The rest of the story.

This is for all y'all out there that like to have all the gory labor details...

First off, long before labor started, I was walking around at 3 1/2cm dilated, so it's like I was a ticking time bomb.  After some on-again, off-again false labor on Monday (the 6th), I woke up in the wee hours (about 3:00-ish) of Tuesday morning (the 7th) with contractions.  They were definitely painful, but still manageable.

Spencer woke up soon after to head to his last day of his paper route and I had him set me up with a clock for contraction timing before he left.  I was a little less then enthusiastic with being left alone, but I knew things would probably take a while and he'd be back in time to take me to the hospital.  Lucky for me, however, there was some confusion at the paper place and they ended up not needing him after all, so he came home and ended up only being gone for about a half an hour after all (thank heavens for that!).

So, for the next few hours, I just labored, timed, and attempted to rest and relax when possible.  By the time 6:00am rolled around, I knew there was no way that things would putter out (remember the previous false labor?).  It was about this time that (dun, dun, dun [cue scary music]) the nausea and throwing up started.  Yes, (non-medicated) contracting while vomiting really is as horrible as it sounds.  I was already exhausted, sore, and dealing with intense contractions, so throwing sickness into the mix just about undid me.  Let's just say it was miserable and leave it at that.

Anyway, I called my mom at about 6:30am telling her she should head up to Kansas City (from Oklahoma) as soon as possible since we were down to about 6-minute contractions at that point in time.  7:00am brought a call to the babysitter (thank you, thank you, thank you, Jennae!) who got to the house at about 7:30 and we headed to the hospital.

Don't I look just miserable?

When they checked me at around 8:00am after arriving at the hospital, I was dilated to about 6cm.  They also gave me some zofran to help with the nausea then too.  I'll be honest, I was pretty disappointed I was only at a 6.  After nearly 5 hours of intense labor (with loads and loads of serious contractions in the days preceding) and having experienced checking into the hospital at 10cm when in labor with Scarlett, I was definitely hoping to be a little farther along.  Not to mention with the vomiting and everything, I was wearing down quicker then anticipated.  With going natural with Scarlett, I loved how in-control I felt the entire time.  Contractions sucked but I handled them.  With Oak...let's just say there was an edge of desperation during labor that wasn't there with Scarlett's.

At about 9:00am, the zofran kicked in and the throwing up abated, although I was still nauseous.  It wasn't long after that that I noticed I was beginning to feel kind of pushy.  At first I dismissed it since I had been checked at 6cm so recently, but it wasn't long before I insisted a nurse come check things out.  Sure enough, I had dilated to 10cm in an hour.  Things progressed pretty quickly after that with my midwife hurrying over from her office (it's connected to the hospital) and the nurses getting the baby supplies in the room.  Once I got the green light to push, it was all over in a flash.  I gave a push and a half during a single contraction and we had a baby at 9:26am with nary a tear or skid mark in sight.  Oak came out all squirmy and alert with apgar scores of 9 and 9.  Overall, it was a very intense, but short-lived and successful natural labor.  Pushing was not my fave (it never is) but who can complain about a push and a half?  Most importantly, Oak Gideon entered the world as a healthy heaven-sent little boy and we're so blessed because of it.

And that, my friends, is the rest of the story.