Team Koford: Russell David

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Russell David

We were pretty convinced that this little guy was going to keep us waiting long after his due date. I had been having no contractions at all. That all changed at 5:30 am on Monday the 6th. I woke up feeling some cramps. They were happening pretty consistently all day long, but not painful and not close enough together to head to the hospital. (They were coming enough for my mom to come down from Roy to stay with us and wait for the baby.) I was really hoping that this wasn't going to last for days. At 11:30 pm those mild cramping feelings escalated to painful contractions. I started really timing them and hoping they'd get to that magic timings where I could justify going to the hospital. Six hours later they were coming about every 4 minutes and I thought I was going to die from the pain. We decided to just head to the hospital and pray they didn't just send me home.

We got there and they quickly got me hooked up so I could see my contractions as I was feeling them. It was nice to see the contraction hill start going down and knowing it was almost over. The nurse checked and I was dilated to a 3.5. They told me they would check in an hour and see if I was progressing and could stay. After an hour I had made a tiny bit of progress and they let me stay! (My nurse later told me that she was afraid I wasn't going to stay because apparently I was too calm.) The nurse asked if I wanted an epidural and if I wanted it now or wait it out for a while. I didn't even hesitate asking for it. Thank goodness I asked for it then because I had to wait over an hour before the anesthesiologist was available. I was very surprised that it didn't hurt at all, or maybe compared to the contraction I was having while he was putting it in. Oh it was heaven when it kicked in!

Then we got to just hang watching random old game shows on TV waiting for progress. Luckily once the epidural kicked in things started to speed up! Around 1:00 pm they had me start pushing. After over 30 minutes they decided that he was going to need some help. They were worried about his heart rate and the position of his cord. So with a little help from the doctor at 1:45 he finally joined the world. I may have cried a little, but what do you expect after not having slept for over 24 hours. I was officially a mom!