Jude's Birth Story

It took me a little longer than I had planned to get this done, but I'm finally posting Jude's birth story! It is long and detailed, just like Aubrey's, but I want to remember everything. If you get all the way through it, you deserve a prize! :)

My due date was July 22nd, and I went to the doctor for my 39 week checkup on Thursday, July 15th, the day before Jude was born. I found out that I was 2-3cm dilated, and I scheduled an induction for that coming Monday. I really wanted to go into labor on my own though, so I decided to go on a walk that night to see if that might help speed things along. Incidentally, I also went on a walk the night before I went into labor with Aubrey, so I'm kind of starting to believe in it :) Anyway, nothing exciting happened that night, and, thankfully, we were able to get a good nights sleep (our last one for a while!).

I woke up around 5:00 on Friday morning with some slight cramping. I kind of started to get my hopes up, because that's exactly how my labor started with Aubrey. I laid there for a while feeling the cramping and wondering if this could possibly be very early labor. I ended up falling back asleep until Aubrey woke up around 7:30, and I didn't really feel the cramping when I got up, so I figured it was just a false alarm. I told David as he was leaving for work that I had felt cramps, but they were gone now. I remember saying that hopefully things were happening and Jude would come before Monday, but I didn't think it would be that day.

Aubrey and I then went on to have a very normal morning at home. We were actually going to have David's parents' over for dinner that night, and I wanted the house clean when we got home from the hospital, so I spent the morning dusting and cleaning the house. I was having lots of what I thought were Braxton Hicks contractions, but I had been having those for weeks and thought nothing of them. I did notice some more mild cramping, but I pushed it to the back of my mind and told myself that if it was really labor, the cramps would turn into contractions and I would know it. Aubrey and I ate lunch at around 11:30, and then I decided to give her a bath. While she was in the bathtub, I all of a sudden had a contraction that got my attention. It was pretty uncomfortable. That surprised me because, with Aubrey, my contractions took forever to actually get painful. The initial contractions weren't painful at all with her. I again had to push the contraction to the back of my mind because I was taking care of Aubrey. Over the next little while though, I had several more pretty painful contractions. I called David around 12:15 just to give him a heads up that something might possibly be happening. Maybe. Haha! He said for me to time the contractions for 30 minutes and call him back. I timed my first contraction at 12:28 and they were anywhere from 4-8 minutes apart. I was a little surprised that they were already that close together, but I still wasn't convinced this was real labor -- I'm crazy, apparently. I was having to act normal through all of this because Aubrey was still up. Thank the Lord, I was able to put her down for her nap a little early and she took a good long nap. I would not have wanted her to see me in the kind of pain I was in later.

I called David back at around 1:00 and told him that I thought he should come on home. The contractions were pretty painful and fairly close together. He said he would wrap things up at work and head home in about 30 minutes. That was fine with me because I hadn't even had a shower yet. I took a shower and tried to get myself ready. The contractions got INTENSE very quickly. I honestly went from thinking I might be in early labor to literally laying in the floor in extreme pain in about an hour. David got home a little after 2:00, and I think he was surprised at the state in which he found me when he walked into our room. Like I said, I was laying in the floor -- I never was in that much pain when I was in labor with Aubrey. The plan was for him to come home, time contractions for a while, and then call the hospital when we thought they were close enough together. We timed 4 contractions, and I couldn't take it anymore. They were 4 minutes apart. I didn't care if they were 10 minutes apart at that point; I was going to the hospital to get the epidural, darn it! ;)

The funny thing during all of this was that I was trying to get ready between contractions. I would put my eyeshadow on, have a contraction, and then put my mascara on. Ha! Still myself even in intense labor! David was running around frantically trying to get everything we needed in the car. Get this -- I had him iron a shirt for me during all of this. No, I'm not kidding. I had already ironed the shirt I wanted to wear home from the hospital, and it was laying on the bed waiting to go in my overnight bag. During my contractions, I would grab it and throw it and squeeze it. It got wrinkled, and I wanted it ironed. David thought I was insane for worrying about my shirt at a time like that, but he ironed it anyway! :)

The worst part about the contractions was that they got to a point where I didn't feel like I was getting any relief between them. At first, they were painful, but I was perfectly fine between contractions. But eventually, I couldn't even tell when one ended and the next one started. It was pretty much just constant pain. I was squeezing David's hand and trying not to just scream. I kept telling David I was sorry I was being such a baby, and I so wanted to be more tough. Of course he assured me I was doing great, but I was just so worried I was going to get to the hospital and be 4cm dilated and it would seem like I was just being dramatic. We ended up having to call the hospital twice because they weren't calling back fast enough. I was starting to get frantic because the contractions were SO painful. This had all happened so fast that our families didn't even really know anything was going on. Thankfully, when we called to let them know I was in labor, my dad was able to come over and stay at our house with Aubrey, who was still sleeping. We finally headed to the hospital at around 3:00.

The ride to the hospital was ROUGH! Riding in the car was so painful. I finally understand the whole, "Speed up! Slow down!" thing that people are always laughing about. When we finally got to the hospital, I had to sit down for a minute in the lobby because it just hurt so bad to walk. I couldn't believe how much pain I was in so quickly. I thought I was in for a LONG day. I was doubled over at the nurses station when we checked in. The nurses were looking at me sympathetically probably hoping they weren't going to be assigned to such a drama queen. Haha. When we got in our room, I was told to put on a robe. When I came out of the bathroom, my nurse said she was going to put me on the monitors and then check me. But then I said the magic word: pressure. I told her I just felt so much pressure down low that I could hardly stand it. She immediately changed tactics and said she would just check me first. Imagine my absolute shock when she said, "You're 9cm dilated and your bag of water is bulging." I. freaked. out. I just panicked because I thought that meant no epidural. The nurse pushed a button, and said, "She's at 9!" and my room was suddenly flooded with people. One person was setting things up for delivery, someone was putting an IV in my hand, someone else was shoving papers in my face to sign. I was having intense contractions through all of this, and I kept saying over and over, "I want an epidural. I can't do this without an epidural!!" And they would respond by saying, "Honey, you've already done it." But I insisted that what I couldn't do without an epidural was push a baby out. I have had a life long terror of feeling a baby come out. I could have dealt with the contractions, as awful as they were, but I just did NOT want to feel that baby come out.

The next thing I knew though, I was pushing. Not on purpose... it's like my body just took over and there was absolutely no way I could have not pushed. It's really an amazing feeling. The nurse checked me again and said I just had a little cervix left on my left side, but if I wanted to push I would go to fully dilated and could probably have the baby soon. I did NOT want that though. I wanted an epidural! Ha! So, in came the anesthesiologist. I think he thought I was a little crazy for wanting an epidural so late in the game. He was very sweet though. He explained to me that he could not promise that the epidural would really be totally effective at that point. That was a risk I was willing to take though! I could not even sit up to get the epidural. They said if I were to sit up, I would probably go to fully dilated and have the baby before the epidural could do anything. I had about 3 MAJOR contractions while I was laying on my side getting the epidural. Let me tell you, laying still and not totally loosing it during those contractions was one of the hardest things I've ever done. They. were. awful. David was out in the hall during this time, and that's also when our families arrived. I didn't see anyone besides David and my mom until after Jude was born though. It just all happened so fast!Anyway, after a few minutes, I could feel the epidural kicking in. The contraction pain was going away. It was heavenly! I felt like I could catch my breath for the first time in hours! Jude's heart rate did drop a couple of times, but it was nothing major. The nurse said sometimes that happens right before delivery. They gave me oxygen and helped me find a position that he liked. I pretty much just laid still and enjoyed the respite from the pain for the next little while.I had tested positive for Group B Strep during my pregnancy. No big deal -- I just needed antibiotics during labor. Well, getting to the hospital at 9cm doesn't leave much time for that. The epidural was able to slow down the process enough for me to get some of the antibiotics, but I still wasn't able to get all of them. Not too long after I got the epidural, the doctor came to break my water and check me. She broke my water. No big deal. She checked me. No big deal, except I could feel it. I freaked out because I didn't think I should be able to feel that with the epidural. I was thinking that if I could feel her check me, I was definitely going to feel a baby come out. That was the one thing I did NOT want to feel. Ever. They said we would wait a little while to see if I would get more numb.

Finally, we had waited long enough. It was time to push. The nurse said to give a little push to see how I did and what I felt. It was agony. Jude's head was right there, and the epidural was not helping AT ALL. I never actually screamed during the whole pushing process, but I was definitely letting everyone know I was in some major pain. I kept asking the doctor if I could have some kind of shot to numb me. Haha! That cracks me up now. I must have asked 10 times for a shot. They probably thought I was crazy. Unfortunately, I did not get a shot. I would push, it would hurt like heck, I would quit pushing. They kept telling me to push through the pain and it would be over. I would say, "I don't want to push!" Finally I just grit my teeth and pushed like crazy. And out came Jude's head! I pushed one more time, and he was born at 5:23 PM. The pain was gone immediately when he was born, and it was SUCH a sense of relief. The whole pushing process seemed to take forever because it was so awful, but really it was probably only 10 minutes. You can definitely push effectively when you can feel everything!I managed to only get a couple of first degree tears which was much better than what I had when Aubrey was born. The recovery was just fine, except for the whole blood pressure scare. Jude had to stay in the hospital for 48 full hours to be observed since I wasn't able to get all the antibiotics for the GBS. Thankfully, he was totally fine and healthy and we all got to leave the hospital together.I was really just in shock over how fast everything went. I was so worried about being a baby and making such a big deal out of the pain. I was worried I would be 4cm when I got to the hospital and look like the biggest wimp. Little did I know, I was actually in transition! In hindsight, I wish I had just not gotten the epidural and started pushing as soon as I got to the hospital. The nurse said I would have dilated fully if I pushed and I think Jude would have just been born a lot sooner and I still would have felt the same amount of pain. The doctor said the reason I could feel Jude coming out was because his head and my bag of water was putting so much pressure on those nerves that the medicine couldn't really do anything. Immediately after Jude was born and the pressure was gone, my legs went totally numb. I literally could not move them for hours. I wouldn't have minded missing out on that. However, I have no regrets. My baby was born healthy, and I survived it, even though it was the most painful thing I've ever gone through. It was such an amazing experience and so different from my first labor and delivery experience (which was equally as amazing)! It is such a privileged to be able to be the mother of these children, and I thank God for giving them to me.If you made it this far, I'm impressed! Thank you for reading! :)