Jon and Cat's Adventures: May 22, 2013- It's Go Time!

Jon and I enjoyed our last weekend of freedom, as everyone called it. We went out to dinner, invited some friends over for a cook out, enjoyed hanging out at our neighborhood pool at night, slept in, cleaned the house, finished packing our hospital bags, put the baby carrier by the door, organized the baby room and just enjoyed each other. I knew my parents and brother were going to be staying at our house while we were in the hospital so I wanted everything to be clean and ready for their visit.

Packing my bags!

A little pool time!

Jon's last kayaking adventure

Monday morning rolled around and I felt great! I had tons of energy and could not wait for Wednesday to arrive but I was also terrified about the entire “unknown” experience. I worked a full day Monday and spent the day organizing and getting ready to be off work for 6 weeks! I had a co-worker that was going to take my place while I was out so I had to get everything ready for her. I worked only half a day on Tuesday which was nice because I got to relax all afternoon. I dropped Lilly off at my friend Clara’s house so she would be taken care of and my parents did not have to worry with her. Jon and I ate a good “last super” and went to bed early. I thought it would be hard to sleep the night before but it wasn’t. Of course I woke up every 2 hours to pee but fell right back asleep.

My alarm woke us up at 4am and I jumped or rolled out of bed as fast as I could. I was ready!

Jon and I both showered and were out the door by 4:40am…we were so excited/nervous! We arrived at the hospital and found a great parking spot. I guess there are not a lot of people around at this time of morning on a Wednesday. We walked into the Women and Children’s Center at Huntsville Hospital and went straight up to the second floor. On our way we passed a Starbucks in the lobby and Jon could not be more excited. We had not eaten breakfast because we were in too much of a hurry but Jon was getting hungry. Jon decided that he would just come back after he got me settled in the room. We rode the elevator up to the second floor and checked in at the desk. The nice lady was waiting for our arrival. She put us in the system, decorated my arm full of bracelets, gave Jon a bracelet and we were officially ready to do this thing! A nice lady came to get us to take us around the corner to the delivery room. This was the room where we were going to meet our little bundle of love. I was asked to go pee, get into a hospital gown and get into the bed. WOW things were moving fast once we got into that room it seemed. Jon found his place on the couch and the nurse drilled us with every question imaginable. After the questions were over they had to do a full body check so Jon left to go get his Starbucks and find some breakfast. I could not eat until after the baby was born which was fine with me because I was not hungry at all. My nerves took over and I did not think about food. I was allowed to munch on ice chips so I asked for a cup and ate them the majority of the day.

After the full body exam I was hooked up to a couple of monitors to monitor both the baby and myself. There were cords everywhere! One was monitoring my blood pressure, oxygen intake, the baby’s heartbeat and my heart rate. My blood pressure stayed around 100/60 most of the morning which was really good and the baby was measuring perfect. We were blessed to have a wonderful nurse named Joy Johnson. She was an older lady who had been delivering babies for 20 years and she knew her stuff! After I was all hooked up she checked my cervix to see how dilated I was and it turns out I was about 3cm. She said that the entire process should take about 10-12 hours before baby gets here so for me to just relax. At this point I felt no pain, just a little bit of pressure. Jon and I sat in the delivery room and watched Good Morning America, texted our friends, checked Facebook and talked. It was actually a lot of fun. Around 8am Doctor Tallent arrived and check my cervix. I was almost to 4cm so he ordered my epidural. He said I looked great and was progressing well and that he would check back with us after my epidural. The anesthesiologist came about 8:30 with his bag of goodies and gave me my epidural. WOW that actually hurt/stung. Jon watched the entire procedure and said that it was actually harder to watch than the birth. I had to sit on the edge of the bed, hunch over and the sticks a really long needle in my back. I started feeling the numbness almost right away but it got really intense about an hour later. This was a miracle drug because I never felt a contraction after that. It was pretty strange feeling because I could not move my legs and they kept drifting off the edge of the bed. I had to ask Jon to come move my legs back together on the bed. Doctor Tallent come in around 10am to check on things and I was progressing well. I was still around 4cm but doing fine. He said the next time he would see me, I would be in full blown labor…yay! Jon’s dad was close by the hospital doing physical therapy for his back so he came over to see us. He visited for a little while and then went home for a shower. He and Sandy came back around 12:30 to stay for the remainder of the day. Jon was starving so he went with them to get some lunch downstairs. I took a little nap while everyone was eating. Mrs. Kimmy came to the hospital to see us and wait on the baby. She brought so much yummy food that she had made! She is so sweet! We could only have 3 visitors in the room (including Jon) so the visitor passes had to be passed around. During all of this, my parents and brother were in the car on their way up. They decided to leave Daphne around 8am that morning and be in Huntsville around 3pm because we all thought the baby would arrive sometime between 5-7pm. I had been in contact with them via text all morning so they knew how things were progressing. So, like I said I was around 4cm at 12:30pm and after my nap I was at 9cm! OH NO, THINGS ARE PROGRESSING FASTER THAN PLANNED! When the nurse told me that I was already at 9cm I quickly texted Jon who was downstairs eating and my parents who were just passing Birmingham. Everyone quickly became panicked that my parents/brother were not going to make it in time for the birth. Luckily things slowed down and I was able to see my family for about 45 minutes before it was GO TIME! They came in the room and we talked. The nurse told me that I would know when I reached 10cm and boy did I know! The pressure was so intense and I could not sit or lay down on the bed. I had to hold myself up by my hands and nothing really helped. I knew it was time for all the company to get out of the room and let’s get this thing started! OH GOSH……….