As we prepare ourselves to start this journey all over again with Josh in just a few weeks I wanted to write out the story of Drew's birth so that I won't forget. Feel free to stop reading here...
Saturday, February 24, 2007: I had my first real contraction around 9am. I could tell it was the real thing right away because it started in my back and wrapped all the way around. (Let me tell you, back labor is NOT fun...this was only the beginning.) Contractions continued off and on throughout the day and Russell and I took the chance to finish up a few last minute things (like our taxes) and relax as much as possible. Around lunch time my contractions started getting more regular and closer together. This continued for quite some time, but they never got closer than 6 minutes apart, so we kept doing what we were doing. Around 10 or 11 we decided to head to bed for at least a little while. I took a shower and then went to lay down. I didn't get any sleep, but thought that I might be able to at least rest a little.
Sunday, February 25, 2007: A little after midnight I got up to go to the bathroom and my water broke. However, it wasn't a gush as some have experienced it was definitely more like a trickle. When I was fairly certain that was what had happened I went and woke Russell up. I remember asking him if he'd had a good nap and telling him we needed to go to the hospital. We got our stuff together and drove to Lakeview. They admitted me through the ER and took us up to Labor and Delivery. We were the only patients there that night, so I had 2 nurses looking after me and got the room right next to the nurses' station. I think Russell took about 2 minutes to figure out how to fold out the chair in the room and lay back down. I'm not sure how much more sleep he got, but I know it was a lot more than I did!! It took them some time to determine that my water had indeed broken and officially admit me to the hospital. They started my IV (one of the nurses jokingly called it my "steak and potatoes") and checked my progress (3cm) and then pretty much left me alone.
I had decided that I wanted to try to go without any kind of drugs, mostly to try to keep as much control of the situation as possible. (I remember one of the nurses telling me that I should just keep breathing and using my relaxation techniques and that should help - until I got to transition (7-10cm) when "nothing helps." Oh, the foreshadowing...) Part of that control was taken away from me because my water had already broken when we got to the hospital. Their policy was that I couldn't get up (not even to go to the bathroom) and it was difficult to even change positions that much because of the monitors. I watched some TV, listened to my ipod, and tried to rest. I'm pretty sure that Russell slept through most of this. The nurses would periodically come and check on me, but for the most part they left us alone. A little before 7am, as contractions were intensifying, I began to feel nauseous and got sick all over the bed and myself - not fun. The last time the nurses had been in to check me I was at 4cm and I remember thinking "you're not supposed to get sick until you hit transition." They helped me get cleaned up and then changed shifts. We got a new nurse, Jo, who was great and when she checked me around 7:30 I was at a 7. At that point we both thought we'd have a baby before lunch time! I continued to use my breathing techniques, but it was definitely getting more painful (remember, back labor - yuck!). At the next check we had made it to an 8 and I was sure that we didn't have much longer. However, an 8 is as far as we ever got - but I'm jumping ahead of myself.
Jo continued to check on me more frequently (about every 20 minutes) and we continued to be at an 8. This went on for over an hour and she told me that if I wanted to get an epidural I still could, but they needed to call the anesthesiologist and get him to come in (there wasn't one on site for the weekend). Because we'd been stalled out for over an hour (it may have been closer to 2)with no progress I decided that this was necessary if I was going to have any chance of a "natural" delivery. At this point I knew deep down that there was a good chance that a c-section was in my future. I got the epidural and was able to rest a little bit. They put me on some pitocin, but when Drew's heart rate started to drop they quickly stopped that. His heart rate recovered just fine and we continued to labor. They kept checking, and I kept being at an 8. Very frustrating for everyone involved. They finally decided that if there had been no additional progress by 2:00 then we would proceed to have a c-section. Needless to say, there was no additional progress - so a c-section is what we did. I remember wondering if my doctor would be there to perform it, or if it would be someone else. The first doctor (aside from the anesthesiologist) that I saw was Dr. Steen (my doctor) in the operating room. I was relieved (although I think Russell was even more relieved) to see her and was ready to meet my baby. Andrew Russell Wiggins was born at 2:50pm with a head full of dark hair and gorgeous gray-blue eyes. He weighed 7lbs., 2 oz., and was 20 inches long. He was perfect! Russell went with him to the nursery (after they showed him to me) and I went on to recovery where they brought him to me once he was ready. It wasn't the way I had planned it, but the outcome was a healthy baby and that's what really mattered! Now, this time with Josh we're having a planned c-section, which should go much more smoothly. Hopefully I won't be starting out completely exhausted, although I know that will come.
