Mommy & Me

I'll start my story off starting on Monday since that's when I believe it all started.
Monday- I had my membranes stripped that morning which a lot of you may know since I had made a post about how long to wait before going in to L&D. After about 4 hours of bareable contractions, they stopped and everything went on as normal except I made it a point to stay on my feet and if I sat down it was going to be on the yoga ball.
Tuesday- Boring uneventful day until 9:45 pm when I started having regular contractions 5 minutes apart that we're somewhat painful. I wasn't able to sleep AT ALL that night because I was contracting every 3-5 minutes from 9:45 until Sean woke up at 7:30 am. 
Wednesday- By that time (7:30/8am) my contractions were bringing me to tears so I decided it was time to call my doctor and ask to come into L&D. When we got there I was immediately checked and was told I was 2 cm and still 70% effaced so they had us walk around the birthing center for an hour and a half to see if that would help me progress. Walking around caused me to have contractions 2 min apart for a good majority of the time however, when the time was up and I was checked again, I had only progressed 1/2 cm. My OB told the nurse that she wanted me to go home and walk around then come back when my contractions were stronger, closer together, and i couldn't stand the pain anymore. She wanted me to be 3-4cm before admitting me (1/2 cm away! so close!). So that's what we did. 5 pm rolls around and my contractions aren't any closer together but they were definitely stronger and I couldn't stand the pain anymore. We arrive back at the birthing center, I get hooked up to the monitors, and get checked. I was an astonishing 5 cm and almost 100% effaced! Umm talk about shock; I did NOT think that was going to happen.I also didn't see myself running a fever of 100.1. I immediately get transferred to my birthing suit so I could get my epidural and IV fluids for my fever. By 7 pm I had received my epidural (which is beyond amazing!!!!) and was enjoying life watching the contractions on the screen but not feeling them lol. At 8 the OB would was going to deliver me came in and broke my water, I was 6 cm at that point. At 9 pm the OB came back in to check me again and I was already 10 cm... that's 1 cm per 15 MINUTES in that past hour. Now I just had to wait until I started feeling a lot of pressure and felt the need to push. Around 10 pm that happened. I started doing my practice pushes and then doing some real pushes to get him to crown. After almost an hour of pushing he finally arrived at 10:59 pm! All in all I was only laboring at the hospital for 5 1/2 hours (admitted at 5:30 and he was born at 10:59) and felt no pain thanks to the meds!

I ended up with 2nd degree tears and got stitches. My fever also never subsided during labor. The lowest it got was 99.7 but then it shot up to 101.7. It finally went away after having ice packs constantly under my arms, receiving a ton of medicine, and waiting an additional 24 hours after delivery. 

So I'm sitting here on the yoga ball trying to get things going into full swing today! lol.

*As a recap, at my 36 week appointment, my OB said I was about 1/2 cm dilated and 30% effaced (I had closed up a little since having gone to L&D).

At today's appointment I was a loose 1 cm (close to 2) and 70%. I had read online a lot this past week that if you're only 1 cm dilated that the doctor can't strip your membranes so I was a bit nervous that I wouldn't be able to get it done. Luckily for me that was not the case, but holy hell did it hurt! When my doctor was done with the painful event she told us that our little guy has his hand next to his head because she was able to feel it (trying to get the doctor to pull him out maybe? lol). She was only able to feel his hand though because of how far up and around (sorry graphic kinda) she had to move her hand, but she was also able to feel his head no problem so he's definitely very low... as you can tell from my belly pics!

My next appointment is next Tuesday and she'll strip my membranes again then if I haven't given birth. However, today I'm going to be spending the whole day on the yoga ball and going to the mall to walk around. I've been having some contractions since she stripped me which is good but we just have to make sure they keep up! Cross your fingers that something happens tonight, it is a full moon after all!