Judah Bear

I am finally here to post about sweet Judah and his birth story.
The week leading up to his birth, just might have been the longest week of my life! I was due on sunday and skipped dox and everything else planned for the day and hoped that sometime during the day I would have a real excuse for not going. I had been having uncomfortable contractions for weeks, but nothing consistent. Several nights of "this might be the night" but waking up to still being pregnant! I had three friends due after me TWO of which had already had their babies. Needless to say I was getting very inpatient and downright miserable. I had to kind of wake myself up mid week and remind myself that he actually WAS coming, that I WAS going to give birth and WOULD get to meet him. You tend to lose it a little those last weeks, and I actually felt like he was NEVER going to come! On valentines day, my third friend had her baby too! I was SOO happy and excited for her and SO very jealous! I wanted mine! Anyways blah blah longest week ever. It ended up being a blessing, Gabe got croup that week, which is something he usually gets pretty bad - half the time ending up in the emergencyroom. Not only was he sick but the pending approach of new baby was starting to set in and both kids were a bit emotional. The week allowed us to spend extra time with them, as well as get all of us healthy, rested, and ready! Fast forward to the following saturday. I had been hiding, sad that when anyone and everyone asked me if I felt anything my answer was always no! After Josh let me sleep in a bit, I got up, and posted on facebook that I was still pregnant and there would be no baby that day. (Which was true). But immediately after posting I got up to get my coffee and my water broke!! My water did not break with G or G, so I wasn't totally sure it was happening, I told Josh but no one else- afraid I would have a false alarm wetting the pants again situation...........that happened to a friend of mine. :)
After an hour or so I was convinced, my water was definitely (and continously) breaking. So we called in the troops! My mom came over, ready to head to the overpriced luxury hotel with us, and my dad came over to watch the kids......THEN I called the doctor. I forgot to mention that I was having ZERO contractions. I felt totally normal :( and was sooo sad. More waiting. So the doctor said to wait to come in till I felt something, or if nothing happened in 24 hours they would give me a c-section!! (Since I was a V-BAC, they would not induce me) Which they didn't actually do (a c-section after 24 hours) I think they just have to say that in case they need to. So we waited and waited and waited. The night before we celebrated josh's bday early- hoping again that Judah would inturrput that. So all day Josh and I or my mom and I would take a walk around the block, then eat some cake, take a walk, then eat some cake. Over and over again and still NOTHING!!! I was so sad, and after dinner I called my doctor to check in like she had asked. She told me just to come in, that I mine as well since they'd probably have to do something in the morning anyway. So we put the kids to bed, packed up and went to the hospital around 9pm. I told my peeps who were going to be with us for the birth that we were headed in but not to get excited it was going to be a while. We leisurly moseyed to the hospital, checked in, found a good channel on the tv (they had E! yay!) Then I just all of a sudden went into labor!! The doc checked and I was still only 3? or 4? cm I don't remember. Contractions were pretty strong all through the night, different though, because I would have one major one, then like an aftershock one shortly after, that wasn't as strong. My nurse (who was really annoying and talked and talked and talked) told me sometimes those contractions weren't very "effective". The other different thing about this labor was that because my water had broke they weren't going check me at all until they had to. Which was good because I think I lasted longer without an epidural because I didn't want to have one too early (to keep labor going) and I never knew how far a long I was. I made it all through the night (watched a keeping up with the kardashians marathon with my mom) and the contractions got really strong. Since I had been up all night, and standing mostly because it seemed to hurt less that way, I was SO tired. I thought I would try to lay down for a little and just breathe through them. But after laying down for a minute, I felt somesort of pop or weird sensation inside and then a rush of pain like I had never felt before. I panicked- yelling at josh to get me up, get the nurse, and get me an epidural. All I remember is poor josh saying "well which one do you want me to do first- trying to help me best he could" I screamed to get me up and then he ran and got the nurse. I was in bad pain before but this was just sooo much pain. It was all I could do to breathe and not pass out with each contraction. I couldn't even moan or scream through them anymore. I asked the nurse for the epidural (which she had been pushing on me all night). And since I was a VBAC an anestesiologist is supposed to be there all the time.   Each contraction I had I would squeeze josh's hand, breath through it and then as soon as it was over, in a monsterly voice, scream at the nurse to "get- me- the- d*** -epidural!!!" then she would tell me it would be a few minutes, then I would fall asleep on Josh for a minute and then I would get another terrible contraction. Then I heard her (the nurse) say "don't worry he doesn't live far away" So mid contraction, I then screamed "HE'S NOT EVEN HERE YET!!!!!??" So sad and mad was I. FINALLY FINALLY the man I had just called the b*****d word, showed up. (Later I found out he was a very nice man). He gave me the epidural, and slowly but surely the pain subsided. Now, it was only an epidural- no brain drugs, but for some reason it made me extremely happy and also quite funny. I believe at one point I proposed to the anesthesiologist, told everyone how much I LOVE DRUGS, and also told everyone that I hoped Judah was stupid and therfor would have a small head. (Judah I didn't mean that- you are very smart, and Im so glad :) Around my funny, relaxed, rested time Beka showed up to hang out, take pictures, and meet Judah. Oh and Kari got there right before my epidural. (I was bummed that my labor looked easy- they missed the hard part) The rest of labor was sooo weird, good, and different then my others. I rested for a while, everyone just kind of hung out. Then I started to feel pain down below. The anesthiologist gave me a self medicating button to give myself (a very limitted) amount of epidural when I needed it. It wasn't feeling like it was working so I used it like a video game (clicking constantly and laughing....is that bad?) but it didn't help. I started to feel the need to .....ehem....you know, go... I told the doc and she said she could check me, but I decided I wanted to let Judah work his way down more himself. I was still pretty tired and only wanted to push when I had to. (Plus I was in pain but nothing too bad so I was scared the worst was still to come like it was when I was pushing with Gabe.) Finally I had her check me and I was 10cm! So I pushed, and it didn't hurt to bad, so I was kind of thinking it was working. I would push during the contraction, and then rest in between. There was about 2 minutes inbetween and at one point everyone was waiting for me to push, (they were being very supportive) and I kinda looked around and laughed because it had been so many hours of pain, and here I was pushing and waiting and felt almost totally fine!! IT TOOK 15 MINUTES! I couldn't believe it was finally over!! After waiting soooo long he was here! It was bizzare because the pushing is what hurt so bad with Gabe, but this time it was the transition period. So when he came out I was astonished that the worse never came! Anyways, I was a little scared because it felt like forever before he cried. But he was fine, and so handsome. Oh I just couldn't believe my little laid back, in a hurry to get no where, boy was here! He looked a lot like his brother, but was definitely our little judah. Well not so little, when the nurse announced that he was 9lbs!! I was so proud - my big little boy!! And I pushed him out in 15 minutes!!  We were so happy, and so happy to have shared the birth with so many wonderful people. He was born at 11:39am. Gabe and Grace and my dad came to meet him that afternoon, and fell in love with him just as fast!

I know I have much more to post about everything in between then and now, but my hands are sore from all this typing!