The story of how little Wesley made his entrance into the world. Please note, this is the full story, so it will include some content not suitable for squeamish stomachs.
On Wednesday, May 4th, at exactly 38 wks pregnant, my water broke. It was just after 2pm. I had gone into Jeremy's room to wake him up from a nap. I was sitting on his bed. I leaned forward to rub his back, and felt a sudden gush. My first thought was that I didn't realize I had needed to go to the bathroom. I have a very strong bladder, and was shocked that I could pee that much without realizing I needed to! I immediately got up and went to the bathroom, thankfully right next door to Jeremy's room. Once in there, I realized it was not pee. For one thing, it was the wrong color; pinkish instead of yellow or clear. For another, it kept coming. And coming. And coming. I was in Jeremy's bathroom, so I grabbed a towel and hobbled to my bathroom, where thankfully I had already stocked up on some adult diapers for recovering from birth. I did a few tests to make sure it really was amniotic fluid, and not urine. Once I had convinced myself, I called Justin. He didn't answer, and from the dial tone, I could tell it was because he was on the phone with someone else. He texted to say he was in a meeting. I texted back saying to get out of his meeting, because I was pretty sure my water just broke. I waited a few minutes for a call from him, and when I didn't get one, I decided he probably didn't read my text during his meeting. I called again, and this time he answered.
I told him my water broke, and he needed to come home. I can't imagine what he was thinking, since neither of us ever imagined I'd go into labor on my own, let alone do so 2 weeks before my due date!
We hung up, and I started working on gathering some of our things. Thankfully I had mostly packed my hospital bag just the day before, so there were only a few things I needed to throw together. Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten to packing Jeremy's overnight bag yet; I had planned to do that on Thursday, after doing the laundry. So I tried my best to pack, all while worried my leaking wouldn't stay contained.
Jeremy continued to nap through this whole process, which actually made it a bit easier. Once Justin got home, he was able to help finish up, and at about 3:30, an hour and a half after my water broke, we were headed to my mom's to drop off Jeremy.
After that, we went to the hospital. It took a while to be admitted, despite my own certainty that my water had in fact broken. A lot of women go to triage thinking their water has broken when they've actually just leaked a bit of urine, so they run 2 different tests to confirm that it is amniotic fluid. Before she could even run the tests though, the nurse knew it was my waters. It was no small amount, and ended up all over her hand just from collecting for the test! She also found that I was already dialated to a 3, and once the tests officially confirmed my water breakage, they started getting me admitted.
After a short wait, I was taken up to my room. The nurse talked over a bunch of stuff, the different protocols for different things, lots of boring stuff that I don't remember. I got an iv, and after a bit, they checked me again. I hadn't really dialated any more, so despite my hesitancy, they started me on pitocin. In retrospect, I wish I had pushed to wait another hour or two, and walk around to see if I could get things going on my own.
Once the pitocin started, the contractions were close behind. They ramped up in intensity quite rapidly, which was unpleasant. Because of my horrible experience with an epidural with Jeremy, I was determined to avoid getting one if at all possible. I was worried the pitocin would make that harder, but was determined to try.
After a few hours, during which my contractions continued to worsen, but I wasn't dilating much more, the Dr came in to discuss options. The contractions were getting harder to handle, and I still had a ways to go. We settled on getting an iv pain med, which was supposed to take the edge off and help me relax.
Let me tell you, that iv medicine was strange. It made me very tired (it WAS the middle of the night. Around 2 I think?), and kind of out of it. We had put on Discovery Planet earlier in the evening, and it was still playing as I tried to rest. It was very soothing to listen to, but then, because of the medicine, it became a sort of out of body experience. It was an episode about monkeys and in a semi-dream state, it felt like I was there, part of the episode. The narrator was describing the behavior of these monkeys, and I was one of them. It's hard to really describe, but it was definitely a strange experience.
While in my monkey dream state, I could still feel the contractions, but time was passing very strangely. After was felt like 5 contractions, the nurse came in to check me again. Apparently it had been an hour or two, during which time I had been having consistent contractions every 2ish minutes. I was much closer now, so the nurse decided not to give me another dose of pain meds.
The nurse started getting things ready in the room, even though I wasn't at a ten yet, when very suddenly, I NEEDED to push. It wasn't at all what I expected. I thought I would feel it more, but it was less a feeling, and more of a certainty. I needed to push, and I needed to push NOW.
I told the nurse, who checked again and confirmed that it was go time! The Dr came in, and after about 15 minutes, Wesley Scott came into the world!
My favorite part was after getting his head out, how the rest of his body just slipped right out. It was such a neat feeling, especially since I could really feel it all. Much better than with Jeremy! The placenta was worse, though. I don't really remember delivering the placenta with Jeremy. It just kind of slipped out with 1 push. This time, it took a bit more effort, and a lot more pain.
After delivering the placenta, I was stitched up, during which time I very impatiently waited to hold my baby. The nurses were cleaning him up, checking his breathing and everything. I was very annoyed that it took so long to hold him. With Jeremy, they immediately placed him on my chest, did the most important tests from there, and waited to do the rest. I expected the same thing this time, and was not happy when that didn't happen. I just kept telling them, "I need my baby."
Finally I got to hold him, after what felt like forever, but was probably about 10 minutes (still way too long). I don't remember much from that stretch of time, other than just soaking up the baby snuggles.
I honestly don't remember too much from the rest of the hospital stay. We had a few visitors, which was nice, some awful food, some good food that Justin brought from restaurants near the hospital, and lots of interruptions from nurses.
Wesley was born on 5/5/16, weighing 8lbs10oz, and 21" long.
A bit out of order, but my very last bump picture, taken right after my water broke.
Jeremy meeting his little brother. He was very tired, and a bit unsure about the whole thing.
He looks a lot like Jeremy here. Same grumpy old man expression. :)
Cutting the cake
