Labor Update

It’s been almost 24 hours now and it has been intense.  Jude still isn’t here with us but we are confidant that he will be by the end of the day.  Yesterday we checked and got admitted.  Answered tons of questions and got hooked up to a fetal heart monitor and a contraction monitor.  S got administered Cervidil around 6:45.  She had been having contractions on and off all day and after the Cervidil kicked in they started coming harder.  We tried really hard to sleep but it really just wasn’t happening.  It was a long night and by about 2am the contractions were probably about 2-3 minutes apart and pretty intense.

Things continued like that for quite a while.  The Cervidil came out on its own around 5am and we had to wait an hour before they could start the Pitocin.  Poor S was in a lot of pain and labored on the birthing ball, in the bed, and standing but nothing could make her comfortable.  By time they started the Pitocin around 6:30 she was dilated to a 2, so we were seeing some progress.  Our doctor came in around 7:30 and tired to break her water but discovered that it had already broken, but we arn’t sure when that happened.

Around 9am one of the other doctors on call came in and put in an internal monitor for contractions because the external one wasn’t registering them regularly.  It was rough getting that in place and it really hurt poor S a lot to get it done.  I have to say, S has been amazingly strong through all of this.  She has been in more pain that I have ever seen anyone be in and she has done it with an amazing grace and dignity.

She progressed slowly and by 1pm was at a 5.  By 1:30 the pain was too much for her and she was so so so tired and decided to get an Epidural.  That was such a relief and once it kicked in we both took a much much needed nap.  I had no idea how exhausted we both were until I sat down for just a minute and immediately nodded off.

After some sleep they checked her again and now she is at a 7.  Contractions are very strong at this point but the time between isn’t staying steady.  They go from right on top of each other to 2-3 minutes apart.  We are watching the Ellen show on TV and waiting for them to come adjust the Epidural a bit stronger.  Hopefully this baby will be here in the next few hours.

Thank you for all of your love and support.  Each comment really means the world to us and is truly helping us get through this.  We feel so blessed to be part of such an amazing community and to have so many wonderful friends, both in real life and through this blog.
Can’t wait to give the final update!
Love,
Liz

While My Wife Gently Sleeps

     Today is a bonus day.  S and I were up this morning, me getting ready for work and her up having some breakfast on her day off.  And she asked me, “can’t you call in sick?  Take the day off?”  And I looked at her and realized that yes, yes I could take the day off.  So I called into work “sick” (I really didn’t have much going on at work today anyway) and we have spent the day together.  We went back to bed for a while, went out to breakfast with a lovely friend, wandered around Central Market (which is a fun grocery store), went to the movies (we saw Hugo, it was magical), stopped and got ice cream, and now my sweet wife is taking a much needed nap.  I love golden days like this and seeing as how they are numbered at this point, I value them so much more.

     And while the days without baby are numbered, don’t worry dear public, they are not literally numbered.  I think with our last post a few of you worried that with our impatience we would do something drastic like induce S to get the little dude here early.  But I can promise you that we will not induce until 42 weeks.  It goes against everything we want for him and for S and a natural child birth, so don’t worry.  When we say we are going to do things to get him here I mean things like go on long walks, eat spicy food, drink apple juice, bounce on the exercise ball, that sort of stuff.  We arn’t going to do anything weird/dangerous either, no caster oil or other drugs/herbs to speed things along.  So if Jude gets here any time soon I promise you that it not because we forced it, but because that is just what happened.  And I’m pretty sure wishes and hopes never induced labor, so we will keep hoping he comes soon.  I’m hoping for exactly 10 days.  In 10 days we will be at 39 weeks exactly, which seems to be the magic number in terms of development, but we shall see.  After all, unless doctors force them, babies tend to do whatever they want.

Hope your day is as blissful as mine.

-Liz

PS- I always enjoy looking at our stats, especially how people found our site and search words they used.  And I just noticed that this week 4 different people found our blog by searching for the phrase “cute stuffed zombie”.  How strange and random is that?