On Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010, I started having some harder and more regular contractions off and on all day. They would be regular (like, 2 minutes apart for about 50 seconds each) for about an hour, and then they would stop for a little while. So, we went to church, had Easter lunch with my family, went to my mom's house and spent some time with my parents and my siblings and our new nephew, and then came home and went for a walk. We had a late lunch, so around 8pm we made some spicy cheese dip for a snack and then went to bed.
Around 1am on Monday, April 5, 2010, I woke up having the strongest contractions I had felt yet! I started timing them and realized they were very regular. So, I got up and walked around the house to see if they would go away - they didn't. At 2am, my husband woke up to go to the bathroom. He said, "Are you okay?" and I told him what had been going on. We got out the laptop and loaded up Contractionmaster.com and started accurately timing them. They were coming every 2 minutes and lasting for as much as 1 minute and 10 seconds. After a few of those I said, "Let's go to the hospital!" So, off we went!
We got to the hospital at 3am. They hooked me up to the monitors and said that I was 2cm dilated. After 1 and a half hours, the nurse came back in and checked me again. As she was checking me she said, "Well, it looks like you haven't dilated any more. You're still at a 2..." and proceeded to tell us to go home... just then my water broke! She said, "Ok, well I think your water just broke, so I'll go get you a room and get you admitted!" I was ecstatic! I did NOT want to go home just to go through all that again when the "real" time came! So, we all started laughing and got VERY excited! My mom was already there, so she made some calls for my dad to come with my younger siblings around 6am (it was about 4:30am at this point), Jeff called his parents, and we got a room!
Almost immediately my contractions came to a screeching halt! They became irregular and practically non-existent. I was so disappointed... but glad that my water had broke, so I KNEW we would be having a baby in the next day or 2!
When they checked me for dilation again, I was only at a little over 3cm! Ugh... so, the nurse started talking about Pitocin. I was very leery of this and told her my fears of the contractions coming too strong too fast! So, she sent my doctor in (my actual OBGYN was the one on call that day so I was very happy about that!) So my doctor came in and started discussing the pros and cons of Pitocin. I decided to get the Pitocin, but to only start at a 2 and if nothing happened, to only go up by 2 every hour (they wanted 30 minutes, but I said no!) So, they started the Pitocin at a 2 and almost immediately the contractions started coming back! They were regular for a while, but eventually started spreading apart. So, they raised it to a 4. That really picked things up and they came every 2 minutes and started getting longer and longer. They gave me some pain meds that did NOTHING for the pain. After a while I asked for an epidural. The nurse checked me first and I had already progressed to 6cm!
The anesthesiologist came in and did the epidural - however, it only took on my right side! My left leg became a little numb, but I still had complete control over it and I could feel every contraction on my left side! The nurse called the anesthesiologist back in for a little more of the epidural and he had my lay on my left side to see if it would go that way... no such luck! So, I decided I could live with the pain and dealt with it as it came... about an hour and a half later, the nurse came back and said that Aiden's heart rate started to decelerate a little (but nothing alarming) so she wanted to check me for dilation again because this could be a sign that I was ready to push. Lo and behold, I was 10cm dilated and she could see Aiden's head!!! (we were all shocked, because the doctor said to expect 1cm dilation per hour after 6cm). So, she called my doctor in and while the doctor was changing she had me start pushing! I gave about 3 pushes and she told me to stop because Aiden was about to come out! (She said I was pushing like I had already had 5 kids!) :)
So, the doctor came in and I gave 4 sets of 3 pushes, and out came my baby boy's little head!!! They suctioned him and did their thing, and with one more push we had our little boy!
Aiden Michael Freeman was born at 4:59pm on Monday, April 5, 2010 weighing 7lbs 8oz. and measuring 21 inches long! He has a full head of beautiful brown curly hair and a beautiful olive skin tone. He looks identical to Jeff, but he has my mouth. We are both so head over heels in love with our son... he was so worth every bit of heartache and waiting that we have endured over the last 2 years!
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