Once upon a time...
Just kidding. I had been joking with James for a few weeks now about having the baby on his birthday, which was May 28. I told him that if I convinced myself it would happen, *maybe* I would be right, and he would have the BEST birthday ever.
We had a busy weekend. Saturday was our big family baby shower, and again, I predicted (in writing!) that baby Aiden would be born 5/28. On Sunday, we had a lot of unpacking and organizing to do, and I had James doing a few honey-do projects. We had dinner that night, then I asked James if we could run to Target and finally buy our last piece of the puzzle.. the oh-so-expensive breast pump. On our way home, I told James we had everything we absolutely needed, so the baby was ready to come out. We got home around 8, and I told James we should all go on a walk just to "see" if that started any contractions. Ava was delighted and James obliged my ignorant attempt to jump-start my own labor, just by walking.
(this will never work)
(clarification: James and I do firmly believe that babies will come when they are ready. self-induction does not work unless you are full term and ready! self-induction did NOT work with ava, and i even drank castor oil. twice. this was just a harmless walk. much needed exercise, if nothing else. )
Off we went, strolling down Santa Fe. We made it a block and I had my first contraction. I yelled "HOLY SHIT!" and James just looked at me like yeah right. I told James we had to keep this going, so again, he obliged me. Since Ava is so fascinated with fire trucks, we walked toward the fire station a few blocks away. I was getting one contraction per block. It was incredible. Hand in hand, 6 blocks later, James said "do you REALLY think you can will this baby out?" I said "no, but it would be fun to try." But just two blocks later, I realized... I was doing just that. We got home, put Ava to bed, and I started bouncing like an idiot on my yoga ball (to ease the pain, get my water to break, move him down, etc). The contractions were intensifying and had been steady for over an hour now. That's when James said we needed to start timing them. He got out the stopwatch (via iPhone) and timed away. "Okay, it's starting..." "Okay, done." "Okay, here's another one" and James cut me off. "Megan, that was a little over two and a half minutes. There's no way." Fine. (Female F word)
Around midnight, the pain was getting to me. I texted my sisters to see if either was still up, and to no surprise.. Dani was. I told her I was contracting and they were 2-3 minutes apart, that I was getting in the bathtub, and to standby in case I needed her to come up and stay the night. She got here around 1. Realizing I was missing a few "key" things from my hospital bag, James and I left for Wal-Mart. One large part of the equation was also missing: my water hadn't broke. So yeah, we walked around Wal-Mart at 1:30 am trying to get my water to break. Me. The Target queen and Wal-Mart hater. But I was desperate and in pain.
Then came the meltdown. After a thorough walk around Wal-Mart, a trip to McDonalds (for James..hehe), my contractions were unbearable but my water hadn't broken. So I broke. Poor James. I sobbed and sobbed in the parking lot of Wal-Mart, accusing him of not believing that I was in labor and not breaking my water for me. (hey, doesn't hurt to ask right?! thank goodness he was thinking more clearly than I) I wanted so badly to have this baby on his birthday, but at that moment - I didn't know what I had done. I was contracting.. regularly, painfully, but nothing was happening. After repeated attempts asking what he could do, he finally said "we should go to the hospital and at least see what's going on." (side note: I'm pretty sure he still didn't believe I was contracting or in labor at this point)
We checked in to L&D around 2:30. They hooked me up to the monitors and checked my cervix, and I was 4 cm and 60% effaced. I think I shocked the hell out of James, who was watching my contractions TWO TO THREE MINUTES APART (that's right, told ya!) on the monitor.
They said they'd monitor me for 2-3 hours, then determine a plan of action with the on-call OB. Well! 2 1/2 hours later, they checked my cervix again, and NO CHANGE. What?! I about choked on my ice chips. You've gotta be freaking kidding me. The nurse said I had two options: labor at home or labor there, but I could be in for the long haul there. She actually told me that it could be DAYS until the baby came if I labored there. I opted to go home.
(mistake) I was devastated.
James went to sleep, though he tried his damnedest not to. I was in too much pain to sleep. I felt contractions, but the pain was in my back. It didn't occur to me until much later.. that I was having back labor. I tried the tub, my yoga ball, nothing eased the pain. At about 6:30 am, I headed out for another walk.
There is some weird stuff going on in Salina at that hour. Anyways :) I came back at 7:30ish and laid down. By 8:30, I'd had enough. I woke James up and told him I couldn't do this anymore. That we needed my water to break or to stop labor, because it was all too painful. I told him we needed to march back to the hospital and tell them exactly that!!!
And so we did!
We checked back in around 9:30 and at 10, they checked me - 5 cm and 90% effaced w/ show! What what!!!! I was ecstatic. Our lovely nurse Kaylene said "alright, that's it! you punched your ticket for admission and you'll be having a baby today!"
Wait. Waittttttttttttttttttttt just a minute. What was I thinking? Whatever it was, it was too late now. I was in freaking labor and having a baby. On my husband's birthday. After she left the room, I immediately looked at James and said "See! Don't mess with me. When I put my mind to something.. watch out!" He just looked at me, speechless. Internally, I was panicking. Externally, I was gloating. I asked him to go get my suitcase out of the car - and I remembered that my parents were supposed to be boarding a plane for Arizona at some point during the day. I sent the "I'm in labor" text to my family, and by 11 am, my water broke and I was to the point of no return.
I have no idea what time it was, but I'll just call it "pain time." It was too much. My natural birth was going out the window. GIVE ME THE DRUGS!!! James held my hand and said he would support me either way. My dad gave me a pep talk of some sort, I heard something about my days as a "don't mess with me" catcher and being able to do this unmedicated. I asked for the nurse to check me. I wasn't making progress. I was stalled and this was my worst nightmare. Only, it wasn't. I was most certainly not stalled! I was 8 cm and almost effaced. She said if I wanted the epi, it had to be now. No going back. I had 5 seconds to decide. My inner wonder woman looked at her and said "nope, no epidural." And that was that. The last thing she said was "let me know when you feel the urge to push. Shouldn't be long now, I'll call the doctor and tell her we're almost ready." Umm.. what? Like, how long? Her guess: 30 minutes.
15 later I yelled "GET THE NURSE!!" and man, they were in there like the cavalry with all the delivery garb and baby stuff. My nurse, the baby's nurse, the OB on call, James and my parents all stood by. I put my headphones on with my favorite classical music piece - and it was go time. There's not much to say about the process to push out a baby. I'll spare you the details. The highlight is that I used hypnobirthing techniques to breathe the baby down, and I was quiet as a mouse, so that baby Aiden would come into this world in a natural and stress-free environment. No shrill screaming or "YOU DID THIS TO ME!" from this girl :) *pumps fist*
We welcomed Aiden James at 2:06 pm. He was so tiny. I cried as they put him on my chest, hardly believing I'd birthed that little guy completely unmedicated. He was so tiny for being 7 1/2 lbs, I couldn't believe it. And born on James' birthday. How about that? God is so, so good.
(if you've made it to this point, congrats and i'm sorry. i didn't really expect anyone to read all of this, but it's published for those who were curious and for us to look back on one of the most amazing days of our lives.)
