Ransom Part 2: Labor is an understatement

So, before I get started Brett wants me to tell you that I was not 2cm dilated the first time I went to the hospital...I was a three. But I MIGHT HAVE WELL HAVE BEEN A TWO.

Because back home we went where I dealt with closer and closer together contractions-but this time from the "comfort" of my bathtub. Someone once told me that laboring in water was like "hardly laboring at all"...and honestly, I don't know what they're talking about. I mean, maybe it was TINY bit better in the water...but saying that it was a relaxing bath would be leading all my dear readers astray.

At around 3am I was pretty well discouraged again. Because if you're keep track ( WHICH I SURE WAS), I had now been in labor for twenty four hours. TWENTY FOUR HOURS OF NO SLEEPING FOR ABIGAIL.

I told Brett I wanted an Epidural. And I wanted it now.

Brett being the calm and loving husband that he was, took me back to the hospital so that I could at least be admitted.

And that's when the wonderful midwives entered the picture. They were so calm, they were so supportive and they seriously were a godsend to Brett and I both over the next 12 hours. We started off with Colonel Franklin who Brett said had a calming affect almost immediately. She was with us until the morning shift started, when Captain Nuter took over. ( incidentally Captin Nuter also delivered the babies of my three other friends who've had babies in the past 4 months. She has literally been the Navigator Baby Midwife extreme! haha!!)- Anyway, at around 7am Colonel Franklin suggested that I try some narcotics to help me relax and hopefully get some sleep ( I ended up getting about an hour of sleep) This I was all for, however, it is the decision that I made that I am least happy with now. While it did keep me from getting an epidural at least for a while, the drugs made me drowsy and out of it, and also slowed down my contractions so much that I then had to be put on pitocin. Basically my labor went from being natural to being drug driven.
But, anyway, that's where we were when the morning shift took over and Captin Nuter entered the scene. Colonel Franklin had also taken care of Brett, allowing him to get about an hour of sleep and a break to go grab some breakfast. And so we started the morning still laboring on...
At 10:30 the midwife broke my water and BOY HOWDY things got more intense. I spent the next hour and a half in the shower and on the birth ball. I was at 8 cm when I started and the HOPE was that by the end of it I would be ready to push.

And so, at noon she checked me again to see how I'd progressed and the answer was: none.

I was still at an 8.

And so that's when I got the epidural.

Now, on my last post Amy insinuated that I was a weeny for getting an epidural. And I'm sorry, I've got to disagree. I mean, sure, easy for me to say...but I'd gone for a Really REALLY long time without the drugs and I think, in a lot of ways, that epidural helped my body relax enough to go the rest of the way. Anyway, weeny or not...I finally got about two hours of sleep and then woke up around 2pm, fully dialated and ready to push!

YAY!

I was so SO happy that we'd finally reached this point. And was way excited to meet Ransom....

Stay tuned for the continued story of Ransom