Here's the story

On Saturday night I thought my water broke.

It hadn’t. They watched me at the hospital for a couple hours, and then sent me home.

And I cried.

A lot.

I was (am) so embarrassed. I never wanted to be that girl – the false alarm, cry wolf lady. And so far I’ve been OK. But Saturday night . . .

And the worst part is Wyatt announced it on Facebook before we left. So my embarrassment was spread across – well, everybody. Wyatt is an extrovert. He tells everyone everything. I love this about him – except when it comes to having babies.

Anyhow . . . I told myself – “no more false alarms. I have to be screaming in pain or gushing in fluid before I’ll go in again.”

And now it’s 5:05 a.m. I’ve been up for about three and a half hours, having pretty painful contractions. But not screaming in pain contractions.

I have a doctors appointment at 8:30, and I’m determined to hold out for that. Then the Dr. can tell me if I’m in labor or not (wait for contraction)

and then there is no false alarm.

But after I determined this, I also realized if I did that, there would be no “we gotta go to the hospital NOW!” which is the point of not being induced and waiting past my due date.

So about an hour ago I woke Wyatt up and told him I was pretty sure I’m in labor. I just wanted him to know, to have that excitement and anticipation. But now he’s awake, wanting to go to the hospital. But I refuse (see explanation above). I’m holding out.

*******

It is now 3:50 in the afternoon. I went in to Dr. Larsen at 8:30 this morning. Lois came up to watch the kids, and we took everything we needed for the hospital (just in case).

When he came in I told him I was *pretty sure* I was in labor. He checked me, and laughed. “You’re dialated to a six!” he told me, and commented that I was still smiling and just thought I might be in labor?!!

And he sent us straight downstairs to get checked in (his office is at the hospital).

Well, I continued to contract and it took a while to get going on some things (medications for Strep B) and by the time they were ready to give me an epidural I had dialated to an 8, which surprised me because I still wasn’t in agonizing pain yet. But they gave me the epidural at around 11:00 and said I would have all my meds and be ready to push by 2:30 – if I could please wait that long.

But when 2:30 rolled around they checked me again, and the epidural had completely stopped my progression. I was still at an 8.

So they’ve given me some pitocin, and haven’t checked me since. I guess I’ll have this baby at some point. Wyatt and I have both been sleeping most of the afternoon – we’re both tired from being up all night.

We’re still trying to decide on a name. It’s a conversation that just seems to go in circles.

****************************

It’s now 10:45 pm. Andrew James was born at 7:34 this evening. He weighed in at 8 lb 12 oz, and measured 20.5 inches.

At 6:30 I was measuring 9 plus cm. Dr. Larsen decided that was close enough (I think he was ready to go home for the day 😉 ). Baby was also at a station 0. They’re supposed to drop to station +3, so I had a lot of pushing to do.

I started pushing and really got pretty worn out. But finally at 7:34 out he came, all slippery and sweet. He was a really clean baby – wet but not waxy or gooey. He did really well, and I held  him for an hour before I handed him over to the nurses to be measured and tested and poked and prodded.

And then we started the name debate . . . again. It came down to Andrew Joshua, Andrew James, or Nathaniel Jack. We finally agreed on Andrew James. He looks like an Andrew.

And he looks like his brother, Everett. He’s a cutie.

He’s done really well. He nursed really well, and he’s been wide awake with this shocked look on his face. He hasn’t been very fussy. Just dazed and confused.

It was my longest labor – 17.5 hours if I figure I started at 2 am. It’s been a long day, and I’m pretty tired.