At last blog, we were one week out from meeting Baby VerSchave! The following day (Wednesday, the 21st) began my maternity leave and I was so excited! Mike was still hoping that baby would wait until after Thanksgiving to make his/her appearance and lucky for him, baby listened. We had our typical Thanksgiving ~ family football game in the morning, eating and caroling in the afternoon/evening. I was getting pretty anxious to meet baby so I "played" in the football game. And by that I mean I waddled across the "field" once or twice, while holding my belly! Quite a sight! Black Friday came and I declared "Operation Get Baby Out" was in full force. Becky and I did our shopping {we go at decent hours, not the early birds} and I hung out at home for the rest of the day.
Then came Saturday, the 24th...
I woke up with some back pain {not too out of the ordinary} and a little cramping. I was laying on the couch when Chris called to see how I was doing. I mentioned the back pain and cramping and she flipped out saying "You're in labor!! Go to the hospital!!" Mike and I had previously discussed waiting until I was positive I would be admitted because I was determined to not be sent home! Chris had originally called to see if I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby ~ why not? I could use some more walking and I would be home bored anyway {Mike was at hockey all day}so off I went. We went looking for a ridiculously large Christmas tree for Chris's house ~ I was a little uncomfortable at times but I was used to that, being 39 weeks pregnant. And I may have been in denial that I was in the early stages of labor.
After shopping, I went home and laid on the couch. My mom came to visit and as we were chatting, she'd notice a change in my face from time to time and asked about it. I mentioned the cramps and she informed me that those were, in fact, contractions! She grabbed paper to start timing them ~ they were 10 minutes apart so we had time. When Mike called to check in, I informed him of the contractions just to give a heads up. Later in the evening, he gets home, Becky came to hang out, and I peed my pants. Literally. Thanks to Becky making me laugh super hard, I couldn't waddle to the bathroom fast enough and I peed my pants! Mike kept yelling "Don't make her laugh!! The baby will come out!!" Which in turn, made me laugh even harder! All night, I was using my phone to record contractions and they were getting closer and a bit more uncomfortable ~ I'd stop what I was doing, breathe through them, and sometimes hunch over.
At about 10 PM, I told Mike I was going to lay down and try to get some sleep. That lasted until midnight when I told Mike it was time to go to the hospital. He started racing around and I gradually gathered the last few items for our bags and we said goodbye to Wrigley before heading out. As soon as we got in the car, I started to cry, telling Mike that the next time we were home, we'd have a baby! I texted/called my parents and Becky and we drove to the hospital. I was doing alright with the contractions. Unfortunately, due to the time of day, we had to go through the emergency room door. I had told Mike I didn't want him to drop me and then park the car ~ I wanted to go with him. So we parked and walked across the street to the emergency room. I did have to stop in the middle of the street to wait out a contraction, but luckily, it was an empty side street. We get in, I tell them I'm in labor and I immediately get a wheelchair. It took a couple minutes for someone to bring us up to labor and delivery but it was no big deal ~ I was just thinking "I can't believe this is happening!"
We get up to labor and delivery and they check me ~ 2 cm dilated. They told me to walk around and they'd check on me again in an hour. So Mike and I walked the hallways, stopping for contractions, and breathing away. I went back to the room because I was d-o-n-e with walking and waited to get checked again. Whenever a nurse was in the room, I was calmly breathing through the contractions. Whenever the nurse left, I was punching the bed through the contractions. Ha! After an hour, they checked and I was 4 cm ~ time to get fully admitted! Woo Hoo!
We got to our room about 4 AM and I was asked about an epidural ~ oh yes! The anesthesiologist came in and she was not my most favorite person. She was rather slow and I was hunched over, breathing through contractions, not moving, and shivering at the same time. She was having difficulty and even asked if I had scoliosis ?!?! I was worried I wasn't going to be able to get the epidural. Luckily, another anesthesiologist came and got me hooked up super quick. They gave me the button thingy to get more if the pain was too much and Mike and I decided to try and get a little sleep. About two hours later, I woke up feeling super uncomfortable. I mentioned to the nurse and she said to hit my button ~ which I had been doing but I did it again. She commented that she didn't hear the beep and I said "It's never beeped." Yeah, that's because they didn't plug it in! So I was pressing the button over and over and it wasn't even hooked up! Grrr...I thought Mike was going to punch someone! By this time, the shifts had switched so the new anesthesiologist came and fixed it all ~ my savior!
Mike and I spent the next few hours hanging out, watching the Bears game, and trying to get little naps in. Later, my parents, Becky, Mike's mom and sister came up to visit and wait it out...they had no idea how long they'd be waiting! My doctor wasn't around so I had the on call doctor, who was very nice. He came and checked on me, and went to wait until it was time. My water hadn't broke, so he broke it to speed things up a bit. It was about 3 PM and it was time to push. The nurse was wonderful and Mike blew me away ~ he was so great, watching the monitor, holding my leg, counting, etc. I pushed and pushed and pushed...for FOUR hours! The nurse had made a comment about hoping to meet the baby before her shift ended and I thought "Of course! That's not until 7!" Well I was wrong...baby's head would make a little appearance but it was not coming through! At this time, I had yet another doctor {equally as nice as the first and I didn't care, I wanted baby out!} and the new nurse was the same one that had admitted me the night before! I was staying strong until the last half hour or so and I was just utterly exhausted ~ I shed a few tears but kept on pushing through. At about 7:15, the doctor said that this was becoming a stressful situation for me and baby so he'd give me about 15 more minutes and then we'd have to look at other options ~ to which I had a mini panic attack with fear of a C-section. He explained it would be a semi-forceps delivery {hand and forceps to help take the baby out.} At 7:35ish, he came back, everyone got situated and he talked an intern into the delivery...Lillian Maureen VerSchave was born at 7:44 PM, weighing 8 pounds even and measuring 21 inches long on Sunday, November 25, 2012.
About an hour later, we were into our new room, relaxing as a new family of three and in absolute love with our new little bundle!
