Luke's birth story

Luke's birth story - I took a dose of castor oil Monday morning. I really,  really was hoping, and praying to go into labor before my Tuesday afternoon prenatal appointment so I didn't have to make an induction decision. I did not get the expected symptoms,  basically just felt first trimester type yuckiness. By dinner time I resigned myself to the fact it hadn't worked (I had read it should start labor in 6 hours). But when John was washing dishes I got my first contraction. I thought nothing much of it, this had been going on for 6 weeks, so did the normal, kept an eye on the clock, just in case,  but tried not to think about it. They were 6-7 minutes apart all through Bible reading,  playing with Caroline,  bouncing on my ball, putting Caroline to bed, and then reading the book of birth stories I was working on. After a couple hours I texted my midwife who suggested a bath to see if it would stop or keep going. That didn't sound good to me as I was already overly warm so we watched an episode of a show on Netflix,  me breathing through contractions. ...and went to bed at 10.

Going to bed slowed them down to 10 minutes apart so I tried not to be discouraged and to get some sleep. Suddenly at 10:45 they got extremely strong and painful and were 2 minutes apart. I started shaking really bad and was trying not to make noise since John was asleep. But at that point I kind of knew this was it. After 3 of them I texted my midwife who suggested pelvic rocks or a bath. I don't like to move when I'm in labor so just lay there trying to breathe through them. Thankfully John woke up about then and helped me through a couple. He asked me what I wanted and I said I wanted to go to the hospital. I knew I wasn't going to be able to relax till the drive was behind me and I could get settled and "comfortable." So we dressed, gave Grandma the baby monitor for Caroline, and went out into the 8 degree weather to get to the hospital. The heated seat in the van helped me relax through contractions though I think sitting up is the most painful position to deal with them.

Then checked in at the emergency room,  John got a wheelchair and pushed me back to OB where they had a room ready and waiting for me. I changed, got hooked up to the monitors and was checked - I was at 5 centimeters! It was good to have it confirmed that I really was in labor.

After 20 minutes of monitoring I was allowed to get up, but surprise, surprise I didn't want to move. I wasn't doing very well emotionally, I was scared about dealing with how bad it was and was going to get. I remembered the pain all too well from last time. After about an hour,  around 2 by now, I was at 6 and decided to go ahead and get an epidural in hopes I could relax and calm down. They put in an IV gave me fluids, got the anesthesiologist out of bed......and my epidural went in around 3. It was amazing, so much better than last time.  I could lie down and relax and actually look forward to the baby. I could feel the contractions a little and was not completely numb, I was able to move, but it didn't hurt. My midwife got there a bit later and basically we just hung out and relaxed as I dilated. One nice thing about having both my babies in the same small town hospital was that I had the same two nurses with me that I had at Caroline's labor/birth! The worst part was I got a really bad headache in the morning, I think because I needed breakfast and coffee which they wouldn't let have (because of the epidural). John did "sneak" me some coffee and I had some apple juice and lay there with a cold cloth over my eyes and rested. In the midst of that my water broke but I was so preoccupied with my head I forgot to tell anyone for about an hour. When I did tell them they checked and I was at 9. Deb wanted to wait for my body to start moving the baby down before I began pushing and that happened around 10:00. Just like with Caroline I had no urge to push and it took a little time for me to figure out how to do it effectively. Squatting was what worked best and after about an hour of hard work I pushed him out. I was very disappointed that even with the epidural I had to feel that, but it wasn't as bad as Caroline,  no screaming,  just some tears, and "I can't do this."  He came out screaming and healthy and thankfully I got to hold him right away which was one of my hopes for the birth. I only tore a little, but lost a lot of blood. Then I started throwing up which was fun too! But once that was over everything was good, Luke nursed great, and I got to eat finally :-). We were so thankful to the Lord for a safe delivery which was easier and much less traumatic than last time, and a healthy baby!