Announcing

Phoebe Margaret Josephine
July 22, 2008 9:50 pm
6 lbs 3 oz. 19 inches

I went to the OB on Tuesday and was 3cm and 80% but it was otherwise a boring appointment. Then at 5:30 my water broke (when I was actually not having contractions) but with my history we knew to head straight to the hospital anyway. We got there and waited forever for a room and by 7pm I was contracting but only every 10 minutes or so. The contractions quickly picked up and while the first test confirmed my water had broke my OB (over the phone of course) said it didn't count because of the lubricant used earlier when he checked me in the office. So they wanted to do a spec exam to test for fluid, by this time though my contractions were already every two minutes and a minute long and getting painful fast so the last thing I wanted was a spec exam. So they agreed to just swab some fluid and test that, it came back negative. I was pissed because I was clearly in hard labor and just wanted to get into a delivery room and out of triage. I said just check me and if I'm dilating then I must be in labor but they said they couldn't do it before the spec because they'd need lubricant (you know the thing that got us in this mess in the first place) but I assured them no extra lubricant would be needed and finally they checked me (4cm) and of course fluid gushed everywhere when they did and they immediately got me a room. On the way to my room we saw my OB so he came over and checked me too, I was now 6cm and they called the anesthesiologist. I told him my labors are fast so he did a spinal/epidural and the relief was so nice, the first time I've actually gotten pain relief in labor. OB checked again and I was 7cm so they started to set up the room. By now I couldn't feel my legs at all so I had no idea how I'd know the baby was coming and I was sure it wouldn't be long. We waited a little bit (maybe 20 minutes tops) and my nurse checked and I was complete and baby was crowning. When she said it was time to push I joked and said I think I'll just sit here and let her slide out, the nurse looked at me and said "I think that's exactly what might happen." My OB came in, I pushed twice and she was out. Whole thing was over in under 3 hours. She got a bit grunty with her breathing so she went to the nursery for awhile but came back within a few hours.