Sweet Valentines Day Labor

Amid contractions 9pm 2-14-09

Yes I was that big! I have lost 24 lbs in 9 days!

The day I went into labor was the most beautiful day! It's definitely in the top 3 days of my life (in no specific order). It was Valentines day :-). The day started with me having an appointment for a manicure and pedicure at 9am at a super nice natural nail care clinic. The women there joked and told me that they would make sure to not hit the labor points in the feet when they were giving me my pedicure. We spoke about whether I was ready, and I told them that I felt a lot more ready than before, and he can come when he wants now! Boy...was he listening. The manicure and pedicure were just what the doctor ordered, I felt so happy and excited for the rest of my day.

I came home to find a beautiful arrangement of white(my favorite) exotic flowers on our table with a card and lollipop from my husband. I was so surprised because I was not expecting anything for v-day. The card had such sweet words from David and he had also written me a separate letter with a poem! YES a poem, and it rhymed! And yes, it was all written by David. I was so impressed, didn't know he had it in him! Anyhow, then David proceeds to cook me what he called "my labor breakfast". I laughed when he said that and just ate away, it was delicious.

We then spent the day in the good company of some of my great friends, Mandy and Cristina. We baked cookies, and played Clue and just had a good time as good friends, enjoying my last days of a prego me. After they left I went to the mall with a friend to buy a gift for Karys, I was looking forward to going to her birthday party the next day. I joked to my friend that it was good that her and I were going to the mall, as it would "prep me for labor". Funny how everything would turn out.

I came home in time to celebrate a v-day evening with my hubby and cook him a nice dinner. While cooking I started to have some contractions. When the food was ready, at 9pm (thank goodness it was a late dinner) I started to realize that my contractions were really consistent. I was having them last 1 min. long and they came every 4-5 min. David kept saying we should go to the hospital, but I was in denial. We went upstairs and just prepped things in case I was truly in labor. After 4 hours of consistent contractions we decided to call my doctor who told us to head to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital I was 4 cm dilated. It was now 2am, five hours after my contractions started. They admitted me right away. I was still in denial. I asked the nurses "are you sure you want to admit me? I can go back home if it's not real labor". They laughed and said "you're in labor". Time passed and I dilated to 6 cm after a few hours. I loved managing my contractions by walking around, using the bouncy ball and getting in the hot tub. For me, labor was really fun and a chance to spend some very special time with my husband (even though he slept through most of it, haha). Then after a couple more hours I dilated to 7cm. We all thought Gabriel would come any minute. Well he decided to enjoy his last days in my womb and took his sweet time. I stayed dilated at 7 cm for 12 hours. The doctor told me it was completely abnormal to not continue to dilate. Typically you dilate 1 cm an hour. Well that was not the case for me. The doctor wanted to do all sorts of interventions: break my water, give me pitocin, epidural, do a c-section. I was having none of that. It was funny, it made things awkward with the Dr., nevertheless she let me call the shots.

After staying at 7cm, I decided it would be best to see what happens if they broke my water. So they broke my water and it made my contractions stronger, and a little crazy. We for sure thought it would help me dilate to 1o cm in no time. My contractions were going crazy. Lasting 3-5 min long with little to no break in between them , maybe 20 seconds in between. So for about 3 hours straight all I was doing was breathing my lamaze breathing. My legs were shaking from all the tension, and I was still not dilating. Gabriel dropped further down the birth canal and was bumping against my cervix. Since I was not completely dilated the chance that my cervix would swell was really high. Swollen cervix= automatic c-section. I was not having a c-secton. Gabriel was in great health, never distressed, and so was I. There was no reason to have one.

The only possible solution to avoid a swollen cervix was an epidural to ease the tension in it. The nurse believed that my crazy contractions were causing me to not dilate because my cervix was not having any time to relax and dilate in between the contractions. After 34+ hours of a medication free labor I decided to avoid the ultimate intervention of a c-section by getting a small dose of the epidural to see if it would help my cervix relax and dilate. They administered half a dose of an epidural when I was 8 cm dilated. It still took 4 hours, but I finally dilated to 10 cm!! They believed the epidural helped my cervix finally relax and dilate. The rest after that is history. I only pushed for 15 minutes and out came our angel Gabriel. It was love at first sight.

All in all... I loved my labor, every single minute of it. I loved the contractions and managing the pain, it was such an awesome challenge, and I would do it again in a heart beat. The day I went into labor was such a beautiful day, and going through labor was also such a beautiful experience.

So what started my labor? A lovely manicure and pedicure, a sweet valentines day breakfast, lots of love, and friends, a walk around the mall, and a home cooked valentines day dinner! And being in denial of it all!