By 1AM they had an IV in my left hand, given me drugs through the IV to try to stop the labor and shot me with a rather large needle in my butt with steroids for the baby's lungs. The goal was to get this labor stopped and shoot me with more steroids later.
I was not allowed to stand up, I had to use a bedpan (that is a rather awkward experience by the way and not something I really ever want to have to use again) and that is what I had to look forward to if they were successful in stopping labor. Well, the drugs caused the contractions to slow for about 20 minutes then they came back with even more vigor, they came just as often but much harder.
I think Ben's hand started to get sore through all the clenching of it that I was doing... Well, it did help me to concentrate on squeezing his hand. The funny thing was we were about to start taking some of the baby classes to prep us on labor and delivery, but we got a crash course from the nurses instead. They walked me through breathing techniques and I tried my best to use them in the midst of everything. I tried my hardest to not push when the desire started to hit me.
One thing is for sure, it is no fun having contractions when your bladder is full and your water hasn't broken! So after spending several hours trying to hold myself back during the contractions my water finally did break (maybe 5AM?? not real certain I was rather exhausted by then) things started feeling much much better. In fact I barely even felt the contractions after that happened!
Now the nurses asked us about giving me an epidural--something I hadn't really decided yet if I wanted or not. In all my exhaustion I looked at Ben and told him that I trust him and that I want him to make the decision because I cannot think clearly and do not trust myself. After talking it over with the nurses and finding out that baby was sitting sideways and hadn't dropped (meaning possible C-Section) he told them to give it to me. After that I was able to get some sleep (for about an hour and 20 minutes). We had to wait for our baby to drop anyways.
On a side note, our little one was always very active inside of me and it was somewhat comical as the nurses had to keep chasing him down all night! They would have his heart beat, then he would move just enough to make it hard to find again. Kind of frustrating and funny all at the same time!
When I woke up they checked me over again and found that the baby had moved and was almost in position (and in the correct vertex position--head first), so we would be pushing very soon. They got the OB doctor in, the NICU doctor, NICU nurses and who knows who all else (Ben told me there were about 8 medical staff in the room ready to welcome our baby into the world) and we started pushing. After no more than 15 minutes our baby came out and was given to the NICU doctors to get him stable so he could be transferred to the NICU upstairs.
Another side note: How can a woman push for hours? That's hard work! I could have pushed longer if needed, but seriously for hours??
In all the hubbub we were trying to find out if we just gave birth to a little boy or a little girl, finally the pronouncement was boy. So we gave him the name we had picked out: Samuel Benjamin. Samuel has quite the tuff of hair on his head. So Ben was all jealous about that. At this point I just settled back a big on the bed and Ben kept a worried eye on the reactions of the NICU doctor and nurses. From the first minute Samuel was not liking the idea of having tubes and lines stuck in and on him! They then claimed him stable enough to move upstairs, rolled him over so I could look at him and off they went (with Ben following close behind).
Samuel Benjamin was born at 12:44PM weighing 2# 8oz and was just over 15" long.
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