Well, this was my first pregnancy and I had preeclampsia and had been on strict bedrest for the past two months. I could not wait to have this child so that I could get up and walk around. Plus, due to the preeclampsia, I was retaining water big time.
I was still about two and a half weeks away from the due date, but the doctor said that I was done being pregnant because all she had to do was touch my stomach and water would leak out.
Even though I could not wait to have this child, the moment she told me I was going to have to check myself into the hospital today to deliver tomorrow I was sooo scared. Her original plan was to just have a c-section because she actually thought my baby would be as much as 10 pounds and she didn't want to put me thru all that pain and agony only to have to do an emergency c-section. However, after seeing my quite obvious disappointment, she decided to do an ultrasound to see if they could possibly get a more accurate idea of how big the baby would be.
The technician said it was hard to tell because I was retaining so much fluid, but the baby seemed to be about 5 and a half pounds. She scheduled a regular birth and oh! How I was relieved!
My cervix had not softened at all they had to put in the medication that would soften my cervix. They said this should take hours to happen and that i would be given medicine in the morning to start labor, so my husband and I called our parents to tell them they had one day to get to the hospital if they wanted to be there for the birth of the baby. My mom-in-law made arrangements for her flight and my mom hopped in her car for a 20-hour drive.
We should have told them not to rush because they were never going to make it in time. Not 15 minutes after they inserted the medicine to soften my cervix, the contractions came. They came so fast and were so painful and I had such an uncontrollable urge to push. Within another 15 minutes they were preparing for an emergency C-section because I had not dlated and could not stop pushing.
Three minutes later, they checked again and I was dilated to 4 centimeters. Another five minutes and I was at eight centimeters, so they cancelled the C-section and told me that since it was going so fast there will be no pain medication. I was soooo scared because this labor was sooo painful, I thought delivery would be even more so.
The doctor got there in time to break my water and for some reason, right after my water broke the pain actually calmed down. It calmed down so much I was actually able to catch my breath. To be very honest, the actual delivery didn't come anywhere near the level of pain I was feeling during labor. It wasn't a breeze, but at least it was bearable.
So, after only eight minutes of pushing my beautiful (and I mean beautiful!) daughter, weighing in at 5 pounds and 3 ounces, was here. And to think they thought she would 10 pounds -- that just makes me giggle.
