Carson's Birth Story - Pt 2

So we left off here.

Adam & I walked around the hospital for the next hour. I did 3 sets of stairs, walked up hills, walked down hills, walked, walked, walked. The contractions did grow stronger but I was still able to walk & talk through them. Still, I was sure we were making progress. At 9am we agreed to meet our nurse back in the triage room to be checked again.. 

9am came, the nurse walked in and asked how I was doing. I told her that I felt the contractions were stronger but not any closer together. She said that was great, she was sure I was in the early stages of labor & had me lay down to check me again. Before she checked me she asked me if they were to send me home if I would cry on her.. I told her that while I would be disappointed, I would not cry. So she proceeded to check me and said that there was no change. I was still only 3.5cm. She then asked if we wanted to stop the progress or bring it on. Without hesitation Adam & both said "BRING. IT. ON."!! We were very ready to meet our baby boy! She said that we could either continue to walk for the next several hours & they would check me every hour, or we could go home & wait it out. We decided that going home was the better option for us. The nurse gave us some "homework" and said she was pretty positive she would see us back within the next 6 hours. 

We left the hospital slightly discouraged but also knowing that this was likely it. I really wanted no bake cookies & knew we did not have all of the ingredients at home so we swung by the grocery store to grab the ingredients I needed to make my cookies & we went home. 

Once we were home I made my cookies & promptly started to clean the entire house top to bottom. The contractions completely stopped. I figured it was all just more false labor & this time that he'd tricked me into actually going in to get checked. I decided to go ahead & take a nap since I obviously wasn't helping things along by all the activity I had been doing that morning. I figured at this point that this wasn't the real deal & I wasn't having him anytime soon. 

About an hour after I laid down I felt a strong contraction come on. Again, I thought it was just false labor & tried to sleep through them but they were so strong & consistent that I was unable to sleep. Adam had gone outside to do some yard work while I was resting so I text him & told him the contractions were back & stronger. I told him I was going to go get in the bathtub & see if that helped me relax. Adam came in about an hour later & I was still in the tub & the pain was worse! At this point, I was in a lot of pain. I was unable to talk through them & certainly couldn't walk through them. Adam & I agreed we should probably head back in to the hospital since I had been having them about 5 min apart for 2 hours & they were definitely strong. 

We loaded up into the car & Adam wanted a cheese burger so we ran through Carls Jr for him. I remember having a pretty intense contraction while we were in the drive thru & Adam making a joke that if I had him in the car in the drive through we could name him Carl. I really remember not finding that amusing at all & telling him that he needed to get me to the hospital because I wanted drugs! He ran one red light & hit about 3 others on the way. I told him that if he missed anymore green lights because he was too busy eating his cheese burger that I was going to throw it out the window. He found this funny - I did not. Haha!

We arrived at the hospital & the nurse who was there that morning smiled & said she knew she'd see us back. She asked if we had done our homework & then said she would check me. I told her that if she sent me home this time I would cry. She laughed & said she didn't think I would be going home. She checked me & then said the words I was dreading hearing... "No Change". I instantly said "Are you kidding me?!" with tears welling up in my eyes. I was so tired, so ready for pain meds & so DONE being pregnant. She instantly said "YES, I'm kidding! You're 5cm! You're staying!" I remember thanking God for allowing me to get this far & telling Adam to call our parents. 

They moved us to the room we would be in for the remainder of our stay. My hospital does not move you at all throughout your labor & delivery to postpartum. You get to stay in the same place the entire time which I love. At this point it was about 430pm. 

My OB, who was on call until 5pm, came in to check on me at about 530pm. She came in to let me know that she would be leaving but that I was in good hands with the OB coming in. She then asked if I wanted her to break my water now or if I would rather wait until after I had my epidural. I opted to wait for the epidural. She said that was smart, wished me luck & that she would come check on me the following night. 

This is getting really long - Part 3 (the finale!) on Monday! :)