30am, the nurse checks and I'm almost a 10. She manages to 'accidentally' break my water and I say, "Well, I bet I have her by 4am!" The nurse looks at me, smiles and says, "Well, it might be more like 5. I still have to get the doctor here and get some stuff ready." Then she walks out. The very next contraction, I felt something funny. I felt like something was trying to get out of me. I look at my mom she asks if I need to push and it kind of felt like I did. Then the next contraction hit and I knew, she was coming.

The nurse comes in, looks and says she can see the head. I start pushing at 4 and it seems to be taking a long time and a lot of effort. I feel like I'm pushing super hard and nothing is happening. I later learned the doctor was letting me stretch out.

I push one more time and literally Colbie pops out. I mean seriously. If there had been a noise, it would have 'popped.' At the time I didn't realize, but she came out looking at me. The doctor called it 'sunny side up.'

My theory is the contractions were so painful because of her position. I was in a lot of pain through out the pregnancy. My stomach still hurts to this day in the spot where the contractions were the most painful; just above my hip flexors.

She comes out screaming and trying to suck her fingers. It was awesome. They weigh her and she's 5 pounds 13 ounces, by far our tiniest baby. Chloe was 6# 7 and Coop was 7# 11.

After she was born and the gunk was out of me, I changed into my Annie and Isabel gown. Isn't it cute! I'm wearing the Annie. I received so many compliments on my gown.


So there you have it, at least most of it.