Not my plan ...

But, then again, many births never are, are they? They suggest to write a birth plan ... but be flexible because things usually don't quite go the way we want them to! I, for one, have never really written up a birth plan, but both my doctor and Eli were well informed in terms of what we "wanted" to see happen. Well, two out of three births didn't quite go as I would have liked! Ah, well, that is the way that it ges. But, in spite of that, Matthias is here. And that is what matters most! So, here is the birth day story, longer than I normally post, and maybe full of details no one wants to hear! But, for my own personal memory's sake ... I write it.

Although I started having regular contractions on Friday the 13th of April, Matthias didn't arrive until Wednesday the 18th. My previous post explains how we went to the hospital the wee hours of the 14th, but were sent home. All throughout Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday ... I would have times of contractions about five minutes apart, but they would kind of die off. I kept hoping! I wanted to go into labor completely naturally, but knew that if Matthias wasn't born by Wednesday, they would induce. My fluid levels were low, and they said I had intra-uterine growth restriction again - as I did with Jonah. When I went in for a check-up that Tuesday the 17th, the doctor measured my belly at 33 weeks! It just wasn't growing any bigger for him to expand much. So, the induction was scheduled for Wednesday morning.

I was already dilated to two, so got the agreement from the doctor to break my water first, and see if labor would progress on its own. We went to the hospital at 7:30 a.m., got all hooked up to everything. I was contracting already about every 8 minutes at that point. The doctor on call ended up being in surgery, so the nurse had me walk quite a bit, and the doctor didn't end up coming to break my water until about 10:30 a.m. Eli and his mom walked with me, and kept me company! Dr. Mercado was wonderfully, but had a lot of trouble breaking my water. Apparently, my cervix was REALLY posterior, which means the baby's head had dropped low, but was in front of the cervix. Finally (and painfully!), she got it. From there, contractions started increasing to about five minutes apart, and we walked a lot again to try and move things along. My parents and my sister came to the hospital as well, they would be there for the long haul now!

We agreed that the nurse would check me again at 1:00 p.m. If I wasn't dilating fast enough, they would go ahead and start pitocin ... argh. She checked me, and I was just a three. Big, huge, fat, S.I.G.H.  I know what pitocin means: crazy hard contractions, really close together, and pretty much a sure eipdural to survive. But, they started it, increasing dosage each half hour or so. I wanted to hold out as long as I could in terms of getting an epidural because I didn't want to slow the labor down. But, by about 2:45 p.m., I was contracting every 2-3 minutes; hard contractions, and I was starting to get "the shakes" from them. So, had the nurse check me to see how much I had progressed ... yup. A four. Wow. So, we called for an epidural. My parents, sister, and Eli's mom pretty much stayed with us, distracting me, ,or Eli, and just being supportive throughout.

The epidural itself went okay. But somehow, I still really haven't figured this one out, at the end, the anasteaiologist said; "I gave you a little pain medication with the epidural because of how rough things were." Now, earlier in the day, the nurse had asked if I would want any other pain meds, and I had said no. My mom reacted really badly to them, and so I had always stayed completely away! So, I'm not sure how they ended up giving me some without asking, because typically that doesn't happen and I've never had an issue with that before. And then about half an hour later, I started getting really nauseous. It was horrible. I was thankful for the epidural, but throwing up the last two hours of labor, and about an hour after Matthias was born was NOT FUN. It was really rough. If it hadn't been for that, things would have seemed so rough, but that was a very low moment. My mom and Eli stayed with me, and just held my hand, and held bags. I knew we would get through it, but it was hard.

About 5:00 p.m., the nurse checked me again, and I was at an 8! Woo hoo! Time was coming close. She paged Dr. Mercado to get ready to come in, and then realized that Dr. Mercado had run out to drop off her little boy somewhere. Fortunately, Dr. Minderman (who is wonderful!) happened to still be on the floor. She ended up flying in, doing one quick check and saying "We're ready to push!". Eli sent one fast text to his mom, my dad, and my sister to run in, and I literally pushed through about two contractions, and Matthias was out!

About then, Dr. Mercado flew in the room and exclaimed "I missed it!" It was kind of a funny moment. Although it was a bummer that Dr. Durland couldn't deliver because she was on vacation, those other two were absolutely wonderful to me!

I got to spend the next moments being amazed and in awe over my sweet little boy, announcing his name with Eli to our family, and snuggling him to my chest. He was completely perfect and wonderful. And although the birth was not what I had hoped for, God brought him to us at the right time, and brought him safely. And that it was matters the most, right?