The 5th of July was a Sunday, and as we were settling into bed (11:30 or so), Josh said that he just had this strong feeling that she would be born the next day. After reading all I had to prepare, I knew that having the baby within about the next 25ish hours was kind of unrealistic. Especially when many people I'd spoken with told me how they'd been in labor for 2 days! So I brushed it it off, and said that he shouldn't worry, and we should just go to bed. I was still having painless Braxton Hicks contractions at this point, and had been having them pretty regularly for weeks.
About an hour later, I was still trying to fall asleep. The neighbors were still setting off the occasional firework, and making lots of noise outside. I was just about asleep when I had another contraction, but toward the end, it got a little painful. I was laying there trying to figure out if I should wake Josh up and give him a heads up, or just wait and see what happened when someone's car alarm started going off and woke him up. After he checked to make sure that it wasn't our car, I said (and this is his favorite part of the story), " I think I just had a real contraction. Either that or I have to poop." He thought that was hilarious. I decided to go to the bathroom. A few minutes later, I came back into the bedroom, and told him that it was definitely contractions. I'd had 2 more in the bathroom, and they were getting stronger.
The contractions started getting into more of a pattern then. I began timing them, and they were only about 2 1/2 minutes apart. I decided to wait about an hour to go in because I was worried about being a trigger happy first time mom, and going in too early. So I kept timing them while Josh finished gathering our hospital stuff. They were getting more and more intense, so I decided to get into the shower, which helped a lot with the pain. After the shower, we left for the hospital.
We got in the car and headed to the hospital. The contractions got more and more intense in the car, and I started wondering if we’d make it in time. We pulled into the hospital at about 2:20 am. They hurried me into a room and checked me. I was dilated to a 5. About 20 minutes later, Josh and I were alone in the room. During the next contraction, my water broke. It was a crazy feeling, but relieved a lot of my pressure. Josh ran out into the hall to let the nurse know. She came back in with a wheel chair and took me to a delivery room.
When we got there, the pain and pressure that came with each contraction was almost unbearable. I told her that I was starting to feel like I could start pushing. She checked me and I was at a 7. The nurses kept telling me that they were going to get me the epidural soon. I think it was about a half an hour later when he finally came in, and it felt like it took forever to put it in. But once it was in, I felt so much better!
By about 5:00, they said that I was complete. They said that they’d called the doctor, and we were basically waiting on him to arrive. But that they’d probably give me another hour to let my body work on moving the baby down. I was shocked! An hour?! I was ready to have this baby now!
Luckily the doctor was there in about 20 minutes and we started pushing. Things got a little scary then. Every time I pushed, Cordelia’s heart rate dropped significantly, and my pushes seemed to be doing very little. I pushed a few more times, and the doctor got the vacuum out. I pushed a few times with that, still making very little progress. At that point, he said that we would push for 2 more sets of 4, and if baby wasn’t out, he’d do a C-Section. After 5 more pushes she was out, with the cord wrapped tightly around her neck. Josh said it looked like it took all of the doctor’s strength to get it off.
Here are some pictures and a couple videos of her first few days with us.
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Cordy's first hiccups.
Cordy's first night home - the cats are freaked out!
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