I belong with you, you belong with me

I was fairly certain that Spartacus was going to come before the 30^th. I figured he’d come some time after the 15^th. I had a plan to labor at home (or work, I guess) as long as possible, and once at the hospital use the birthing balls, walking, etc, eventually get an epidural, and have this baby. But I hadn’t written it out or even finished packing a bag, and that turned out to be okay because my birth plan wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

Sunday the 9^th we had everything ready for work Monday—lunches packed, workout loaded on computer, and we went to bed. I woke up just after midnight, felt some wetness in spurts (not like the movies) and thought my water had broken, so we quickly finished packing and drove to the hospital. We got into triage around 1:15 am, and they confirmed that I was “grossly ruptured” and we would be having a baby one way or another in the next 24 hours.

We were moved to labor and delivery—Spartacus had not dropped yet, and they were concerned that walking could cause the umbilical cord to be delivered before the baby, so I had to labor on bedrest, which I am fairly certain is the worst way to have to do it. I got hooked up to a heart rate monitor for Spartacus and a contraction monitor and blood pressure cuff for me. I got my IV, but of course the nurse had issues since they always do with my veins and had to put it in my wrist. That was super fun for the next 20-ish hours when every time I moved my wrist the IV monitor sounded a very loud alarm to say that the IV had occluded and I had to call a nurse to turn it off.

At some point an ultrasound technician came in to check whether Spartacus was breach, since he was so high the nurses hadn’t been able to tell. Also, I was having small contractions, but there’s a strict timeline once water breaks so they wanted to speed things up and couldn’t start Pitocin until they had verified that he was at least in position. Thankfully he was, and at 4:45 am they finally started the Pitocin.

Around 8:50 am, the contractions were getting pretty strong, but I was only dilated to a 2 and Spartacus hadn’t dropped. I wasn’t sure I was ready for an epidural, so I tried one of the IV drugs instead—I think it was Nubain. It was relaxing, but didn’t really put me to sleep or take away the contraction pain, it just helped my body relax between contractions, which at this point were fairly close together.

By 9:30 am, the external monitors for Spartacus weren’t getting a great read because I was shifting from side to side with contractions, so my doctor requested that they place an internal monitor for him. Contractions were getting stronger and I was pretty convinced that they were just strong because I couldn’t move around or do anything to distract myself. I may test that theory some day in the future.

Around 11, I asked for an epidural. The nurse asked me shortly before if I generally have a high pain tolerance because the monitors were showing very strong contractions and most labors she’d assisted in had asked for the epidural much sooner, so that made me feel less like a wimp about asking for it.

The anesthesiologist placed the epidural around noon. I could still kind of feel my right hip, but I was told to shift onto my right side and that would help. At this point I had only dilated to a 3, but the relief from the epidural was amazing.

However, in the next couple of hours, laying on the right side hadn’t helped at all. I was able to feel my entire right side and the internal monitor. I think that since the pain I could feel was so concentrated, it was accentuated. The contrast between my completely relaxed left side and my right side was terrible. After adjusting the dose of drugs hadn’t helped, the anesthesiologist asked if I would be okay with him replacing the epidural. I was. He finished redoing it around 3:15, and by 3:30 it was so much better. ❤ From that point I used the peanut ball and dozed for a couple of hours. My doctor came to check on me around 5:15 and said I was at a 9, almost a 10. The nurse moved me into a new position, somebody brought in tools for the delivery, and we were excited that things were moving along, even though Spartacus still hadn’t dropped much.

We watched Wheel of Fortune at 6:30 while Alex ate dinner and the nurse had me practice pushing and try to get Spartacus to drop more. We switched to Dancing with the Stars at 7, and then the nurse had me shift almost onto my belly with one leg over the peanut ball until my hip couldn’t handle that anymore. After that, it was pretty much go time.

The nurse asked if I wanted to watch in a mirror while I pushed, and she was so excited when I said yes. Apparently most people say no to that, but it was cool to see that I was actually accomplishing something. Between contractions and pushing, we kind of watched Dancing with the Stars. Around 8:20, the on call doctor from my medical group was called in, the mirror was taken away, and we were down to business. My doctor came in not too long later to assist, and it was really nice to see a familiar face, honestly. Especially since she’s been with me from the beginning of infertility testing through the “surprise! After all of that you’re now pregnant” and all the way through, she’s been super positive and encouraging and it was nice to have her there to come full circle with the Spartacus story.

At 9:06 pm, he was finally born! Alex cut the umbilical cord, which he had been a bit unsure about doing, and I finally got to hold this sweet boy while they stitched me back together. I just talked to him and told him how much we loved him and how long we had waited for him. We had a few name choices, but I think both of us had loved Max for a while, so Maximus won out. Alex was on texting duty all day and updated everyone. He also watched so many people come and go in the delivery rooms around us and was super patient. After an hour cuddling with my boy, they weighed and measured Max, 7 lbs 1 oz and 20 ¾ inches long.

The last 3 weeks have been the most physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting of my life. But I’m so grateful for this little human. He is so precious and so sweet, and he just had to keep up his tradition of surprising us by coming a little early. I’m so excited to watch him grow and be his mom, and so glad that he picked us to be his parents.