Rebecca

August 11, 2008 was Aiden's due date. I wanted to write about his labor & delivery since its almost been a year and there's already so much I've forgotten. I wish i would've done it right after he was born.

The doctor I'd been seeing most of my pregnancy told me he doesn't check for dilation til week 39, but he was on-call for my 38 week appt and I saw the midwife who ended up checking me. I was 2-3cm. When she handed me the paper to make an appt for the following week she said she'd be surprised if I had to come in for it, she thought i'd go into labor by then. She said usually during first pregnancies you dilate right before giving birth. So I was suuuper excited. I was still pregnant a week later. And another week later, I was passed my due date by 3 days, still no baby. My appts fell on Thursdays and my doctor put the paperwork into the system for an induction. He told me I'd get a call the next day and they'd tell me when to go in. So Friday I got a call from the hospital, they told me to call Monday at 6pm to see if a room was available. That weekend & Monday took FOREVER. I called about 5:45 on Monday and they told me to call back at 9. I cried. I was so upset & tired of being pregnant. I called again at 9 and there still wasn't room for me. The lady told me to expect a call anywhere from 2am to 7am the next day. I couldn't sleep that night, I was too anxious. I called about 7 the next morning and they told me they'd call me back. Around 9 Steven kept telling me to call but i'd called so many times already, I didn't want to, so he did. They told him there'd for sure be room for me that day but they didn't know when. Finally at noon they called and told me to come in at 2:30. I ate a pb&j sandwich at about 1. It was the last thing I ate while Aiden was in my belly.

When we got to the hospital, they had Steven wait in the waiting room and took me back to my room where i changed into the gown and the nurse put my info into the computer, she asked me like a million questions- it took forever!. I sat around for about 45 minutes, listening to women screaming & moaning in pain- freaking me out. The nurse came back & tried putting in the IV. She tried 3 times & couldn't get it in. I got really light-headed and felt like I was going to vomit, so she called a specialist who got it in right away, causing no pain at all. I was wondering how'd I'd be able to squeeze a baby out of me when I could barely take getting poked a few times. Finally at 4, Steven came in & they gave me a pill that would help soften my cervix. I took that pill every 4 hours for 12 hours, i got to about 5cm. The next morning the nurse said she'd ask the doctor if he'd break my water but he said no, he wanted to see what my body did naturally.

So for 5 hours, nothing happened. Finally they started me on pitocin & I started feeling the contractions. I didn't want the epidural yet so they gave me Stadol. Instantly I felt super drunk & couldn't stop laughing. I was sooo hot so Steven started blowing on me and I thought it was the funniest thing in the world! They wanted me to go on a walk, as soon as we started, I had to go back to the room to throw up. I couldn't keep my eyes open so I took a nap instead. The contractions were getting worse so around 9:30pm I got my epidural. The night doctor, thankfully, agreed to break my water around 11. He told me if it didn't help me progress, we'd have to talk about a c-section. At that point, I really didn't care. My mom had been in the hospital with us all day and decided to go home. Around 2:30am, I was 8cm and Steven called my mom to come back.

An hour later I felt like I had to poop SO BAD, I told the nurse I needed to push- she checked me and i was at 10. She called the doctor but he was on his way to do a c-section so they made me wait. That was the worse part of it. I'd had my epidural for awhile so I couldn't feel any pain, but the pressure was unbearable. i was so irriatated and uncomfortable. They finally started letting me push a little, which relieved a lot of it and kept me busy. Finally the doctor came in and I was allowed to really push. They had Steven push my head up with the pillow behind it and I kept getting so mad at him! My mom was holding my left leg and a nurse was holding my right leg. I pushed and pushed for about 30 minutes. It was so hard. While pushing, I knew the doctor cut me, I heard it. EW. At 5:12am, my gorgeous little boy entered the world and i cried my eyes out. When the nurse picked him up he said, "Wow he's big!" They couldn't believe I actually got him out when they weighed him: 9lbs 4oz, 21in. FATTY! They gave him a bath & I FINALLY got to eat. I was starving. I hadn't eaten since my pb&j almost 2 days earlier.

That day I was on cloud 9. Steven had missed a couple days of work so he went in for a few hours and my mom stayed with me. Aiden spent the day laying on my chest, skin to skin & I stared at him all day. My little miracle. When Steven got to the hospital that night, he was holding Aiden and he said, "I didn't think I could love you any more until today." And I knew exactly what he meant. Its like falling in love all over when your baby is born. I now know a whole new love for both of them. I understand everything my parents have ever done and still do for me. And now that we have Aiden, I can't imagine ever falling out of love with Steven. We created something so beautiful, together.