Cole's Arrival - Labor & Delivery

(Apologies in advance for the long blog posts lately.)

On Sunday, the night of Cole's arrival, Corey and I had climbed into bed just before midnight, after watching several episodes of Breaking Bad (we recently started that series on Netflix and were trying to get as many episodes in as possible before Cole arrived) when Jackson woke up crying.  He'd been sick with a horrible cold (probably the worst one he's had) and was having a coughing fit.  I got back out of bed and went to cuddle with and rock him.

As I was rocking him, I felt what I thought were contractions starting.  I'd had some very minor ones since my last doctor's appointment that Tuesday, but they were not painful and were not consistent at all.  These were mildly painful and seemed to be fairly consistent.  I finally got Jackson back to bed and started to time the contractions, which were 6-7 minutes apart.  They grew more and more painful over the next 30 minutes so I figured this must be it and told Corey.  Since it had only been 30 minutes or so, I didn't think it was time to call Joan (who was going to stay with Jackson) or my doctor, even though they were coming more and more quickly and quickly becoming more painful.  But, because we'd heard that second children often arrive much more quickly, Corey convinced me that it was time to call his mom and to start getting ready to go.  So, at about 1:15 a.m., Joan was on her way.  Any time I stood up, I would have another contraction and they were gaining in intensity, and were sometimes 3-4 minutes apart.

While we waited for Joan to arrive, Jackson woke up screaming again but I was in no shape to go back upstairs to check on him (I was either laying on the living room floor or couch downstairs at this point).  Of course he was calling specifically for mommy so he wasn't having any part of Corey trying to calm him down.  By 2:15 or so, I knew Joan would be at our place soon, so I headed out to the car.  I could hear Jackson screaming again, and it was so sad to be leaving him without being able to see or comfort him.  At one point, as Corey was running back and forth between loading the car and trying to console Jackson, Jackson got out of his bed for the first time ever and made it downstairs while continuing to scream his head off (he clearly knew something was up at this point).  Luckily Joan arrived then and could take over Jackson duty, and as we found out later, he quickly calmed down.

Due to dense fog that night, it took us longer to get to Overlake than normal and the contractions were consistently about 3 minutes apart at that point.  When we arrived around 3 a.m., Corey parked and then decided he had to re-park as he was over the line but I was definitely not in a patient mood.  I rudely asked him to "just park anywhere", climbed out of the car and waddled to the elevator.

We made it to the Labor & Delivery floor where I promptly sat down as the contractions came much more frequently when walking, and it felt much better to sit or lay down.  The woman at the registration desk, bless her heart, took her precious time photocopying our insurance card and questions, as I painfully had contraction after contraction.  Luckily, she didn't mind that I didn't have my license with me, which I mistakenly left at home. 

All of a sudden, about 5 minutes after our arrival, a felt a large burst of water and in all my pain, I thought my bladder had decided to fail me, so I told Corey I'd peed my pants. And, like last time, he told me it was probably my water breaking (duh).  At that point, the registration woman quickly called a nurse and Corey, bless his heart, told her he could clean up if she had some paper towels.  Registration woman instead told him that she'd just call a janitor. 

A nurse quickly rushed out to greet us and walk us back to check our progress. I didn't make it far before I stopped, grabbed the hallway hand rail, bent over, and breathed through another contraction.  She told me I was doing great, but then quickly asked "Are you pushing?!"  I was in so much pain that I didn't know what the heck was going on other than my wishing the contraction was over.  I told her I didn't know so she yelled for a stretcher and that plus two wheel chairs quickly appeared.

They laid me down on the stretcher and rushed me into a delivery room, while ripping clothes off of me.  At this point, I had my eyes closed in pain much of the time.  They quickly checked my progress and I heard someone call out that I was 10 cm dialed and +1, which I assumed meant it was go time and that there was no time for an epidural.  I'd had one with Jackson and had planned to have one with Cole, so hadn't thought about any breathing/pain management techniques. This made me a bit nervous, especially knowing how long I pushed with Jackson (3 hours) and I couldn't imagine being in that amount of pain for that much longer.

Thy told me to start pushing with each contraction and at one point in between contractions, I briefly opened my eyes and saw about 8 people in the room - many more than when I had Jackson.  The on-call doctor hadn't arrived yet, but there was a doctor in the room - not sure who he was but perhaps the ER doctor.  Regardless, but he was great - very calm and patient.

Everyone told me I was doing a great job pushing with each contraction, though I know I was loudly yelling/screaming with each one (I never would have pegged myself as a yeller), while grabbing Corey's hand as hard as I could (I'm surprised I didn't break it).  At one point after I heard comments about how much hair Cole had, the doctor asked if I wanted to reach down and feel Cole's head, which was partially out, to which I abruptly told him no and kept pushing, thinking anything else would prolong the pain.

At 3:38 a.m., Cole made his debut after about 20 minutes and what a nearby nurse confirmed was 10 contractions worth of pushing.  I was able to hold him right away, which was great (I had to wait a bit to see and hold Jackson, since the cord had been wrapped around his neck and they needed to check him out first).

I then heard the nurses and doctor throwing around guesses in terms of Cole's weight.  Some guesses were in the 9 lb range and I thought for sure they were crazy.  But they put him on the scale and sure enough, he was 9 lbs, 10 oz., a pound and a half more than Jackson had been!

They cleaned us both up and shortly after that, we received a call that our family was there and
 heard mention of "big brother" being there as well.  I was confused thinking that just my parents were coming to visit at that point, as they were planning to head straight there on their way in from Yakima, but soon Joan, Jackson and my parents walked in and were able to meet Cole mere hours after his arrival.  Jackson hadn't been able to get back to sleep, so my parents picked them up on the way so that everyone could meet Cole together.

My doctor came by the next morning to check on us and advised that if we do decide to have more children (which we're not planning on), I would need to come in after the first contraction given how quickly Cole arrived.  This is fine by me - I would be camping out at the nearest hotel for several weeks leading up to the due date to ensure I was able to not only get there quickly but also to ensure I was able to get an epidural.

Apparently deliveries like this aren't as common as one might think.  At our follow up appointment at the Overlake Women's Center several days later, upon hearing some of the details about Cole's birth, the nurse said "Oh so you're the one who almost had her baby in the hallway."  As if I wasn't embarrassed enough already - ha!
It's amazing to think this all took place nearly four weeks ago already.  Cole feels like he's been a part of the family forever, and we've loved getting to know him, and experience the feeling of having a completed family.