McDaniel Family Journal

On Thursday, September 3rd, I had my 39 week appointment.  The doctor asked the typical questions and I told him I’d had no contractions, no bleeding, nothing. I’d had no signs of any type of impending labor.

Since I hadn’t had a cervix check yet he decided to do one, and lo and behold I was 3cm dilated and 50% effaced. I was shocked. Granted, you can be like that for weeks, but with Brighton I didn’t dilate at all until labor started, so I was pretty excited. 🙂

On Friday I went to work and made sure that I had everything in order…just in case. My boss told me she didn’t expect me to be in on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday), and it turned out she was right 😉

Friday, the 4th was date night. Your daddy and I went to the mall to see a movie (District 9) and grab a bite in the food court.  We talked a lot about you and how we were looking forward to finally meeting you.  Before the movie started, I went to the restroom and found that I had lost my plug. TMI, I know, but it was at that very point that I knew it was only a matter of time before you arrived.  Throughout the movie I think I had one or two contractions. Nothing painful at all, just a bit of tightening.

I slept pretty well that night. No contractions, no pain.

The next morning I think should be labeled: “Family Chore Day”. Your daddy went out and mowed the lawn, while I cleaned the kitchen, did some laundry, and straightened up all the rooms. Brighton and I also went to the park while your daddy went on a run. It was a great morning.

Come lunch, we were starving and for some reason both your daddy and I wanted a Tuna Sub from Subway. Don’t ask me why 😉 So, we piled into the car and went out for lunch. After we got our food, I had a single contraction. I told your daddy and about 20 minutes later, at 1pm, I had another one.

I still didn’t think I was in labor. 2 contractions don’t mean anything, but when the next one came 10 minutes later I thought we were on to something.  The first one was at 12:45, the second at 1pm, the third at 1:10pm.  The next 3 were 10 minutes apart, then they were 5 minutes apart.  They weren’t necessarily painful, but they weren’t real pleasant either.  At about 2pm, you daddy called Grandma Ann to see if she could come over…just in case. I still wasn’t positive this was the real thing, but soon after she arrived at about 2:20, contractions began coming every 3 1/2 minutes and were 1-1 1/2 minutes long.  They were getting to where I couldn’t talk during them and I HAD to walk around to get through them.

At about 3:15pm we decided to go to the hospital.  I wanted to stay at home longer, but the contractions were so close together and I knew that I had to get antibiotics run before you were born, that we thought we should just go in…just in case 😉

When we got there, your daddy dropped me off at the front while he parked the car. I went into triage, filled out the forms, then paced the area until he came in. The contractions were getting stronger, and every 3 minutes you could fine me standing, facing a wall breathing through them.  I never sat down. For some reason sitting made them worse, so I walked around the whole time.

Because I was walking and completely fine between contractions, it took the triage nurses a while to get to me. I think I waited over 20 minutes before they finally called my name.  They took me and your daddy into an exam room, and did a cervix check. As she did the exam, she called out the door to get a gurney. Then the whole staff was in our room prepping me to go up to Labor and Delivery. Apparently I had walked my way to 7cm, and they were all remarking on what a great job I was doing. More than one nurse told me she didn’t understand how I could still be walking around at that point 😉

I have to note that during all of this, your daddy was amazing.  He has really bad Carpel Tunnel syndrome from all the writing he does, but with every contraction he was there massaging my back.  It was amazing. He was constantly giving me support and telling me what a good job I was doing, and I know that all of the encouragement really helped me along.  He is the best husband in the entire world 😉

When we got to the delivery room, we noticed that it had a beautiful view. We mentioned it and the nurses said that this was the room that everyone asked for and that they gave to VIP people that delivered there. We thought that was pretty cool 😉

I think when they checked my cervix in triage they inadvertently broke my water a bit. Not all the way, but I was definitely leaking and the contractions began to be ridiculously painful.  I was trying to focus, but apparently they pay one of the nurses to bombard you with health questions (where all the answers are no) to try to break your spirit 😉 I joke, but that’s what it seemed like. The pain was bad, but when you can’t concentrate because you are answering a ton of random questions, it makes the next contraction that much worse.

After all the questions were answered, I went to the tub.  I had been walking/standing this whole time, but thought the warm water of a bath might help…and it did, until the water cooled off 😉 While I was in there the anesthesiologist came in and we discussed an epidural.  I told her I didn’t want to be completely numb, but I needed a bit of the edge off if I was going to be able to push.  About 20 minutes later my epidural was done…not pleasant, but I got through it, and at the same time the antibiotic arrived.  Because I was GBS+ I was supposed to have the antibiotic run 4 hours before you were born, but due to the speed of the labor and the slowness of the pharmacy at the hospital, that didn’t happen. 20 minutes after I got the epidural and the antibioitic, I started pushing.  It was just after 6:30pm.

After a couple pushes I asked if I could have a mirror to see what was going on.  Let me just tell you, that was the coolest thing ever. I could actually see what every single push was doing. I could see your little head and the massive amount of hair that you had. It was amazing!

After just over 20 minutes of pushing, you arrived into the world at 6:59pm on Saturday, September 5th, 2009. You were 7lbs 6.8oz and 21 inches long. You were beautiful, and I remember the very first words out of my mouth as they placed you screaming on my chest were “He’s perfect”. I remember looking up at your daddy, who was just transfixed on you, and seeing so much love in his eyes.  It was a very perfect moment, and one that I will NEVER forget.

Your birth was amazing. Better than I ever dreamed it could be.  Afterwards, we nursed and you did fantastic.  Then Grandma Ann drove Brighton over and we introduced the two of you. Of course, he too was enamored with you.  He kissed you and told you he loved you. It was sooooo incredibly sweet!

We were only in the hospital until the next night. You were doing great, and as I was told by my doctor, apparently I’m just made to give birth, because I felt fine. Apparently we were the talk of both the labor and recovery floors for a super-short stay. On that Sunday morning I went to a breastfeeding class and one of the mom’s had been there for 6 days, another for 3. You and I were only there a little over 24 hours.  We are troopers 😉

Sunday night at about 8pm, your daddy and Brighton came to pick us up. Brighton was adorable telling everyone how you were HIS Baby Benjamin, and that he was taking us home. The ride home was fine, definitely not as eventful as Brighton’s ride home was, and when we got here, it was a though you had always belonged.  You really did complete our little family, and I look forward to seeing what the next few years will bring with my two wonderful boys 😉

Filed under: Benjamin's Birth on September 7th, 2009