Weston Pierce Carter - Part 1

On Thursday morning, February 12th I went in and had my membrane stripped in hopes to jump start labor with in the next 24 to 48 hours. I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced so I was hopeful that it would work. (I wont lie. It hurt. But it was worth it!)

A little background as to why I wanted to jump start labor. When I was pregnant with Abi I had to have an emergency C-section due to her being breach and having a bowl movement while in utero. My doctor was willing to let me try and have a VBAC. However, his conditions where that I go into labor on my own (this meant no pitocin) and that I don't go more than a few days past my due date. I was extremely grateful that he was willing to even let me try as most doctors aren't willing to do this.

By 5pm that night I had started having painful contractions about 7 minutes apart. We had dinner. My family was sure that I was keeping track of the contractions. I continued to labor off and on all night with the contractions about 5-7 minutes apart. I attempted to sleep for a few hours and woke up around 2am from the pain. I woke David and told him that I thought we needed to head to the hospital. (We currently live with my family so I woke my mom to let her know we were leaving and that we wouldn't be there for Abi.)

We arrived at the hospital and my contractions had of course slowed down and weren't as consistent as before. We decided to call the nurses station and ask what they thought. They suggested we go home and wait a little longer. So that's what we did. 

By 5:30am I knew it was time to go. Contractions were still very painful and were now 3-5 minutes apart and weren't letting up. On our way in I told David to take a picture of the sunrise and I told him "Today's a great day to have a baby." We were both so excited!

Once I got my gown on and they hooked me up to the monitors I thought for sure they were going to send us home. The contractions weren't consistent and I was bummed. I was wrong! I was dilated to a 4 and contractions had picked back up. I was in labor!!!!!! We were going to have a baby!!!!!!

We moved to our delivery room and got settled. I asked for the epidural as soon as possible but was terrified of getting it. (With Abi I didn't get the epidural until I was in the operating room and my contractions were one on top of the other. I was in so much pain from the contractions that I could have cared less about the giant needle going into my back.) David & nurse Lety held on to me as I tried not to cry while anticipating the epidural. 

Epidurals are heaven sent.

Period.

I now know that getting an IV will hurt 10 times more than getting an epidural. Make that 20. The next few hours were spent checking on progress, sleeping and eating ice chips. (I was SO thirsty!)

I loved how "Today's Plan" said "Have a baby".