We have a baby! Super long delivery story

Joseph Teal Glasser was born yesterday at 6:05 pm. He weighed 7 pounds 7 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Of course I have to have another interesting delivery. I guess my boys like to make unforgettable entrances into the world.

So, yesterday my mom was supposed to leave at 4:30 to go back to Tulsa and Dave's mom was supposed to get in at 5:30. I slept great on Saturday night. I had a lot of contractions on Saturday, but they stopped right around bedtime and I slept amazingly well. I woke up around 5 something and was starving. I went downstairs and ate a pop tart and then decided that I would just sleep on the couch for a little bit. I woke up around 7 to a seriously huge contraction. I had about three contractions in a row that were 10 minutes apart. These contractions were so strong that I had to breathe through them. I went upstairs and told Dave that I was pretty sure I was going to go into labor sometime that day. When my mom got up, I told her that she may need to look at place tickets to leave on Monday instead of Sunday. I was pretty convinced I was going to go into labor, but I didn't really have any more contractions for a while. I got on the treadmill and walked for about 20 minutes. I didn't feel like sitting around the house, so we all decided to go to Home Depot to get a few things.

We left around 11:30 and I had a few contractions in the car on the way to Home Depot. As we were walking around Home Depot I started to have contractions about every 6 to 10 minutes and they were super strong. We stopped to get some food on the way home and I continued to have more contractions.

At about 12:30 we decided that we should probably start keeping better track of the timing of my contractions and they started to consistently be 5 to 6 minutes apart. They continued for a few hours at that rate and intensity was getting stronger and stronger. Around 2 pm, Dave really wanted to go to the hospital and I was still feeling like maybe this might not be labor (I was in total denial). Thank goodness Dave gets nervous and wanted to head to the hospital when we did. We packed up the car and headed to the hospital around 2:15. We got to the Assessment Room a little after 2:30 and they hooked me up to all the monitors and I started having contractions every 4 minutes. I was 4 cm when they checked me and they could feel the baby's head and my bag of waters. They wanted to keep monitoring me for an hour because they actually check us in. By 4 we were headed to the delivery room. They had to hook me up to monitors again and get my IV going. My contractions quickly went from 4 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart in less then a hour.

The contractions were so painful, I literally thought I might die they hurt so badly. I couldn't even catch my breath. Even though I wanted so badly to have this delivery drug free, I knew I would be able to last the intensity and quickness of these contractions. I decided I had to have the Epidural. We called the nurse in and I told her that I needed the Epidural and I wanted it immediately. She wanted to give me an exam just to make sure I wasn't too far for the Epidural. A resident came in and gave me another exam and I was only 6 cm, 90% effaced and the baby's head was at 0 and my bag of waters was super tight, so she thought it would break pretty soon or she was going to call my doctor to see if they should break it for me. Anyway, the anaesthesiologist came in and gave his talk about the risks of Epidurals, which I didn't give a damn about since I was continuing to have huge contractions every 2 minutes. Finally I told him just to give me Epidural and quickly. They got me up and into position for the Epidural. The first time they stuck me the doctor hit a blood vessel, so I am sure blood was squirting out everywhere and obviously it didn't work. So then they had to stick me again and finally he gave me some medicine. While he was giving me the Epidural I was having contractions about every 3 minutes (so it took him a while to get it done). I finally got some relief at 5:20.

The contractions starting coming even stronger and they were back to 2 minutes apart. Even with the Epidural I was feeling some serious pain. They told me that the medicine should kick in soon and the pain should be better. At about 5:45 we asked the nurse to come in because I needed help moving from my right to left side and I really needed to go pee. Since I had the Epidural they didn't want me to get out of bed, so I had to pee in a bed pan. At first I couldn't really go, but the nurse pressed on my belly and I peed a ton. As I was turning back on my left side we all heard a huge poop and my bag of water, literally exploded. I thought the baby had fallen out of me it was so huge. My water broke at 5:52. After I got all cleaned up the nurse told me to let her know when and if I started feeling pressure in my butt because then you know we are getting closer to pushing. I told her immediately that I was feeling pressure. She said, well if it is consistent let me know. I told her that it was consistent. But since my water just broke and my last pelvic exam was about 30 minutes before and I was only 6 cm, she said that she would come back in a few and check on me.

With in minutes, I had the most amazingly strong contractions that had me in so much pain even with the Epidural. I was pressing the GIVE ME MORE MEDICINE BUTTON like crazy and it wasn't helping. I started to feel enormous pressure and we called the nurse to come in right away, but she didn't come right away. I told Dave and I had to push now. So he ran out in the hall and said someone needed to get in now. A resident came in all casual and tried to introduce herself, while I told her that I was pushing now. She said she needed to check to see how far I was and when I turned over on my back the baby came pushing out. The resident barely had time to even get her gloves on before the baby came out. I only pushed one time and he was completely out. I found out that we had a boy right away because the resident was holding him in the air because the nurse came running in and was getting out all the scissors and birthing supplies since nothing in the room was ready to go.

So by the time my water broke and Joseph came out took only 13 minutes. A record. I went from 6 cm to baby in 13 minutes. I am still in total shock. I seriously can't imagine what terrible pain I would have been in, if I didn't have the Epidural. That was the best decision I ever made.

We are now doing great. Breastfeeding is going really well. Of course it is painful, since I am trying to get used to doing it again and Joseph is quite the eater. We come home from the hospital tomorrow. The Bris is scheduled for next Monday.

I can't believe I have another boy. It is so exciting. I can't wait for the boys to meet tomorrow.

I will try and post pictures later.