Laboring on Labor Day Weekend

Saturday August 30th, I go into work at the Rec Center in Spring Hill at about 7:30am. I take my usual Saturday morning yoga class as my lunch break at about 9:45. I spend the rest of the day working and head to Sara and Sean's for a cookout afterward. Around 9:00pm things are winding down and my back is hurting and I'm not feeling all that hot, but I chalk it up to being 38 weeks pregnant, having worked all day, and eaten too much. I put the seat back and tried to sleep on the way home, still thinking it's just been a long day. As always, I go to bed trying to get comfortable, and, as always, I can't. At 3 am I wake up and I am VERY uncomfortable. (I'm still thinking it's just how much I ate at Sara's and that I'm so big). Around 6am I'm up walking the floor because I just can't lay in the bed anymore. Chris is up by this point too. We walked around the block a few times while timing my now obvious contractions. They become about 5 mins apart so I take a shower and we head to the hospital. By this time they are about 2 mins apart and I'm uncomfortable, but it's not too bad. They are all back contractions so I just feel like I've been on my feet all day when they hit.

Me at Sara and Sean's that night:



We get to the hospital just before noon(after stopping by Sonic cause I knew they wouldn't let me eat once I was admitted) and they send me to the ob floor but DO NOT ADMIT me. I was only dilated to 3 and they didn't admit patients until they were at least 4. The doctor wanted to send me home but my contractions were already 1.5 mins apart. I'm thinking how will i know when I'm dilated to 4 at home? But my sweet labor and delivery nurse assured me SHE was not going to send me home. I was already in MY birthing suite and she would just keep checking me until I was dilated enough to be admitted, and I was VERY thankful!!

Writing thank you notes between Contractions:



My thoughtful husband taking pictures during contractions:


I progressed very slowly, only about a centimeter every 2 hours or so. So we will fast forward through the 14 hours that passed as I SLOWLY dialated fully. .... at about 5 centimeters I got an epidural so I could try to nap (i hadn't slept for almost a day and a half at that point... At about 2:15am on Sept 1st the nurse checked me and said I was only 8 centimeters, given my track record we were expecting a baby around 4am ish. However, at about 2:30 I told Chris I really felt like I needed to push. He preceded to tell me that she had just checked me and I had 2 more centimeters to go. I agreed for about 1 contraction and then I told him to go get the nurse because I couldn't stop my body from pushing any more. She came in, checked me, and said "DO NOT PUSH! I will be RIGHT back", and went running out of the room. About 15 seconds later she came running back into the room with 3 other people. She told me I could push until I felt relief and believe you me I did!! When the doctor finally showed up I had already began pushing for real. She didn't even have time to put the plastic coat on before Thomas was born!
His heart rate had dropped and had been down for about 5 mins so they had to use the forceps to get him out. I like to refer to them as people pliers!! But at 2:42am on September first there he was Thomas Christopher Meinhart 7lbs 8oz!! That's right from 8 centimeters to him on the table in about 15 mins!!
He was in a little bit of distress at first so they didn't put him on my chest. They took him over to the warmers and rubbed him all over. It was amazing to watch him turn from purply blue to pink as they rubbed. After a couple minutes they brought him over and he was SO PRECIOUS! He looked just like Chris! Our baby boy was finally here and was doing fine.

Thomas Christopher Meinhart:



First Picture with Mommy:

First picture with Daddy: