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……….
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| Clara, Mom and Mrs. Kimmy in the waiting room |
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| Uncle Matty Brown |
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| The crew in the waiting room |
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| Mom, Sandy and Jon hanging out in the delivery room |
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| Uncle Matt and I |
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| Mom and I |
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| Sandy and I |
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