On Saturday, February 6th, I started having contractions while Sean and I were out at Target and Biggs around 4:30 p.m. The contractions continued throughout the night and were anywhere from 5 to 14 minutes apart. We called the doctor just to be sure and she told us to hang in there and call when the contractions had been 5 minutes apart for about an hour.
On Sunday morning the contractions were still fairly irregular. Around 1, we completed a cycle of contractions that were 5 minutes apart for about an hour. We called the doctor again and I was thinking she would send us to the hospital but because I hadn't been dilated the week before at all, she told me to try and hang in there a little longer and call when the contractions were getting really painful. During all this waiting time, Sean and I watched Juno, Knocked Up, and The 40 Year Old Virgin. Around 5, I asked Sean to call the doctor and she gave us the okay to head into the hospital.
We were on our way to the hospital at 5:50. We went in and got registered and watched the opening of the Super Bowl while I waited for a triage room. The contractions were getting pretty strong at this point. They finally checked me in the triage room and I was 4 cm dilated so they said I could stay at the hospital. We were taken to a labor and delivery room and I was given an epidural very soon after for which I was very thankful! I admire those who can deliver a baby without one! A Doctor came in and popped my water at some point and they noticed it was greenish and therefore said that there was meconium in there with the baby. They said they would have some pediatricians in the delivery room to be sure they got as much of that out of the baby's mouth before he/she took a big breath.
Around 11, I was 5 cm dilated and at this point my parents and sisters as well as Sean's parents and sisters, who live here, were at the hospital with us. We were told that the general rule is that I would dilate about a cm every hour. So far, I was going much slower than that.
At 2 a.m., I was 7 cm and they told me that the baby's head was still high. Around 4 a.m. or so our families decided to go home and get some rest and we had strict orders to call whenever we might be getting close to delivery. By 6 a.m. we were at 8 but the head was still high and they were not sure if it would drop. My doctor came in around 8 a.m. and told us our options. She said we could continue to wait about 3 more hours to see if I dilated to 10 and the baby dropped but she thought that would end in a c-section or we could do a c-section now. We opted to do the c-section then and they started preparations right away.
They took me to the OR and moved me to the operating table. After a little while Sean came in all dressed in scrubs. He looked as though he was going to be sick. Here I was, on the operating table, and he was the one who looked a little green in the face. He sat by my head the entire time. It seemed to take forever for them to take out the baby and as soon as the doctor took the baby out she said it was a good thing we had gone ahead and done the c-section. She then told Sean to take a picture and tell me what we had. I really liked that Sean got to tell me that it was a boy! He was born at 9:05 a.m. and weighed 9 pounds 14 ounces and was 21.5 inches long. They cleaned him up a little and sucked out his lungs (which sounded awful!) and then held him over the curtain so I could see. Sean sent a text to our families saying something along the lines of "It is here and we were doing good" which everyone laughed about but he was trying to be careful not to give it away because he wanted to go and tell them the news!
Sean was able to take pictures of him being checked and weighed and then he held him for a little while. After they had me put back together, I was moved to a transport bed and I got to hold Liam while they moved us into a recovery area. We stayed in there for what seemed like a short time. Sean could then go out to the waiting room and tell everyone that it was a boy and his name was Liam Anthony and all the other details. I was able to try and feed Liam for the first time.
After that we moved up to the recovery room and they took Liam for a bath. Sadly, I realized later, that was when our families got to see him. I would have liked to present him but it didn't work that way. We settled in and our families all came up to see and hold him.
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