It was Wednesday, October 24th and I was 39 weeks and 5 days pregnant! I was SO ready to have our litle girl. I had tried walking 5 miles, sex, raspberry herbal tea, and I almost resorted to drinking castor oil but I decided to wait and ask my doctor what he thought about it first. I went to my very last doctor appointment at 2:30pm. Sean was at work and Nana and Papa stayed home with the boys. When I got there, I waited in the waiting room for about 20 minutes before I got called back. I had been having contractions, but none of them were hurting. As I was sitting on the bed waiting for the doctor, I kept watching the clock and timing my contractions that were coming about every 5 minutes. He finally came in and checked me. He said I was dilated to a 3 and was 75% effaced and he could strip my membranes if I wanted him to. I told him "YES, do it!" He started stripping them and I told him to make sure he did it really good because I wanted to have her tonight! I told him to do it again and just then, a huge gush of water came out. He said, "Uh oh. I think I just broke your water!" I said, "You did???? YES!!!!!" Then he said in his thick South American accent, "You tricked me!!! Looks like we're both going to the hospital right now." I was so excited! I left the doctor's office at about 3:30 and drove home to grab my stuff for the hospital. My mother-in-law took this last picture of me before we headed off to the hospital...
Sean was down the hill working when I called him and told him that Dr. Rivera accidentally broke my water. He thought I was joking at first but I told him I was serious and he better hurry up and get to the hospital! My mother-in-law drove me to the hospital and we got there at about 5pm, while Sean got there shortly after. They got me all checked into a room and I was able to eat some dinner before things got too crazy. I thought that my contractions were going to start coming once my water broke, but I wasn't really having too many. They started Pitocin at 6:30pm. Here I am all happy and just waiting for the contractions to come...
This was my contraction monitor at 8:30pm. The top is the baby's heartrate and the bottom is the contractions...
Finally at about 11pm, the contractions were getting pretty painful. The nurse came and checked me and I was dilated to about a 5. I decided that I wanted to get the epidural. They called the anesthesiologist in and she finally got there at about midnight. I was DYING at this time and couldn't wait to have no pain. Here was my monitor at 11pm...Look at those contractions!!
The anesthesiologist got me prepped for the epidural but once she finally got it in at about 12:25am, I could still feel the pain. She told me that it would take about 20 minutes to kick in. I waited while I was dying and there was no relief. She decided to take it out and try it again. After messing with me for about 20 more minutes, she finally got it in at about 12:50am. I thought I was going to die so I asked the nurse to check me again. I was dilated to a 9!!! Ten minutes later at 1am, she checked me and I was complete...a 10! Meanwhile, I could still feel all the pain of the contractions and it was horrible! The nurse said that the epidural would probably be fully working after I delivered the baby! They called Dr. Rivera at 1am but I had to wait for him to get there. Here I am waiting for him at 1:15am. This was in between the painful contractions...
He finally got there at about 1:20am, got ready to deliver, and I pushed her out in about 2 pushes. Of course, the epidural was just starting to kick in so I pretty much delivered her all natural. Next time I will be sure and get the epidural as soon as I can! No more trying to be superwoman! This was right after I delivered...Happy to be done!
Brooklyn Elise Struebing! Born October 25th at 1:32am. 7 lbs 0 oz. 19 inches long.
Look at those lips!
First time holding my little girl!
Love her!
Daddy and his little princess...
Her first bath!
