Monday, February 29, 2016

Grant's Birth Story

The contractions started around 12:30am Tuesday, January 19th.  By 2:00am they were about 5-6 minutes apart.  I called my mom and dad to tell them we were heading to the hospital, so they began the three hour trip down to Columbus.  We got to the hospital only to be told that it wasn't time yet.  Disappointment.  The doctor said it's getting close, and I could come back in a few hours.  So, we headed back home.  Mom and Dad got to our house around 5:30am and Josh and I went back to the hospital.  By the time we got there the contractions had almost stopped.  We walked around for about an hour.  Still nothing...back home.  I had contractions all day Tuesday, but only about every 40 minutes to an hour.  I walked and walked, did laundry, walked some more.  I went to bed very discouraged that night.  Then, around 2:00am the contractions started coming quicker again, so we started getting ready to go back to the hospital.  By the time we were ready to go, guess what...they slowed down again.  Back to every 30-40 minutes or so.  So, Wednesday morning Josh went to work and we took the boys to daycare.  I told Mom I was tired of moping around and being miserable, so we decided to go to Starbucks and Target.  We left the house at 10:00 and headed to Starbucks...we were there about 30 minutes and I had 4 contractions, but I was feeling OK so I decided to go ahead and go to Target.  As we were walking around I had to stop every now and then to breathe through the contractions...eventually Mom asked if I was timing them because we were having to stop pretty often.  I wasn't, but started to as we headed to the checkout line.  They were about 7 minutes apart.  I said let's just go back home, drop off our stuff, pick up Dad and then we can go to the hospital.  Well, we got about a mile from my house and I felt the baby drop...I said, "Umm...you need to turn around."  So, around 12:20 I sent Dad and Josh a text to meet us at the hospital (I also told Josh to tell the nurses to page my doctor because he was on the night shift and I knew he wouldn't be there).  I knew Baby Grant would be here soon...I just didn't know how soon!  It took probably 25 minutes to get to the hospital.  Mom dropped me off and I went to the front desk to ask the lady for a wheelchair up to the labor and delivery floor.  She said, "Do you think you're in labor?"  I said, "YES! I need a wheelchair!!" While trying to get up to the 5th floor, I'm pretty sure we stopped on every floor, and at one floor, there was no one there!  Typical.  By this time contractions were probably 1-2 minutes apart, and I had to suffer through people's silly comments while I was trying to get through them.  One man said, "I bet I know why you're heading to the 5th floor!"  I told him I had heard the view was nice up there.  I know he meant well, but seriously...  We finally made it all the way up and Josh was waiting for me there.  He told me they weren't able to page my doctor until I had been admitted, and they wouldn't admit me until they had checked my progress.  I panicked and started yelling, "I don't have time to get checked!!  I need a bed right now!!"  But, they had to follow the protocol and made me go to a triage room anyway.  7 centimeters...apparently that was enough for them to let me go to a labor room (that or my loud, uncontrollable sobbing).  When I got to the bed they tried 3 times to get an IV going, but they were out of time.  And I knew that I was out of time for an epidural!!  Yikes!  That thought made me have another quick panic attack, but I made it through!  Nine minutes after I got to the labor room, and with the help of an on-call midwife* (and my super awesome husband who caught the baby!), Baby Grant made his appearance on January 20th, his original due date, at 1:14pm!!  33 hours of latent labor plus three hours of active labor equals one healthy baby boy, two elated parents, and two extremely proud big brothers.  This little guy has already brought our family so much joy and we love him dearly!!

*The midwife who delivered Grant spent some time working at the hospital at Fort Bliss where Cameron was born.  I had even seen her for a couple of my OB checkups!!


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