On Thursday, August 29th, I had my weekly appointment with the doctor who checked me and said that I was dilated at a 1. Well, that was something at least. I was pretty uncomfortable and tired of being pregnant in the summer heat, so I was anxious for the baby to come, but of course very scared at the same time. I had feared the whole labor and delivery process my entire life. Those of you who know me know that I do not do well with needles, blood, hospitals, etc. And giving birth usually involves all of those things. Well, I left the doctor's not thinking much of the "1" because, after all, my due date wasn't for another 11 days. My doctor informed me that she might be going away for the weekend to visit her husband who was fighting fires up in Northern Idaho. I asked her to please not go in case I had the baby. I didn't want to risk her being gone and somebody else (like a male doctor) deliver the baby. She said she would think about it . . .
Friday at 2 am is when the contractions started. They weren't bad, in fact they were less painful than the cramps I was used to dealing with every month since I was 12-years-old. The problem was that they would come and go every 15 minutes pretty consistently, so just as I was about to fall asleep they would wake me up again. From here on out there would be no sleep for the next 33-ish hours. I didn't bother waking up Tom because I knew he needed his sleep. Plus, I also knew that there was no rush. These things take time, and I didn't want to spend any more time in the hospital than I absolutely had to.
Tom woke up around 5:45 am when his alarm went off for work that day. He was surprised to find me awake and then I told him I had been having contractions since 2 am. We didn't know how long the process would take, but we were pretty sure we were going to have a baby by the end of the day! We called in to the hospital and Tom talked to a nurse to see what her opinion was about whether or not we needed to come in to the hospital yet. She told us that unless the contractions were coming about 5 minutes apart, then we didn't need to worry about coming up to the hospital. Tom called in to work and told them he wouldn't be coming in that day.
At 9 am we called my doctor and told her about the situation. We made an appointment to come in and see her later that day. Apparently, she had decided not to leave town for the weekend! Good! We took our time getting up and ready that morning and finally made it in to the doctor's office where I was anxious to find out how much more I had dilated after having contractions for the past almost 12 hours. Come to find out I was dilated to about a 2.5. I was disappointed that I had made such little progress in all that time. Dr. Spaulding loosened things up a bit (ouch) in hopes of getting things moving a little faster. And then she suggested that I go hiking. Hiking? Seriously? I don't even like hiking when I feel good, let alone while I am having contractions! I don't think so!
Tom and I decided that since we were already in Rigby, we might as well go the rest of the way to Idaho Falls and do some shopping to stock up on groceries and other things before the baby arrived. Plus, hopefully the physical exertion of walking around the stores would help move things along a little faster. That's about as close to hiking as I could bring myself. Plus, Tom decided that he wanted to stop by work and take care of a few things - he said it would take maybe 30 minutes. We ended up being there a couple hours I think. I sat in the waiting room playing Boggle on our Kindle Fire while Tom worked. The contractions were more painful now, but still not coming as close together as we would have liked. After Tom got done at work we went to Sam's Club. My mom had purchased a year-long membership for me for my birthday and I had yet to go down and get my picture taken for my membership card. I figured this was as good a day as any. You can probably guess that it's not the best picture of me, but now every time I look at it I can remember that I was in labor while it was taken. :) After Sam's Club we went to WinCo. We walked around the stores, pausing every 8 or so minutes while I hunched over the shopping cart in pain. Tom faithfully stood by my side, comforted me, and timed how long each contraction lasted and how far apart they were.
After we got home, I laid on the couch trying to relax while Tom put all the groceries away and made dinner. I was tired from lack of sleep and the consistent pain. I had previously considered myself to be a person with a high pain tolerance, but this day humbled me and changed my mind. I talked to my mom on the phone who offered to let us come to her house where there was more room and air conditioning. We packed up our things (including our hospital bag) (the car seat had already been in the Mazda for weeks :)) and headed over. This was at about 8 pm. We weren't at my mom's house for more than a few minutes when the contractions started getting closer together. Tom called Dr. Spaulding (who was kind enough to give us her cell number) and told her that the contractions were coming about 5 minutes apart. She told us to get up to the hospital! So we headed up there and checked in around 9 pm. They put me in a hospital gown and hooked me up to a machine to monitor the contractions. The nurse asked me all these questions, and I couldn't even think straight enough to answer some of them correctly. At this point I was so tired of the pain, and nervous that this was all really happening. I think my body started going into shock, because I started shaking uncontrollably. Like intense shivering. The nurse checked me again and said that I was dilated to a 4. Still not very much progress. My options were to have the doctor come in and break my water to move things along, or they could send me home and wait for things to progress on their own. I didn't really like either of those options. I didn't want to continue in the pain I had been in all day long, but I was afraid of what might come next if they broke my water. I wasn't sure I wanted to do this anymore. The nurse was very sympathetic though saying something like, "Well, you are going to have this baby whether you like it or not, so what do you want to do?" Thanks a lot. I eventually consented to having the doctor come in to break my water. At this point, amidst contractions and emotional turmoil, Tom decided to take my picture. Thanks dear.
They moved me into the delivery room and prepared me for Dr. Spaulding to come in a break my water. Three nurses and four attempts later, they successfully got an IV in me. That was probably one of the worst parts of the whole experience.
The nurses assured me that as soon as my water was broke, that I could get the epidural. It was about 11:30 pm by now. I was tired of being in pain. I started saying things like "I was not made for this." and "I am never doing this again!" Leading up to this point I was more afraid of the epidural than anything else. (Remember my comment above about needles?) But at this point, I was so ready for it! The hardest part was holding still while having a contraction while they inserted the needle. After that, the numbness started to set it. It was so nice! It was hooked up like an IV drip system so there was a constant flow of anesthesia and I didn't have to worry about the epidural wearing off by the time I actually delivered the baby. There was even a button I could push to increase the release of anesthesia, but I never pushed it. I was actually so grateful that it was done this way. I could still feel pressure and tell when I was having contractions, but it wasn't painful.
My body was still shaking in shock, so the nurses brought me more blankets and then told me to try and sleep before the delivery. Dr. Spaulding announced that she was going home to rest and that she would come back in the morning when I was ready to deliver. Wait, you're just going to leave now? Is it really going to be that long until I have the baby? She explained that when in active labor, it is typical to dilate 1 cm every 2 hours. Ok, so if I was only at a 4 when she broke my water then we still have awhile.
I tried to get comfortable and get some sleep while we waited, but I could not rest. Between the constant shaking which was still not going away, the IV in my hand, the cuff around my arm taking my blood pressure every three minutes, the monitor beeping because my blood pressure was too low and the fear that I would fall asleep and the epidural would spread to my lungs and I would stop breathing and die, I could not fall asleep. My sweet nurse, Arleigh, (not the non-sympathetic nurse from earlier) told me that she would check on me in an hour or two. She said that when I was ready to deliver, it would feel like I was ready to have a bowel movement and need to push. I laid there for about 30 minutes trying desperately to get some sleep which I knew I really needed. And then the feeling came. Surely it was too soon though, so I laid in bed awhile longer. I couldn't ignore the feeling, so I woke up Tom who had just fallen asleep and told him what was happening. He went and got the nurse. I figured it was too soon to be ready but I wanted to tell her how I was feeling just in case. She checked me . . . and I was dilated to a 10! Whoa! That was fast! Let's get the doctor here ASAP! She probably just had time to get home and crawl into bed.
Arleigh decided that we should do a few practice pushes first. But I was afraid to try too hard. What if the baby came before the doctor arrived?! After a few practices, they called Dr. Spaulding (finally!) and then we waited. The nurses began prepping the room for the baby. Wow, I thought, this is really happening. The baby is coming!
Once the doctor arrived, we got to work. I didn't want to be stuck pushing for hours, so I tried really hard to get it done with as soon as possible. I don't know how long I was pushing, but it didn't seem that long. Again, the nice thing about being able to feel the pressure of the contractions was that I knew when I needed to push. When the baby's head started to crown Dr. Spaulding announced that the baby had lots of hair! This surprised me since neither Tom nor I had much hair when we were born. Since I wasn't completely numbed by the epidural, I was able to feel when our little boy come out. I'll never forget it when they immediately lifted him up and laid him on my chest. It was such an awesome experience. He had finally arrived and he was here in my arms! He was healthy. He was safe. He was mine. Kyler Thomas Muench arrived at 2:42 am Saturday morning, August 31, 2013; ten days before his due date.
Tom got to cut the cord, and then they began to measure Kyler, wash him, etc. while Dr. Spaulding sewed me up. This was also one of the worst parts of it all (again with the needles). I tried to ignore it though and kept my eyes on my baby.
Dr. Spaulding checking Kyler
Our happy little family
