Wishing Well: November 2010

Philip Van Porter III (aka Tre) was born on November 25 (Thanksgiving Day) at 1:37 am. He weighed 6 lbs, 6 oz and was 19.5 inches long.

So here's the story:

On Tuesday November 23 I went to my regularly scheduled OB appointment. My Dr. said I would probably deliver early (I was due on December 16th), and if I hadn't gone into labor by December 9, she would strip my membranes to get things going. I was dilated to a 1 and 85% effaced.

The weather report was predicting "the biggest blizzard in 10 years", so I spent the rest of that day running errands and getting things ready for Thanksgiving so I wouldn't have to go out in the storm. I was having contractions as I was running errands, but just assumed they were Braxton Hicks. The lady behind me in line at the grocery store actually asked if I was in labor and I said I didn't think so.

The next morning (Wednesday November 24th), Phil and I woke up at around 5:00 am because he had to fly to Florida for the day for work. His work had chartered a plane to fly them to Florida, do some work for a few hours and fly back that night. My sister in law texted me and asked if we had gone to the hospital because he left so early, and I was like "no way, it's way to early for that". haha. So the storm that was threatened to be the "biggest blizzard in 10 years" ended up being not much at all, just enough snow to make an ice skating rink out of everything. And it was REALLY cold. So I spent the day at home getting ready for thanksgiving and cleaning my house. My mom and I were in deep cleaning mode, and were trying to get the nursery organized. I hadn't had any contractions all day, I was actually feeling pretty good. Then at 4:30 pm, I sat down on the floor in the nursery to put some clothes in a bottom drawer when.... GUSH! and I screamed "AEH". My mom came running and said "are you ok?" She had thought I was having a contraction. I looked up at her from the floor and said "Did my water just break?" and she said "I don't know, did it?" The first thought in my head was "it can't be, Phil is in Florida!!!!!"

So I stood up and went to the bathroom and "peed" for like 7 minutes straight. Something was definitely up. I called my Dr's office, which was closed for the holiday, and was forwarded to the Dr. on call. I told her what had happened, and she told me to go to the hospital. At this point I was kinda panicking. But I calmed down enough to pack a bag (with my mom's help). Then my mom drove me to the hospital. Along the way we kept saying, "They are just going to check me out", "I'm sure they'll just send me home". When I got to the hospital they admitted me, and told me my water had broken. But because of risk of infection, they didn't want to check me to see how far dilated I was. So they sent me to the labor and delivery room. I was very calm, and explained that I wanted to have a natural birth, but that my husband was in Florida, and I might need some help. Things were going well, the contractions started getting stronger and closer together, so I got in the bath tub and that helped relax me. My mom was a great trooper as my fill- in Lamaze coach. She rubbed my back, and tried to help me find my happy place.

Then things got interesting. My mom had to leave the room for a minute, and my contractions were getting really strong. She came back in, and I said "grab me that garbage can" and she started toward it. "FASTER!" I said, and she barely got it to me before I threw up. So there I am naked, hanging over the side of the tub, vomiting into a garbage can. lovely visual right? I stayed in the tub through a few more contractions, then decided to get out. By this point I realized that things were moving really fast, and that Phil still wasn't here yet, and there was a chance he might not make it. Bad idea, once I realized there was a chance Phil might not make it, my anxiety level shot up. Then I started thinking, "I can't do this without Phil", which turned into "Phil is supposed to help me not think of the pain", which led to "Oh the pain, this REALLY hurts". You get the picture, downward spiral of thoughts... which ended in "Give me drugs... NOW". I had vomited three times, and was having REALLY strong contractions about 1 minute apart. I knew that an epidural would slow down labor, and I was willing to do anything to buy Phil some more time to get to the hospital. My admitting nurse had left and I was assigned a new one while I was in the tub. So when I met my new nurse (Auri) I was a completely different person then when I had been admitted. The first words I said to her were "Give me drugs". She didn't know anything about me, so didn't feel comfortable in trying to talk me out of it so she called the anesthesiologist. She was great actually, and helped me breathe through some of the worst contractions. It took a while to get an iv, and the epidural. and I guess I was in a lot of pain. I had kind of checked out at that point. My mom told me later she was really scared, she had never seen me like that. She was glad Phil missed this part of labor. During the time when I was out of it, Phil landed, and called me and all I could get out was "Get to the Hospital"! he was like"what?" then my mom took over talking, while I labored through some more contractions.

The anesthesiologist came in and administered the epidural, by this point I was exhausted and was mad I gave up, so I was kind of a baby. But he gave me a great epidural. I'll tell more about that later. 10 minutes after I got the drugs, Phil walks in! (On his way to the hospital from the airport he got stuck behind a train. His version of the day is quite funny too). So by the time he arrives, I was a new person. I was talking and laughing and everything was great. So at this point, the nurse decided to check me (I hadn't been checked yet all day). Oh don't worry I was dilated to a 7.5! No wonder I was in so much pain, I was in transition!!! Had I known that, I probably could have made it through without drugs, but I thought I was probably only a 4 or so, I hadn't been there very long. Because I was feeling good, and exhausted from earlier, the nurse told me to try and nap until I was fully dilated, she said it would probably take three more hours. An hour later she came in to check me and I was dilated to 10! So she called the on-call Dr. and put me into a position so that Tre could get into a little better station. I stayed there for a bout 30 minutes, and she said I was ready to start pushing. I pushed for about 15 minutes, maybe a total of 8 pushes, then the nurse told me to stop pushing because the baby was crowning and the Dr. wasn't there yet! So I went into this total zen place and concentrated on not pushing. Because my epidural was so good, I could feel my legs, and I could tell when each contraction was coming and how long it was. my contractions were moving Tre in and out of me, while I was trying my hardest not to push. The Dr. finally arrives, and was quite shocked I was so far along. I was so in my zen place, that I didn't even greet her. So she walked in the door at 1:35, I pushed 2 or 3 more times, and literally 2 minutes later, at 1:37 Tre was HERE!!!!! Phil got to catch him, and cut the umbilical cord. We spent about an hour together as a family, and I tried to nurse, and we just cuddled and enjoyed the moment.

Then my mom and Bill came in to see the baby, and they weighed him, and took his measurements, and we took a lot of pictures. The next three days in the hospital were a blur of no sleep, trying to get the hang of nursing, and ups and downs from adrenaline and exhaustion. But I have the cutest little guy in the whole world to show for it!!!

Yea! Welcome to the world Tre!!!!!