Is this labor?!?!

     It was a Tuesday morning, and I woke up at seven to get ready for my eight twenty midwife appointment. I went to the bathroom, and noticed right away that there was a strange feeling when I wiped. I happened to take a gander, and realized that my mucous plug had come out. We had learned about the mucous plug in my labor class, and for some reason I thought that it was similar to my water breaking, (which it's not) so I went to wake Bobby up right away. I told him what had happened, and he was convinced as well that this was the early stages of labor. We decided to pack a bag on our way to our appointment, just in case they admitted me. We were super excited and the whole way to the appointment we couldn't believe that our baby was really on his way. Could it be true? Well, I decided that I was going to look up the mucous plug on our way to the appointment just to double check that it really meant what we thought it meant, and to our disappointment it was not the early stages of labor. It simply means that your body is getting ready for labor, but there could still be days (even weeks) left in the pregnancy.
     When we got to our appointment we decided that we should still let my midwife know that my mucous plug had come out, and thought she might have a little more information for us about what this meant. She seemed very un-enthused, and sort of acted as if we were crazy to think this meant I was in "labor". She informed us of everything we had read online, and that labor could still be pretty far away. (I was only a little over 38 weeks at this point.) She asked me if I wanted to have my cervix checked. I had skipped it the week before, because it was super painful the first time she checked it, and I really didn't see the point in having it checked every week. I decided that I would check it this week, because of the whole mucous plug situation, just to see where I was at. She said that I was dilated about a centimeter and a half. My body was definitely getting ready for labor, which was good, but still had a ways to go. When I got off the exam table, and started to get dressed I noticed that there was a lot of discharge which I guess is super common after having your cervix checked so I just ignored it, and we were on our way.
     As we left I could sense a little disappointment from the both of us that this was not the day that we were going to meet our baby boy. On the way home we had to make a couple stops, and being nine months pregnant I decided to stay in the car while Bobby ran in to Target and Pets Mart. We were only a few miles from home when I felt this strange feeling... it felt similar to the feeling of having my cervix checked. I wasn't sure it meant anything, and again just thought it had something to do with the exam I had just had done.       When we got home I got out of the car, and instantly felt as if I had peed myself. As I waddled the rest of the way inside I knew deep down that this was more than just leakage from a cervical exam. This was my water breaking. I instantly got in the tub knowing that contractions were probably going to start any minute. We called the on-call midwife, and she was not convinced that I was in labor. She told me that I was probably in false labor from the exam earlier, and should not go to the hospital unless I start having contractions lasting as long as a minute, being five minutes apart.
     I was feeling a lot of things at this point. I was so confused. Am I supposed to know what a contraction feels like? Is this false labor? Why doesn't anybody want to believe that I could be having this baby today? All of these questions and more ran through my head as I sat in the tub nervous, scared, and excited about what was to come, and then it happened...I felt something, this had to be a contraction. It lasted about thirty seconds and was super uncomfortable, but tolerable non the less. I had a few more of these "tolerable" contractions, and I started feeling a little better knowing that this was actual labor, and not false labor like my midwife had thought. Bobby was running around the house trying to get things in order, and preparing for us to be gone for a couple days. I sat there in the tub and just waited. There it was again... another contraction. This one was very uncomfortable, and I remember yelling for Bobby because I really wanted him with me. We decided that I should probably get out of the tub and start getting ready in case we needed to head to the hospital. I sat down on the couch in the living room, and was hit by a horrible contraction lasting longer then a minute, making my eyes well up with tears. I told Bobby that I was not interested in home labor anymore, and that we needed to get to the hospital SOON!
     At this point it was a little after eleven. My water had broke around nine forty-five, and we were both thinking that we probably had a long road ahead of us. The drive was not fun at all...for either of us! Bobby was driving extremely fast, because I was in tears having contraction after contraction with not a whole lot of time in between. As we got closer to the hospital I told Bobby to go to the Emergency drop off area, because I needed to be seen ASAP.
     Once we pulled up Bobby ran in to grab a wheelchair, and help. The man that came out to help seemed like he thought I was "overreacting" which was pretty annoying. As he wheeled me up to the maternity ward I remember him telling me to just breathe, and all I wanted to do was hyperventilate. I was brought directly to this very small room where a nurse started wrapping this thing around my waist, which was super tight, and telling me to relax. Bobby had called the on-call midwife in the car so she was at the hospital at this point, and she came in the room very casually to check my cervix. She told me that I was dilated to about three centimeters, and could still have a long road ahead of me if I wanted to go back home, and do some more "home laboring". I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was literally having about a minute between my contractions at this point, and they seemed to last FOREVER. If she thinks I am getting back in my car to go home she has got to be out of her mind! I told her that I want to be admitted, and that I want pain relief! Please, give me an epidural, because this pain is getting to be too much!
     They wheeled me to a hospital room while I am screaming in pain with my eyes closed the whole way down the hall. (Pretty sure I was scaring people, but I didn't care AT ALL.) When we got to my room I just remember the nurse telling me she needs to get an IV in me so that they can get some liquids, a whole bag of liquids that is, in me before the epidural. I couldn't believe they were making me wait! How am I going to do this? I remember yelling OWww, OWwww, OWwww, over and over again while everybody around me tried to get me to relax and breathe. How could I relax? I had no relief from pain, and each contraction was getting worse and worse. I can only imagine what I looked like to Bobby. I'm sure he was scared, but he did an amazing job of just standing beside me, and holding my hand.
     After the IV bag was completely empty, which seemed like a life time later, a man came in to give me my epidural. I had no idea how they were going to do it... I mean at this point I couldn't breathe, couldn't cry, couldn't move for that matter, how were they going to do this? They asked me to turn on my side. I wanted that epidural so bad that it took everything I had to turn on my side, and at this point I was screaming, crying, and...yup, there it is...puking in my mouth. Ugh! He finally got the epidural in, and it happened. I started to feel relief. NOT complete relief, but relief. I still had a horrible amount of pressure in my vaginal region, and knew that this baby was making his debut soon! The midwife was finally able to check my cervix again, and said that I was eight centimeters, and was very close to pushing. She left the room at this point, and I remember Bobby and I talking to the nurse about random stuff. I felt SO much better, but again not good. I still had a ton of pressure downstairs, and couldn't stop shivering/shaking with adrenaline. I let it go as long as I could, and finally I told my nurse I needed to start pushing. She brought the midwife back in the room, and we started discussing different positions I could push in.
     We started with me pulling my self up with a blanket wrapped around a pole they had attached to the bed. I pushed for about a half hour in this position, every time I felt a contraction (which was much harder to detect at this point, thank god) and decided that I wasn't making much progress so we needed to try something else. The midwife suggested that I tilt a little bit on my side and just bear down pushing my chin to my chest every time I pushed. Well, this position seemed to be working much better and every time I pushed I could hear them telling me that they could see the head, and that I was making progress. (At some point I remember Bobby telling me that he could see the head, and that our little man had hair. I was happy to hear this, because I really thought he was going to come out completely bald.) As I pushed and pushed I started feeling relief with every one. I would push three times with every contraction as hard as I could. My midwife was very encouraging, and would tell me to keep pushing if I had it in me. Oh, it was in me alright. I wanted our little man out! I continued to push, and finally I felt it...complete relief! She grabbed his head, and made sure that he wasn't getting sucked back in this time. As soon as he was out they put him on my chest. I could hear Bobby crying, and as much as I wanted to cry I just remember feeling... good. I was shaking from all the adrenaline, and emotions weren't really hitting me like I thought they would. It took me a couple minutes before I could really take it all in. Davis was here, and he was okay. He was breathing, he was crying, and he was adorable. I just remember looking him up and down. Did he have five fingers on each hand? Did he have five toes? Was he a normal baby? I'm sure some people would take offense to this, but these are the thoughts that were running through my mind. When your pregnant all you can think about, and dream of is having a normal, healthy baby. It doesn't matter if it's a boy or girl, but just that it's healthy. Well, as I laid there with him on my chest I just remember feeling relieved. Relieved that it was over, and relieved that in every way that I could see I had a normal healthy baby. :)

      Davis Robert Gotch was born at 3:17 p.m. on March 29th, 2016. He weighed 8 lbs. and was 21 inches long. They let him lay on my chest for about an hour. He was covered in vernix, which is similar to a white lotion. As I held him the midwife started to push on my abdomen to get the placenta out. This was pretty uncomfortable, but compared to what I just went through a piece of cake. She finally told me to push one more time, and the placenta was out. I don't remember feeling a whole lot of relief when it came out like some people said I would, but just knowing everything was out felt amazing. It took her about a half hour to stitch me up, and I remember hoping that everything was alright. I would get a look at her face every once and awhile, and she seemed a little nervous about the amount of blood and where it was coming from. I tried not to think about it, which ended up being the right thing to do, because everything was fine. She told me I had a second degree tear down there so I needed to be extra careful cleaning the area.
     As I lay there with Davis, (and Bobby) I realize that Mom and Kim are in the waiting room. I want them to be able to come in, but the nurses wanted me to try nursing since I was interested in breast feeding so we got on that right away. It was hard to get too involved in feeding, because I knew that more family was on their way and I just wanted to show off my perfect angel. As soon as they were able Kim and my Mom came in the room. Very shortly after Bobby's Mom, Dad, and brother showed up. The rest of my family wasn't far behind, and everybody wanted a picture with Davis. Bobby and I included! Here is the very first picture of our new family. 

       Welcome to the world Davis! We couldn't be happier that you are here!