Okay...so last we talked, I had realized my water had broken. Rocky was with his Dad in Salisbury at the lakehouse dropping off a mattress and boxsprings. I called him on his cell. I don't really remember exactly what was said but I think it was something like "I'm pretty sure my water has broken". I have no clue what was said after that. I know that we must have hung up because I then called his Mom, who was still at work, and when she realized it was me she asked "are you having the baby?" Again, I don't remember my response but I know that I asked her if she would drive me to the hospital. She said she would. Then I called my Mom and told her that I was pretty sure my water had broken. Again I don't remember what was said but I'm pretty sure she said she would leave and meet us at the hospital. Finally I called the doctor's office because I had a checkup appointment at 3:30pm. They said they would keep the appointment in case the hospital sent me home. Next it was time to finish packing my bag.
We had pretty much packed as much as we could but I still needed to put things like my slippers in, my insurance card, my cell phone charger (I know, priorities right?), etc. When Linda arrived, I remember her saying that she was so surprised that I was walking around the house so calmly. I could tell she was a little excited. She had already been nervous about the baby coming before we got to the hospital since I had been saying that I wanted to labor at home and bake a cake as part of my natural birth plan. Now my water had broken and I was going to be in her car. Bless her heart! It took about 10 minutes to finish packing and then we grabbed a towel (just in case) and got in the car. I remember 2 things from there. #1, I'm pretty sure we pulled out in front of car when we left the neighborhood and #2, Rocky beat us to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital, met up with Rocky and Eddie, and then we walked in and told the receptionist we thought my water had broken. She sent us to admissions and we checked in. Then it was on to triage, where they evaluate you before admitting you or sending you home. Then put me and Rocky in a rather large room (we heard they were fairly small) and had me undress. Then they tested me to see if it was amnio fluid I was leaking. Bingo! We have a winner. I was going to be admitted. They hooked me up to a fetal monitoring device and determined I was having fairly good sized contractions and they were about 3 minutes apart. That was news to me considering I wasn't feeling anything. At this point, I'm thinking a natural child birth is going to be a piece of cake and this baby was going to be born on my Dad's birthday. Ha, was I going to be wrong!
Meanwhile, Mom, Dad and Bim had arrived. Once they moved us to a labor and delivery room, everyone took turns coming in to see us and wish us a speedy and safe labor. Everyone was so excited and nervous. I remember watching Rocky to see how he was doing. I fully expected him to be a nervous wreck and he was just the opposite. He was, well, a Rock! The nurse came in and said that Dr. Panner wanted to start me on petocin since I wasn't feeling my contractions and I was only 1 centimeter. After telling her that we wanted to attempt a natural child birth and asking her to relay this to the doctor, she came back and said he would give me 12 hours to get to progress to 4 centimeters. Otherwise, he would start me on petocin since "there would be an increased risk of infection to the baby due to my water having broken." Susan said they would say this. However, we agreed and the waiting and walking began.
I spent very little time in my bed in that 12 hours. Everyone continued to take turns coming in to check on us and we continued to walk the floor in between fetal monitoring. We had visits from Kyle & Michelle, Mike, Lauren & Starr, and Josh and Crystal. As the 12 hour mark approached, I had begun to feel contractions but could easily walk and talk through them. So I knew I wasn't close to 10 centimeters but after 12 hours, surely I was halfway there...WRONG! Dr. Panner came in around 1am to check me and I was barely 4 centimeters. But since I had met his goal and deadline, he continued to let me progress naturally. Dr. Jones was coming on call around 7am so they allowed me to continue until he arrived. Finally, he came in to check my progress. I was now...drum roll please...4 centimeters. What? Still 4 centimeters? You've got to be kidding me. It's been 20 hours since my water broke and I spent probably 18 of those hours walking or standing. Surely I was more than 4...anyone...Bueller...I got nothing.
The waiting room was still full, although several had gone home and rested or changed. Everyone was proving to be real troopers during this labor. Dr. Jones, hesitant to alter by natural birth plan, finally informed me that it was best if I started petocin to help my cervix open up. So at about 9am a drip was administered. It would be increased every 30 minutes until things starting moving along. I knew that the pain would increase as well and since we were going on 24 hours, fatigue would start setting in. Shortly after noon, he checked me again and I was still at 4 centimeters. My contractions were becoming downright painful and I could no longer walk or talk through them. I had also started vomiting as a result of the petocin. It took everything I had to keep from screaming from the pain. At around 1pm, I tearfully looked at Rocky and told him that I was ready for an epidural. As we had agreed upon in our birth plan, he tried to persuade me to continue with our plan of no pain meds but after 24 hours, I was too tired and hurting too bad to continue. Around 2pm, the epidural was administered. The pain had been greatly reduced and now the plan of action was to really pump up the petocin and kick things into high gear. Everyone was encouraged that delivery was not far away. Man, we were wrong!
...to be continued.
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