I have been wanting to do this post for awhile now. This was, hands down, the best day of my life. There is truly nothing like bringing a new life into the world. As Max's 2nd birthday approaches I find myself thinking back to this day. And sadly some the little details are starting to get hazy. I'm doing this, mostly, for myself. I want to remember every little thing and be able to look back and reread this over and over and share it with Max when he is older. And I actually love reading birth stories. So here we go...
My due date was October 29th. A Saturday. I was so thrilled to have a halloween baby. However, that day came and went with no sign of impending labor. I was HUGE and everything hurt. The photo below was me (with Jesse and my parents. Terrible picture, I know) the day before my due date. We drove down to my dads station to spend part of his last shift with him before retirement.
The morning of Halloween I woke up around 5am, when Jesse got up for work, and felt cramps. And I knew right away that these were different from the Braxton Hicks I had been experiencing. But they weren't really painful, just slightly annoying. I wasn't sure if this was actual labor but I knew it was something. I had a regular check in with my doctor that morning at 10:15 and while laying on the table she told me I was having a contraction! Whoa! Maybe I would just barely have a halloween baby! When she checked me I was only 1cm dilated though. Whomp whomp. She told me to go home and stay on my feet as much as possible and to time my contractions. When they got to five minutes apart I was supposed to call back.
So that's exactly what I did. I kept my cell phone, opened to the stop watch, in my back pocket and started cleaning and doing laundry. And did not sit down. Throughout the day my contractions where 5-8 minutes apart and lasting anywhere between 30 seconds to a minute and half. They started to get slightly more painful but I could still function. Around 6pm they were still completely irregular, so Jesse and I went to dinner with my parents. And around 8pm we sat down on the couch to catch up on The Walking Dead and 1 other show that was on the DVR. I started timing the contractions again and from 8-10pm they were consistently 5 minutes apart and lasting at least 1 minute. Now this was supposed to be my que to call the doctor. But I didn't because I wasn't in terrible pain. I guess I was expecting to be hunched over in the labor relief positions or using the labor ball like you see and learn about in the birthing class. But I wasn't. So I decided I would just go to bed, get some sleep and see how I felt in the morning.
Well silly me, sleep never happened. I tossed and turned (which was not easy to do) for about an hour and half while the pain of contractions just got worse. Almost to the point of unbearable. So I called the doctor and she told me to head to the hospital! I don't know why I was surprised when she said it. But I was. Scared, happy, nervous and surprised. So I woke Jesse up and we got in the car only to realize we were completely on empty. I planned to fill up after my appointment but totally forgot due to being told I was in labor in all. Needless to say, the 30 minute ride to the hospital, including a stop for gas, was awful!
Now this is where it really starts to get hazy. It was about 1am when we got there and checked in at the ER. I was wheeled up to my room, I changed into the gown and got in bed and then had to endure the millions of questions you get asked. I remember the nurse kept saying "If you stay..." and all I could think of was what do you mean IF!! I wasn't leaving without a baby. I think I was only 4cm dialated at this point which was such a disappointment considering I had been in labor for about 20 hours already. I tried walking the halls but simply couldn't stand the pain anymore. So I got the epidural sometime around dawn I think. People kept telling me I should get some rest at this point but I was ready to party. I felt so much better. It was amazing looking at the monitor and seeing my contractions go up, up, up and off the chart and start to come back down only to go back up before hitting the bottom...and I couldn't feel it! Until about two hours later :( I noticed I could feel pain in my right side. And long story short, the epidural only took on 1 side. They tried turning me in all different positions. All of which were terribly uncomfortable. So from then on the anesthesiologist had to come and re-dose me so I could get some relief.
Then I started puking. The nasty, burning, smelly yellow kind. I think I puked 6 or 7 times throughout the day. The silver lining though...I seemed to dilate another cm every time I did. I was told when they broke my water that Max had passed his meconium inside. I knew that meant that they would have to take him immediately to the warmer to suction him. I had been dreaming of the moment he came out and being placed on my chest. And now that was out the window. Later, I was told that he had flipped "sunny side up". Basically he would be coming out facing the ceiling instead of the floor. It was just one thing after another it seemed.
I think it was around 9-9:30pm when I was finally fully dilated and was told I could start pushing. I got a second (small) wind of energy and thought to myself "I'm gonna push as hard as I possibly can and then a little harder and get him out"! Well silly me again. Because he had flipped over it made for excruciating pain in my back. My energy was just completely sucked out of me. I started crying at one point. I pushed for an hour and half. We even did the "tug of war" at one point, where a nurse holds one end of a sheet and I the other and she helps me lift off the bed to push. But it was no use. I knew it wasn't going to happen. And then the doctor finally said the "C" word. And I was honestly relieved. I just wanted to be done and have my baby in my arms. So Jesse suited up...
And I was numbed up and rolled to the operating room. I felt both incisions. It didn't hurt, just felt like a scratch. Then the anesthesiologist told me "You're going to feel pressure as they push down to get the baby's head to come up". And I felt it...and I felt it as he was pulled out of me. And then I heard the sweetest sound. It was 11:31pm on November 1st. All the Lee's in that room were crying. It was the strangest feeling knowing that he was outside of my body and in the same room as me. I could hear him but couldn't see him. The anesthesiologist (who, by the way, was the nicest guy ever. He spent a lot of time talking to me as I lay there) told me if I looked over my right shoulder I might be able to see him where the nurses where working on him. So I did. The first thing I saw were his legs. And then finally a nurse stepped aside and I saw his face. He was looking in my direction. I kept thinking "this is my son. there is my baby. that is my Max". He was swaddled up and brought to me and I kissed his sweet face and cried. Jesse held him and we took our first family photo.
And then he was gone. Jesse went with him to the nursery. He was absolutely perfect. Weighing in at 9lbs 3.3oz and 21 inches long.
During my pregnancy I developed a cyst on my left ovary that continually got bigger. So after Max was delivered I laid there for another 2 hours while it was removed. It was 14cm. The doctor compared it to the size of a uterus. While pregnant I was told my chances of having the cyst removed and keeping my ovary were slim to none. But my amazing doctor was able to dissect and remove that thing while keeping my ovary in tact. I'm so very grateful to her.
Finally around 1:30am on November 2nd I was able to hold my baby. And my life has been forever changed. In the best way possible.
