Well this labor was A LOT different than Lydia's. With Lydia, I never had consistent contractions or dilated or effaced at all until I was already in labor and then the actual labor lasted 42 hours. With Mary, I started having regular contractions a couple months before I was due and at my 36 week check I had dilated and effaced more than I was the day I went into labor with Lydia. This was very encouraging because the earlier I had Mary, the less time we would have to live with/impose on friends before we made the big move to California. My doctors' office knew of our time constraints and agreed that as long as I had progressed enough they would induce me a week early. My mom had come in town for the induction date, but unfortunately even after getting my membranes stripped twice, I had barely not progressed enough. The day my mom left I bawled like a baby. I wanted so badly for her to be here when I had Mary, but it wasn't meant to be. Friday, August 26th, I had another doctor's appointment and they decided I had finally progressed enough and scheduled my induction for Monday, August 29th - my birthday. As happy as I was that the end was officially in sight, I still wished that I could go into labor on my own since there's less risks that way. I also felt bad that Mary would have to share her birthday with her mom. I would rather she have her own special day.
Saturday was crunch time for packing and moving our stuff. Friends were over all day long helping us, and by the end of the day there was just a little work and packing left. I figured I would save it for Monday so that I would have something to do other than twiddling my thumbs while we waited for the call to come to the hospital for the induction.
Sunday we got ready for church like normal. Robert had Elder's quorum presidency meeting so I took him early went back home and got Lydia ready then started loading her in the car to go when I felt a gush of liquid (10:45am). I assumed I had just wet myself a little bit, and it was enough to need to change my clothes. I'm pretty sure my exact thoughts were "SERIOUSLY!! I just went to the bathroom before I came out! Being pregnant is so lame sometimes!!" I ran in, changed real fast, and then left to church. When I got out of the car there was another little gush. Again I thought, "Come on! Enough already!!" I went inside and sat down with Lydia and waited for Robert to get there so that I could go empty my bladder AGAIN so I could hopefully avoid any more accidents. While I waited several people in the ward came up to me and made comments along the lines of "No baby yet?" I answered that she'd for sure be coming the next day if not sooner. Robert got there and I let him know that I needed to go to the restroom. I got up to go and, you guessed it, another gush. Finally, (yes, maybe I am a little slow) it occurred to me that maybe my water had broken. As sacrament meeting started so did my contractions. By the time the congregation stood for the intermediate hymn they were 7 minutes apart and hurt too much for me to stand and join in the singing. When the meeting was over I told Robert I needed to go to the car to lie down and would text him if I decided we should go home. Within a half hour, I texted him and we went home.
We got home, called my mom to tell her what was going on, she agreed that my water had probably broken and I was in labor. So I hung up and did what any lady in labor would do... I started cleaning out my fridge :) It needed to be done before we moved, and I needed a distraction. I wanted to attempt delivering without an epidural, and I knew once I was at the hospital I would be extra tempted to get one. So I wanted to labor at home as long as possible. I called my sister Katie and let her know what was going on. As I was talking to her my contractions were coming about 4 minutes apart. She rightfully scolded me for not being at the hospital already, reminded me that I was Group B Strep positive so I needed to have the time to get the 2 rounds of antibiotics, and so on. I stubbornly assured her that I was fine, and would go when I thought I was ready. In the mean time I had a fridge and freezer to clean. We hung up and I continued to clean the fridge. This is when things started getting really fun. The contractions picked up and were coming every 2 minutes or so. Robert started freaking out (he'll deny it, but he was). At about 2:30pm, Mom called again. Katie called her worried and may have told her important details, like how often I was contracting, that I may have "accidentally" left out when I had talked to Mom. Robert answered it and said, "Her contractions aren't stopping!!" He handed the phone to me. My mom said, "Heidi! I didn't realize your contractions had started already. Once the hard contractions started after my water broke with Logan, he was born within 4 hours. You need to go to the hospital!" You can't argue with Mom, so we got ready to go, but not before I had Robert take one last baby bump picture. (If I may say, I think I look pretty good for someone who had already been in labor for almost 4 hours)
Trent and Natalie DeVore were going to watch Lydia while I was in the hospital but they were in church right then, so Robert called Kaci. His panicked conversation went something like this:
Kaci: Hello
Robert: (Talking kind of fast) Kaci... uh... Hi. This is Robert. Um, Heidi's in labor. She's contracting A LOT. We need to go to the hospital. Uh, Natalie's going to watch Lydia but they can't come right away. Um Heidi's contracting again. Uh, Lydia's napping...
Kaci cuts him off: Robert! What are you needing me to do? Do you need me to come over?
Robert: Yes, that way Lydia can finish napping.
Kaci: I'm on my way.
Kaci got there, we left, and arrived at the hospital at 3:00pm. The nurse at the front desk couldn't find my paperwork, and asked if I was supposed to be induced because then my paperwork would be in a different file. I said I had been scheduled for one the next morning. She laughed and said, "I guess the baby just didn't want to wait." After they made sure that my water had for sure broken, they hooked me straight up to my antibiotics for the GBS. They checked me and I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. The nurse then asked if I wanted an epidural and I said, "No... Actually, yes I do." That's how fast I changed my mind. A million thoughts went through my mind in the 2 seconds it took me to change my mind, but the one that won the debate was that an epidural would help to slow the labor a little bit so that I could get my 2 full rounds of antibiotics (they have to be given 4 hours apart from each other). So by 4:00pm, I had my epidural. I really think epidurals are WONDERFUL!! I would just love to do it completely natural sometime to experience both sides.
Back tracking a little bit to tell a story of how Robert doesn't think things through sometimes. As we were waiting for the epidural my contractions were pretty intense, and I it felt like I was only having a 30 to 60 second break in between them. I was really needing Robert to help keep me relaxed through them, and for the most part he was doing awesome. Then, right after one contraction Robert says, "Heidi, I'm going to call my home teaching companion real quick and let him know that I'm not going to make it to our appointments." I gave him a "you better be joking" look, and said "Um, okay." Sure enough he wasn't joking and he called his companion. Just as they started talking, the next contraction started coming and I yelled for Robert. He came and held my hand but still continued talking on the phone. For those of you who have labored before can imagine how NOT okay I was with this. So at the peak of my contraction I screamed at him, "JUST HANG UP, NOW!!!!!!!" He obeyed ;)
Continuing with the story, Katie got to the hospital at about 5:00pm. When they checked me just after 5:00pm I was dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced. I warned the nurse that with Lydia I went from a 4 to complete in less than an hour. She got everything ready just in case. At 6:00pm they checked me again and I was 4 and 100% then just after 7:00pm I was complete. Here's my "Yay for being complete!" picture.
Since I had the epidural I was still comfortable enough to wait so they said as long as I wasn't in unbearable pain I should try to wait until 8:00pm to push so that they could do the second round of antibiotics at 7:30pm and it would have time to get into my system. So we sat and visited for another hour. Just before 8:00pm Dr. Scott Jacob came in, set up, and I started pushing. Less than 5 minutes later, our beautiful Mary Eliza came into the world at 8:07pm. Yes you heard that right. I pushed for less than 5 minutes. It happened really fast!
Saturday was crunch time for packing and moving our stuff. Friends were over all day long helping us, and by the end of the day there was just a little work and packing left. I figured I would save it for Monday so that I would have something to do other than twiddling my thumbs while we waited for the call to come to the hospital for the induction.
Sunday we got ready for church like normal. Robert had Elder's quorum presidency meeting so I took him early went back home and got Lydia ready then started loading her in the car to go when I felt a gush of liquid (10:45am). I assumed I had just wet myself a little bit, and it was enough to need to change my clothes. I'm pretty sure my exact thoughts were "SERIOUSLY!! I just went to the bathroom before I came out! Being pregnant is so lame sometimes!!" I ran in, changed real fast, and then left to church. When I got out of the car there was another little gush. Again I thought, "Come on! Enough already!!" I went inside and sat down with Lydia and waited for Robert to get there so that I could go empty my bladder AGAIN so I could hopefully avoid any more accidents. While I waited several people in the ward came up to me and made comments along the lines of "No baby yet?" I answered that she'd for sure be coming the next day if not sooner. Robert got there and I let him know that I needed to go to the restroom. I got up to go and, you guessed it, another gush. Finally, (yes, maybe I am a little slow) it occurred to me that maybe my water had broken. As sacrament meeting started so did my contractions. By the time the congregation stood for the intermediate hymn they were 7 minutes apart and hurt too much for me to stand and join in the singing. When the meeting was over I told Robert I needed to go to the car to lie down and would text him if I decided we should go home. Within a half hour, I texted him and we went home.
We got home, called my mom to tell her what was going on, she agreed that my water had probably broken and I was in labor. So I hung up and did what any lady in labor would do... I started cleaning out my fridge :) It needed to be done before we moved, and I needed a distraction. I wanted to attempt delivering without an epidural, and I knew once I was at the hospital I would be extra tempted to get one. So I wanted to labor at home as long as possible. I called my sister Katie and let her know what was going on. As I was talking to her my contractions were coming about 4 minutes apart. She rightfully scolded me for not being at the hospital already, reminded me that I was Group B Strep positive so I needed to have the time to get the 2 rounds of antibiotics, and so on. I stubbornly assured her that I was fine, and would go when I thought I was ready. In the mean time I had a fridge and freezer to clean. We hung up and I continued to clean the fridge. This is when things started getting really fun. The contractions picked up and were coming every 2 minutes or so. Robert started freaking out (he'll deny it, but he was). At about 2:30pm, Mom called again. Katie called her worried and may have told her important details, like how often I was contracting, that I may have "accidentally" left out when I had talked to Mom. Robert answered it and said, "Her contractions aren't stopping!!" He handed the phone to me. My mom said, "Heidi! I didn't realize your contractions had started already. Once the hard contractions started after my water broke with Logan, he was born within 4 hours. You need to go to the hospital!" You can't argue with Mom, so we got ready to go, but not before I had Robert take one last baby bump picture. (If I may say, I think I look pretty good for someone who had already been in labor for almost 4 hours)
Trent and Natalie DeVore were going to watch Lydia while I was in the hospital but they were in church right then, so Robert called Kaci. His panicked conversation went something like this:
Kaci: Hello
Robert: (Talking kind of fast) Kaci... uh... Hi. This is Robert. Um, Heidi's in labor. She's contracting A LOT. We need to go to the hospital. Uh, Natalie's going to watch Lydia but they can't come right away. Um Heidi's contracting again. Uh, Lydia's napping...
Kaci cuts him off: Robert! What are you needing me to do? Do you need me to come over?
Robert: Yes, that way Lydia can finish napping.
Kaci: I'm on my way.
Kaci got there, we left, and arrived at the hospital at 3:00pm. The nurse at the front desk couldn't find my paperwork, and asked if I was supposed to be induced because then my paperwork would be in a different file. I said I had been scheduled for one the next morning. She laughed and said, "I guess the baby just didn't want to wait." After they made sure that my water had for sure broken, they hooked me straight up to my antibiotics for the GBS. They checked me and I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. The nurse then asked if I wanted an epidural and I said, "No... Actually, yes I do." That's how fast I changed my mind. A million thoughts went through my mind in the 2 seconds it took me to change my mind, but the one that won the debate was that an epidural would help to slow the labor a little bit so that I could get my 2 full rounds of antibiotics (they have to be given 4 hours apart from each other). So by 4:00pm, I had my epidural. I really think epidurals are WONDERFUL!! I would just love to do it completely natural sometime to experience both sides.
Back tracking a little bit to tell a story of how Robert doesn't think things through sometimes. As we were waiting for the epidural my contractions were pretty intense, and I it felt like I was only having a 30 to 60 second break in between them. I was really needing Robert to help keep me relaxed through them, and for the most part he was doing awesome. Then, right after one contraction Robert says, "Heidi, I'm going to call my home teaching companion real quick and let him know that I'm not going to make it to our appointments." I gave him a "you better be joking" look, and said "Um, okay." Sure enough he wasn't joking and he called his companion. Just as they started talking, the next contraction started coming and I yelled for Robert. He came and held my hand but still continued talking on the phone. For those of you who have labored before can imagine how NOT okay I was with this. So at the peak of my contraction I screamed at him, "JUST HANG UP, NOW!!!!!!!" He obeyed ;)
Continuing with the story, Katie got to the hospital at about 5:00pm. When they checked me just after 5:00pm I was dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced. I warned the nurse that with Lydia I went from a 4 to complete in less than an hour. She got everything ready just in case. At 6:00pm they checked me again and I was 4 and 100% then just after 7:00pm I was complete. Here's my "Yay for being complete!" picture.
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| Yes, that is a barf bag. I was super cold, thirsty, and nauseous the last couple of hours of labor and through the delivery |
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| Our happy tear-filled faces seconds after Mary was born |
She was finally here!! The moment was indescribably joyous. Then Dr. Jacob said something that made Robert and I freeze, time stop, and my heart sink.
"Now if we could just get her to breathe..."
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