Higgy Baby, Andrew, Sparky, Dolly, Snuffy & Ronnie: Fast and Furious

*** WARNING! ***

This post is about how Laura made her grand entrance into this world. There are details...

I went in for my 38 week appointment on Friday, March 2 and was still sitting at where I was the previous week... 2 cm, 75%, -2. Based on how my labor went with Cayden the Dr thought I would be back in his office the following week and then we would discuss a possible induction. I made my 39 week appointment and left very disappointed.

Fast forward to the following Wednesday, March 7. The day started out normal except that I noticed chunky, pink tinted stuff randomly leaking out of me. After calling the Dr he said it was my mucus plug and that the baby could come anywhere from a few hours to a few days and to not get too excited. I laid down to take a nap during Cayden's nap and woke up around 3pm and had my first contraction! I was so excited, but was not looking forward to several days worth of contractions (with Cayden, I spent 4 days contacting before going to the hospital). My contractions were sporadic at best the rest of the night until I went to bed at 10pm. I woke up an hour later at 11pm with the most intense contraction ever. From then on my contractions were very intense and well over a minute, but were not consistently 3-5 minutes apart. I spent the next 3 hours in and out of sleep between contractions before finally getting in the shower at 2am hoping that it would help ease some of my lower back pain. I got out about 40 minutes later and while going to the bathroom Chad and I heard a pop followed by a huge gush of liquid. Lucky me, my water broke while I was sitting on the toilet. :)

It took us 30 minutes to leave the house after my water broke. I spent that time curled up against the wall, periodically gushing more liquid and doing my best to not scream at Chad to hurry up. Chad spent that time running around like a mad man, putting together my hospital bag and an overnight bag for Cayden; being a typical guy, he didn't know where half the stuff was and was asking me way too many questions. (For any future children we have, I am going to put together a hospital bag WEEKS in advance.) We left the house at 3:15am, dropped Cayden off at my friend Kenzi's house, and then proceeded to drive well over the speed limit (through a construction zone too!) until we got to the hospital at 3:40am. I think me may have even run a couple of red lights.

By this point it felt like I was having contraction upon contraction with no breaks between. I was soaking wet from the liquid that continued to periodically gush out of me. It literally was the worst pain I have ever felt. I thought my contractions with Cayden were bad, but these were 10x worse. We pulled up to the hospital and didn't even park the car. Chad jumped out and ran inside to grab a wheelchair. We didn't even bother with checking in. The nurses immediately wheeled me in to a labor and delivery room and checked to see how far dilated I was... 8 cm. Holy crap. No wonder I felt like my hips and lower body were going to explode. I begged them to give me an epidural if there was time.

The next 30 minutes were a whirlwind, yet seemed like an eternity. They had to get an IV in me before they could give me the epidural, but were having problems. I didn't say anything, but in my head I was thinking that if they couldn't get an IV in me then they were all going to die because I was not going to have this baby without an epidural. After several tries they finally got the IV in and called for the anesthesiologist. The guy took his sweet time (though it probably only felt that way) and I distinctly remember getting mad at a nurse who kept telling me over and over to take deeper breaths... all I wanted her to do was shut up. Chad told me after the fact that we had a funny conversation during one of my contractions:

Me: This hurts so bad.
Chad: I know it hurts.
Me: NO. YOU. DON'T. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS FEELS LIKE!
Chad: You're right dear.

Apparently all the nurses snickered a little. I guess I was a little more ornery this time around than I was with Cayden. :)

Once the epidural kicked in I was in heaven for all of about 5 minutes before the Dr came running in (he literally looked like he had ran all the way to the hospital) and told me it was time to start pushing. Three pushes and less than 10 minutes later Laura came popping out. From the time we got to the hospital to the time Laura was born was 29 minutes! The nurses and Dr all laughed and said that the next time I start having contractions I better be camped out at the hospital even if they try to send me home or else I could very easily have a baby en route to the hospital. After things settled down a little bit Chad finally went and moved our car from the front of the hospital and my epidural kicked in full force leaving me completely numb and feeling like a beached whale for several hours.

Fast and furious.

Let's hope that Laura's arrival isn't a preview of what is to come. :)

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And now, what you really wanted... pictures! (Sorry there are SO many. I even narrowed it down too.)

9 lbs, 2 oz... bigger than Cayden was!

Sweet little face.

Cayden loves his little sister SO much. He is always hugging her and giving her kisses. And he is so sweet with her! (Plus, he has only asked to send her back to the hospital a few times.) Love these two!