The Story

This is how it all went down.

Wednesday I had a doctor’s appointment where I was told I had effaced 80%, but STILL had not dilated, the baby was pretty high up, AND "if the doctor had to predict..." (because I forced him to make a prediction) "he'd say that the baby was going to be in there well into next week at least." DANG. I just wanted my baby to come. I was so ancy to meet him.

Thursday
Thursday night Brian left for Dallas because he was working at a Black & Decker event all day Friday. That night I went to bed around 11pm and couldn't sleep so I got up and cleaned my bathroom. After that I fell asleep fairly quickly, but I had contractions throughout the night. They were very different from the braxton hicks I had been feeling for weeks. These contractions were more painful, period like cramping. Different, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

Friday
I woke up and went about my day as I had planned - finished cleaning my bathroom, walked 3 miles on the treadmill, painted my toenails, went to target to make a return and some purchases. I had the contractions all day long and knew they were different, but still didn't think they were "labor contractions". But they were getting worse.

Around 2pm I decided to call Brian (remember he is in Dallas) because I was just a little concerned with the contractions possibly leading to labor. His event should have been over around then and I just wanted to make sure he came straight home. I told him I didn't think it was labor, but just in case, he better not do anything to slow his drive home. Dallas is right around three hours away ... but he was in bumper to bumper traffic that made the drive take an extra 45 minutes. The contractions were painful- that's for sure- but I still wasn't sure that they were the contractions that cause people to say "oh, you'll know when you are in labor."

So after I called him I went to Target to walk around to keep the contractions going and get my shopping done. Again, contractions were painful, stopped me in my steps, made me breath, but I still didn't think it was labor. I got home from the store and decided to call my doctor because it was a Friday and I was nervous about going into the weekend unsure of my situation. They said to just continue timing and if they seemed to get more regular and five minutes apart OR if I saw bleeding OR if my water broke (obviously) then I needed to go to the hospital.

B got home about 6:30pm. I was laying down on the couch, breathing through contractions that were coming 6 and 10 minutes apart. About 20 minutes after B came home I went to use the bathroom and saw blood (sorry TMI!). I yelled out to Brian - "AHHH! We're going to the hospital!" Brian jumped 5 feet out of his chair and just started FRANTICALLY packing clothes, toiletries, etc. I just kept laughing at him - I was surprisingly calm.

We arrived at the hospital around 7:30pm, checked in (nurses predicted I’d be told to come back because I wasn’t ready yet), and they examined me. I had dilated to a 2 so they said they would watch me for the next couple hours and if I progressed at all they would keep me. They were still thinking I'd probably have to leave and let my body continue to progress at home.

Contractions were painful, I was miserable, but still didn't feel like screaming or yelling through them. However, I did text my mom and say "I can't do this. I can't do this." So in the moment I guess they were pretty horrible. Well at 10:30pm the nurse checked again and said I had dilated to a 3 ... THEY WOULD KEEP ME and I'd have the baby sometime the next day. B and I were SO excited and really shocked. I asked if I could shower ... I desperately felt like washing my make up off and relaxing my body. So I showered and then they got me all connected to the IV and monitors.

Saturday

Around midnight the anesthesiologist came in and was about to shoot me up, but got a call that a baby was in distress ... he didn’t come back for over an hour. It was a PAINFUL hour, but the epidural came around 1am and I lost feeling COMPLETELY in the lower half of my body. They broke my water, gave me pitocin, and checked me every couple hours. I continued to dilate to a 3, 4, 5 each time they checked! I slept on and off from about 2-5am -- God bless you epidural!

Around 6am my nurse checked me, said I was a 9.5, totally effaced, and predicted I'd be ready to push at 7am. 7am the nurse prepped me for delivery.. They woke Brian up and told us how the delivery process would go. I still could NOT feel ANYTHING! I couldn't lift my legs in the slightest, wiggle my toes, NOTHING. So they had me start pushing - I asked the nurse if I was actually pushing because I was trying to, but couldn't feel it. The nurse said I was doing great .. and after three pushes yelled for me to stop because the head was almost coming out! They promptly called the doctor who came in and prepped. Then he left and instructed the nurse to call him when I was ready to deliver. So, the nurse had me push. Again, I pushed TWICE, she yelled for me to stop, called the doctor and said "You gotta get here. This baby is coming out fast!" I started to sob at this point, knowing I was just minutes away from meeting my son. The doctor returned and I pushed THREE times and my sweet Beckham was here.

Brian and I wept, overwhelmed by how much we loved this little boy. He was perfect and beautiful and I felt so close to Heaven when they put him in my arms for that first time. The NICU nurses whisked him away from me abruptly because he had meconium in his system ... it was a scary moment. But they assured me that he was fine and that they just needed to clean him up and check him out.

He WAS fine and they brought him back to me. Wow, what a phenomenal feeling to hold him and know he was mine. What a special thing. I am so lucky to have been blessed with this little man.

We just adore Beckham!