Pregnancy: After Loss Community

Kawika Michael was born at 4:51 pm on Monday, April 25th. He weighed 8 lbs, 10 oz and was 20.5 inches long

Yes, we changed the order of his name, it just worked better

I'd had BHC for a few months, so I knew something different was going on when I got my first painful contractions on Sunday morning. They woke me up at 7 am, hurting, and were regular, coming every 7 minutes, for 2.5 hours. I told DF what was going on and they promptly stopped. Ugh!

We went to Easter dinner at his grandma's house and I had a few more painful contractions throughout the day, but nothing regular. After dinner we went to his cousin's house to visit, and the contractions picked up again, coming every 10-12 minutes while we were there. I didn't get excited, just kept track and kept drinking water, though the girls at the house knew I was having contractions and were convinced I was going to go into labor for real.

We went home around 6, and by 8 pm, the contractions were pretty painful and I was breathing slowly through them to manage the pain. DF and I laid on the couch together and watched some TV and I kept timing them. They had gotten down to 8 minutes apart, then 7, then 5 minutes apart by 10 pm. I got in the tub to see if that helped and DF called the birth center to check in. They said when contractions got down to 2 minutes apart we should be well on our way, but to labor at home for a while longer. I told DF that I was fine laboring at home for a little bit longer but we were definitely going into labor and to get everything together. I was in the tub, trying to relax while breathing through 4-minute contractions and I could hear him downstairs, doing dishes! LOL

He kept running back upstairs to check on me and he was running back and forth to the car making sure we had everything. I told him to relax, but he was pumped! I got out of the bath around 11:30 and we left for the birth center. We got here and checked in just after 12 am Monday. They put me in the admitting section to check me and had me hooked up to external monitors for about 5 minutes before they did an internal check and found I was dilated to 4.5 cm and contracting every 3 minutes. Then they showed us to a room.

DF helped me labor naturally for the next 4 hours. He was SO great. We walked, I bounced on the ball, and used the jacuzzi tub, but the contractions were about 90 seconds long and coming in sets of 2 and 3, one after the other, with no break in between, then I'd get a minute or 2 of no contractions before getting another cluster of them. It was really, really intense and my water hadn't even broken, and it was 4:30 in the morning and I was exhausted so I decided to get checked again and decided that if I was at least 5 cm I'd get an epidural. I just didn't want to get an epi too early and stall labor, you know?

Another nurse checked me and she said I was at 4.5 cm, but it could be 5 because her hands are bigger than the hands of the first gal who checked me. WTF. I struggled with the decision, but after I suffered through another cluster of contractions, asked to have the epi anyway. I couldn't imagine them getting even WORSE after my water broke. They ordered the epi, but I ended up waiting for an hour for it because they hadn't bothered to run the labs on the blood they'd drawn earlier, and then they decided they needed more blood. DF was so upset on my behalf because he could see the pain all over my face during the contractions. Finally, the anesthesiologist came in. Yay, Kip! He was a nice guy. I had a cluster of contractions right when he was placing the epi tubing in my spine and managed to hold still during; he and the nurse both were impressed with my control. I just kept telling myself that if I moved it wouldn't work and I'd be in even more pain. LOL