Simon's birth story was so different than Emmett's. Emmett was unexpectedly born a week early after my midwife swept my membranes during my routine appointment. For two weeks before Simon was born, I was DYING to get him out. I tried EVERY trick in the book to try and put myself into labor, but nothing worked. Finally, on Wednesday February 18th I decided to take castor oil. By this point, I had not had good rest in weeks and I was exhausted. I was in pain from my back and was just so done. So, that night after talking to my mother-in-law who did it with several of her babies successfully, I took 1 Tbs. of castor oil (a very small dose...they usually recommend you take 4 Tbs at a time to start labor) just to see if it would get things going. That night at 11 p.m., I woke up with some contractions. I started to time them, and then realized they weren't getting any stronger so I fell back asleep. The next morning (one day before his due date) I decided to take one more Tbs. at 8 a.m. I felt a few contractions through out the day, but nothing too exciting. That night, I was over it and decided to take two more. I said to myself that if it didn't work again, I would just wait for him to come on his own. Again, I woke up at 11 p.m. with semi-strong contractions. These were definitely different, in that they were progressively getting a little bit stronger every few contractions. I woke Danny up, and we decided to just go to the hospital because I was sick of waiting around, and I wanted to see how far I had dilated. Emmett was with my in-laws, and so we were able to go without worrying about getting him to a babysitter's house.
On the way to the hospital, they started getting pretty painful. By the time we walked into the emergency room entrance I was having a hard time talking through them. They took me up to labor and delivery, and a nurse got me hooked up to the monitor. Right when she hooked it up, I had a really strong one and she looked at it and said "Well, it looks like the real thing to me!" I was nervous to get my hopes up though, because we had already been turned away a few days before when I was having contractions but not dilating. So, she then checked me and I was praying SO hard that I had progressed. She thought for a moment and then said, it looks like you're at about a 5! I was ECSTATIC. This was at 1:00 am. and I was admitted. We called my mom and she headed over. They brought me to a room and things started getting really painful. My mom had gotten there by that time and I was really having a tough time getting through each one. Then, they got so fast and close together there was barely ANY pause between the contractions. There was one particular set of contractions that only had less than a minute between them. By this point I was openly doing the ugly cry and wanted some relief. I couldn’t handle it, and my mom was getting mad that they were taking so long with admitting me and asking all the annoying questions even though I had already answered them when I came to pre-register. She went into the hall and practically demanded that they give me one right then. She is awesome! They then checked again and I was at six. The epidural lady came in around 2:10 a.m. and messed up a few times putting the needled in…it hurt really bad and scared me because there was a “zing” going up my back while she did it. She finally got it in and it was almost immediate relief. I don’t think there is ANY better feeling than having such bad pain go away instantly! I loved it. I was seriously joyful. We sat around and chatted for a few minutes when suddenly I felt this warmth down around my thighs. I realized my water had broke! It was the weirdest feeling and it made me laugh. My mom started to get excited because with her deliveries, she had the babies almost instantly after her water breaking. Then, around 3:15 a.m., 15 minutes after my water broke, I started feeling a bit of pain and a ton of pressure. My mom went into the hall and told them she wanted them to check me. They didn’t really take her seriously and told her they would be in a little bit. My nurse came in and checked me…I was at a TEN! She looked shocked and probably knew we were annoyed that she didn’t listen to us. She told me not to push and wait for Dr. Juarez to get there. My Dr. got there around 4:00 am. I had a really bad cough and suddenly I had to cough during a contraction…after one push…out he came at 4:13 am on February 20th, 2015. He weighed 7 lbs. 10 oz. and was 19 inches long. I was immediately in love with him and didn’t want him to leave my chest. He was so beautiful and looked IDENTICAL to Emmett. It was so amazing. It is so strange because I already can't even really remember how life actually was before we had Simon. He has filled a hole in our hearts that we didn't even know we had, and he completes our little family. For now. ;) Here are a few pics from the birth and the few days that followed.
Pre-epidural...(Before the bad contractions hit...I wish I could say I was this composed through out the whole experience...haha)
Post-epidural ;)
