Due date: 5/19/11
Actual birth date 5/25/11
Since Zoe came 10 days early, I had been anticipating (hoping) that Benson was going to come early also. When he didn't come early, I thought, "Ok, well, he'll come within a day or two of his due date." I'm not a huge believer in due dates, and with the birth of Benson, I'm an even bigger doubter. I know they're not exact dates, but in the case of my kids, they were off by a week.
All that aside, here's the story of Benson's birth.
5/24/11
11:00 PM
Ryan and I had just finished reading together on the couch downstairs. We went upstairs to get ready for bed and my back felt sore. I'd felt similar pains in the past and thought it was the same pains. Not so. The pains kept coming back and I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep through them. I determined that they were contractions and I proceeded to call the hospital's labor and delivery department to see whether or not I should come in. I was having a hard time even just talking through my contractions and already they were pretty close together. The nurse I spoke with said to come on in. Here we go! I gave my mom "the call" and told her we'd be going to the hospital. Ryan contacted his family and let them know what was happening too. I called up my friend Alicia and asked her to come stay and "watch" Zoe (who would be asleep for the next 8 hours) and as soon as she got there, we took off.
As with Zoe's delivery story, we were on the freeway in the middle of the night and had no traffic to deal with. It took us just over 10 minutes to get to the hospital. We were there by midnight and the contractions were getting stronger and stronger. In the car I told Ryan that I already knew I'd want an epidural and I'd want it as soon as possible. We got checked in and the fun began. Questions asked, needles poked, catheters administered. What the!?! Ooooh, I hate catheters. I had to have one when I gave birth to Zoe and had a terrible and painful experience with that. Sometimes I think they do them just because. I was already in pain from the contractions and now knowing that a catheter was coming, I was not looking forward to that. Through tears and much squirming, it was finally administered. It was more painful than my contractions and I was so glad when it was over. After all these preliminaries, they finally decided to admit me. Oh, well thank goodness! I'd have been a little more than angry if they told me to go home. By then my mom had shown up. Before long they took me up to what would be my delivery room and within 15 minutes the epidural was administered. I was much more comfortable by that time.
I had an awesome nurse named Melaney. She was fun and would sit and talk with us about the most random things. She would still get her work done too. Having her there made our experience so much more enjoyable. For the next couple of hours it was a waiting game. We were waiting for the baby to move further down and waiting for my cervix to become more dilated. I was numb from the waist down and my legs felt like elephant legs. I was comfortable though and that's all that mattered. Ryan's sister and mom were on a train up to Sacramento and other family members were being made aware of Benson's imminent arrival.
Time was passing and I was trying to get some sleep. It's funny how the nurses come in, do their thing, tell you to get some rest, and then 20 minutes later another nurse comes in to check something else. And doesn't anyone write anything down? I can't tell you how many times I was asked who our pediatrician would be and where their office was. They sure don't want you to have any energy for when the baby comes. Melaney told me that when I started feeling like I had to go poo to let her know. That was the magic sign. I was doubtful that I'd be able to feel that sensation with all the numbness going on. But lo and behold, I felt it right around 10:45. She came over and said we'd be doing some practice pushing. I did one practice push and she said, "Ok, I know that you hate this, but I need you to not push until we get the other nurses and doctor in here." I'd told her earlier how much I hate that doctors and nurses tell you to stop pushing and doing what your body knows it should do. Because I liked Melaney so much, I listened to her and we waited for the other medical staff to show up. Apparently that practice push was more than enough to know that Benson would soon be out. It took about 5 minutes for everyone to get there and then we started pushing. I pushed twice and then Benson came out. It was so quick. Much quicker than I thought it would be. They immediately placed him on me and that's when the tears began. I was overwhelmed with a peaceful and happy feeling and so happy to see my beautiful baby boy. I got to hold him for awhile before he was taken to be cleaned. He was born at 10:53AM and the rest of the day was spent bonding with my new son, oh, and being interrupted by nurses to take my blood pressure and check his heart rate and do this and do that.
All in all it was a great experience although again, as with Zoe's delivery, I was so ready to be gone and to get home.
