So this has been quite a week. Monday night I started having contractions and after about four hours we decided to head to the hospital to see if I was really in labor...no such luck. They sent me home at about 2:00 am with a pain pill and a sleeping pill and instructions to "get some rest." I thought that was pretty funny considering I was still having contractions! We went home and I did sleep a little, but was still contracting about once an hour.
Tuesday was restful as possible, we stayed home and tried to relax but it was very difficult. The baby was not moving, and we got really concerned and so made another trip to the hospital just to set me up on the monitors and make sure she was ok. As soon as we got there and got all hooked up she started kicking away like nothing was wrong. Ugh...7:00 pm and we are home again, exhausted and ready for bed already. Luckily our good friends Travis and Tracy had picked Ruth up and so we didn't have to worry about getting her exercise for the night, and decided to go to bed early.
At this point I am still contracting every hour, and have not had any hours of solid sleep since Sunday night. 3:00 am rolls around and I have a very strong contraction and decide to get up and take a bath, walk around the house, read and just try to relax. By 4:30 the contractions are coming more than four times an hour and by 5:30 am I was contracting about five to six times and decide to wake up Colin to start timing for me. We go along like this for six hours, me in pain, contractions getting stronger but never at regular time intervals. The doctors, books, internet, and everything else we have ever looked at says we have to wait until the contractions are at five minutes apart for an hour.
I decide in mid-contraction that I can't handle this anymore, and we call the doctor, who kindly says to come in. WOO HOO!!! We get to the Labor & Delivery triage and they check me out and HALLELUJIA - 4 centimeters!!! They are checking me in! I'm in LABOR!!!!! Wait...I'm in labor????? WHOA! They take me upstairs to the Labor & Delivery unit and we meet our team of medical professionals. Brad, the best anesthesiologist alive, Lea, the fantastic non-cheerleader nurse who reminds me of "Berta" from the T.V. show Two and a Half Men, and Dr. Kandal, my OB-Gyn.
Can I just say here that epidurals are miraculous. Six hours of labor at home that were supposed to be the easy ones and then another eleven at the hospital and the hospital ones were stronger and closer together and the hospital ones were not too bad at all (until I started feeling them and then Brad really took care of that). The problem was that while things were progressing, Corrin still was not dropping down to where she needed to be for me to deliver her. The doctors suggested we push for an hour to see what we can do. After an hour, nothing. She is still riding high and not wanting to go where she needs to for me to deliver.
This is where the doctor says medically, they do not think delivery the normal way is going to work, and recommend a caesarian section. This was a bummer to me, but I understood the risks to the baby and to me and this was the right way to go. We went into the room at 11:00 pm and by 11:55 Corrin Dorothy Haggerty was born and with us.
Colin, during all of this, was truly incredible. There with me every second, supporting me, helping me through contractions, supporting me when the doctors mentioned the dreaded “C” word, helping me feel like everything was going to be fine. He is amazing, and in the three days since she was born, he has proven every second that I could not ask for a better partner, and that he is an incredible husband and now, Daddy.
