It's a Great Day to Have a Baby!

Dylan Thomas Havens is well on his way to making us a family of four today!  At 35 weeks gestation, we wouldn't have chosen Sunday, July 22nd to meet our little man, but God continues to show us that sometimes we have to let him take the reigns and trust that he will keep our little man safe and healthy!

On Friday evening at about 7:00, I began having contractions about 4 minutes apart, and although they weren't severely painful I definitely recognized that they weren't exactly Braxton-Hicks, either!  At about 9:30 I told my parents to stay on standby in case we needed them to help with Noah.  I decided to go to sleep and see if I could sleep through them, which would indicate to me that it wasn't the real thing.  Has anyone seen that picture on Facebook of a mom holding her baby and says something along the lines of: "I'm sorry honey, but mommy is a nurse and we only see the doctor if you're dying?!"  Well that was/is me!  I woke up from the pain of the contractions throughout the night, and at 4:00 am I got up and cleaned out the car.  Logical, right?  I finally paged the doctor on call Saturday morning at 7:30 when I finally came to grips with the fact that this was really happening at 34+6.  He told me I needed to come in and be monitored, but didn't seem worried and figured he would send me home later that day.

First attempt at stopping labor: Terbutaline.  Big Fail.  I had the jittery side effects, but the medicine had absolutely no effect on my contractions.  I also received a steroid shot at this time in an effort to help develop the little man's lungs.  My contractions continued to come 3-4 minutes apart, but my cervix remained unchanged (not surprisingly - when I was induced with Noah I showed no change until my water broke).  But the intensity of contractions continued to elevate.

Second attempt at stopping labor: Procardia.  Also a big fail.  I was still in triage at this point, but the contractions were getting more intense and Ben and I knew that we were in this for the long haul.  They started an IV at this point and began loading me full of fluids to make sure my contractions were not related to dehydration.  3000 mls of Lactated Ringers later I was contracting as hard as ever.  My nurse was fabulous and moved me to a Labor and Delivery room with a MUCH more comfortable 'postpartum' bed, even though they were still hopeful they would not have to admit me and might be able to stop labor.

Third attempt: A whopping dose of morphine and phenergan.  Big Fail (see a pattern here)?!  They were hoping that my uterus might relax as a side effect of the drugs.  They made me a little sleepy, but didn't touch the contractions or the pain.

By 6:00 or so, the decision was made to officially admit me as an inpatient.  They started me on Magnesium Sulfate, which they referred to as "pulling out the big guns" to try one last attempt at stopping my labor.  They started me on a low dose, but quickly had to increase me as I began to dilate and was contracting about 2 minutes apart.

There are several hours where all I remember is a lot of contractions, a lot of pain, and zero relief.  Having planned for a c-section, I hadn't thought about what it might be like to go through natural labor for almost 30 hours without an epidural or pain meds (other than the one round of morphine, which as I mentioned was pretty much useless).  I received another round of Morphine at 10, and was hoping to sleep, so Ben went home at 10:30 pm, planning to work this morning.  The intention was to really try to hold off delivery until at least Monday so that the steroids would have more time to work on Dylan's lungs.  By midnight to 1:00 am, it was clear to my nurse and I that I was in full-blown, teeth-clenching, "people who do this crap by choice without drugs are crazy" labor. I commend women who do this, but I think after at least 8 hours of severely painful contractions I can cross this off of my bucket list of things I never had a desire to do!

My nurse took pity on me, and requested permission for me to get an epidural.  By 3:30 am I had blissful relief!  I was continuing to dilate, so plans for delivery were discussed and I was taken off of the Mag.  I called the hubby, and he decided that he wanted to be here for the birth of his child, so he probably shouldn't work today!  He planned to come to the hospital by 7 am, but by 4:00 he was walking through my door because he couldn't sleep either :)  We finally slept for about 2 hours - I have a new appreciation for how noisy hospital equipment and doors are!  The doctor came in this morning and found that I have continued to progress, so he decided to break my water.  At this point we will not be augmenting labor with Pitocin unless absolutely necessary.  Did I mention we are trying for a VBAC now?  This baby should be smaller than Noah was at only 35 weeks, and I would really love to be able to hold him and take care of him more easily if possible.  If it doesn't work out and I need to have a c-section, so be it!

Now we just wait!  I am resting comfortably with my epidural in place, and we are hopeful that we will have our healthy, not-so-wimpy white boy this afternoon!  Please say some prayers for a safe delivery and a healthy little boy!!  Thank you for all of the love and support all of our friends and family have given us already - we are so very blessed!

Noah did get to visit me for a little bit.  He watched some Super Why, ate some snacks, and fixated on my "ouchy" (my IV).  Oh and he was thoroughly entertained by the enormous bath tub in the room! :)