Pete's arrival

Pete’s due date was Sunday, October 30. Not only was I certain I’d have him before then, but I was sure he’d be such a quick birth, like Henry, I was afraid of having him in my pants! I was getting pretty impatient with his arrival and was up Thursday, Nov. 3 at about 4 am. No contractions, just couldn’t sleep. When Dave got up at 5 for a run I told him to go ahead and run far away as nothing was going to happen here!

At 6:49 I woke up with the first contraction and I thought, “oh, I remember what this feels like: Pain”. I waited and timed them and they seemed to get more intense and closer, but it wasn’t too bad. I called Dave at work (he’d put in about a 25 minute workday thus far) and had him come home at 7:20.

He got Mary, from next door, to stay with the kids who weren’t up yet and I called my mom to drive from Muskegon and we left for the hospital. My contractions were around 4 minutes apart and definitely getting intense!

We arrived at 8 am (easy to remember times when you’re timing contractions) but were in triage for over an hour as they monitored my contractions. They were concentrated in my back and were getting pretty painful, though not moving closer together. The nurse checked me when we came in and I was at about a 4. We suspected the baby was face-up so I tried hands and knees, but I was terrified they’d send me home as my water had not broken and the contractions still were not moving closer. I was afraid I wasn’t “in labor”

At about 9:20 she checked me and I was at 4.5 so I was technically in labor and making cervical change. They wheeled me into delivery and I started asking for an epidural right away! I wanted a natural birth, like Henry’s, because the recovery is so much easier, but I could tell that I just wasn’t having a similar labor and like Charlotte, who was face up, I didn’t think I’d make any progress with the back labor without the epidural.

At about 10:15 I got the epidural and aside from a nick to my nerve in my right leg (shooting pains and kick was the result), that went well. Suddenly, that back pain went away! But it also revealed the uterine contractions that had been there the whole time that I didn’t even notice with that back pain. Let me tell you, back labor is serious stuff! The uterine contractions I totally could have handled. But since it was in anyway, we turned it up a bit to dull that ☺

The on-call doctor came in about 11:30 and I was only at a 7 and my water hadn’t broken yet and my doc would able to come a little after noon, so we decided to wait for her. She arrived about 12:30 and checked me and as she did we discussed breaking my bag of waters when it broke! That was easy. I was at a 9 or so and she went to change her clothes.

By this point, I could start feeling much more in the uterine contractions and could tell that things were changing. She got back about 12:45 (as I was getting uncomfortable and sassy) and then we could finally this on the road. I pushed with 3 or 4 contractions, for a total of about 20 minutes. But it was strange because my contractions never got closer; they were still 4 minutes apart. Very glad for that epi when he was in the birth canal- I remember that part with Henry and having to wait almost 4 minutes between pushes would have been bad!

At 1:09 pm, he came out and it felt so good! Getting that near 10 lbs off my other organs was so nice! His little hand was up right next to his face and the doctor gently unwound the cord that was around his neck and hand. They put him on my chest and I thought “oh good, I DO love you!” and he was just perfect. Dave cut the cord, the doctors did repairs on the 3rd degree tear (apparently along my old Charlotte fault line).

It took a while to get feeling back after the epi was turned off and I was a “fall risk” as my bracelet proclaimed (I faint really easily) so I had to be gurneyed up to recovery around 4 pm.

Pete’s been great! He hard cried at all. He had the mildest form of respiratory distress, which sounded like a tiny Geiger counter. But that cleared up within a day. He’s been sleeping and nursing just beautifully. Charlotte and Henry were so excited to meet him and hold him; it was a joy to see their faces as they looked upon him.