Thursday, June 11th, I went into my doctor and was dilated to a 1 and 60% effaced. I had no idea what that meant, but he said as long as things progressed the following week, we would schedule an induction for Wednesday. Yikes! I didn't know that would be coming! I had mixed emotions about being induced, but decided to make the appointment anyway. I went home that night and didn't sleep a wink! I was wide awake - partially shocked that my baby was coming in a week and truly just wide awake. First bout of insomnia I had as a pregnant woman.
The next day, I went to work and then came home and cleaned the house. I was feeling kind of crummy, but I figured it was because I didn't sleep the night before. However, baby was coming on Wednesday and the house needed to be clean for his arrival! Nick's sister and I cleaned and got pedicures. I remember telling her I felt really weird that day - like something was off. I kind of joked that maybe I was in labor, but I had no idea haha.
As Nick and I headed out the door around 7 PM to grab some dinner that night, I discovered I was bleeding pretty badly. After a phone call to the hospital, we went in. They monitored us for a couple hours and sent us home. Upon discharge, I was unable to stand up out of my chair for a couple minutes. The nurse said it was probably the baby's head, but looking back at it - it was my first REAL contraction.
We went home and I tried to shower and eat, but the contractions kept coming (I didn't know that's what they were though because they told me I wasn't in labor). We eventually figured they were something and decided to time them. 4-6 minutes apart lasting 60 seconds. That sounded about right, even though I wasn't in my right mind. The contractions were all in my BACK! Dropped me to the floor every time. I later found out that's because he was posterior - back pain = BOO! We quickly packed our bags (no I didn't have our bags packed yet! Oops!) and pulled ourselves together (sort of).
The hospital said I could come back for pain meds if I wasn't in labor, so we headed back. They monitored me for a while in the triage room and decided to admit us a few hours later! We weren't leaving that hospital without a baby!
They made me progress to about a 3 or 4 before I could have the epidural. Once I got that, we slept the entire rest of the day. It was much needed. The doc rotated him so he wasn't posterior and once I got to a 10 we started pushing! 1 hour and 20 minutes later, baby boy no name was here! We left our name list at home! The only name we had both really sort of agreed on was Oliver, so we went for it. To be honest, it took me a while to see him as an Oliver, but now it fits his perfectly!
If I could skip pregnancy, I would go through birth 100 times over. I had the most wonderful experience and luckily with no complications. How incredible to have such an instant love for someone. I remember crying and looking up at Nick as they placed him on my chest. He was mine forever.
