On Saturday, March 9th I made my husband drive me to the hospital for a non stress test as I felt that the babe wasn't moving around as much. They got as all hooked up to the monitors and as soon as they did he started moving around all over the place...Mama was just paranoid. What the nurse did notice was that I was having pretty regular Braxton Hicks contractions and that I should keep an eye on them. I had also been battling the flu for 3 days which was no fun at all.
Throughout Sunday I kept feeling pretty regular tightening and thought I would call the doctor on Monday morning to get my Thursday appointment moved up to Monday or Tuesday just to double check that everything was going okay...well baby had other things on his mind!!
4:30am Monday morning I woke up my husband because my water had broke. We called the doctor and they told us to come to the hospital right away as I had not had my group B strep test and would need antibiotics. She told us that if I wasn't in labour in 24 that they would have to induce me. We left the house around 5:30am and by the time we got to the hospital around 6am, contractions had started. They got me hooked up to an IV (what a process, 3 nurses later and they finally put it in the crook of my elbow because they couldn't find a vein) and started my dose of antibiotics and told us we could go home around 9:00. We decided that I would be more comfy at home so we started the 30 minute drive back to our house. We actually made it about 3 blocks from our house when I told my husband he had to turn around. The contractions were coming quickly and so strongly that I couldn't even talk when they were happening. We got back to the hospital and they admitted us and got us a room asap. From then on things started to happen pretty quickly.
Our doctor came in to see us and seeing how quickly I was progressing decided to hang out with us in the room. She checked me once we got settled and I was already 6 cm dilated! (this was at about 10:30 ish. I asked her then (between contractions) how much longer it might be until I was ready to push ... she thought about another 4 hours as I was going so quick and a centimeter an hour is considered quick even for second babies! Well about 30 intense minutes later I was 9.5 cm and in two more contractions I was ready to push. I had my second bout of antibiotics around 11am so we were good to go. I pushed for what felt like a really long time but what my husband informs me was really only about 20 minutes or so and baby Austin was born a healthy 6lbs 7oz! Such a good size considering I was only 35 weeks 6 days!! It was such an intense labour as things came on so fast but I am happy that it ended up that way as it was quick and we got to meet our sweet baby boy that much quicker!!
It is truly amazing what our bodies can do and I am still amazed at what I went through to finally get to meet our little boy.
Two days later they sent us home but we would go back for another two days as he was jaundiced and needed to go under the lights for a couple of days. They sent us home on March 16th and we have just been in awe of him ever since.
I am so lucky to have such an amazing mother who stayed with us for two weeks, and father who stayed with us for the first week and came back for the following weekend. It was so helpful to have my mom here to make sure we ate, kept our house clean, did our laundry, and babied our other babies, our pups! We miss her already and are counting down the days until we can see her again. Her help was beyond what we could expect and I can't say enough amazing things about her...I don't know what we would have done without her!
Here are some photos of our beautiful new baby boy...we are so blessed!!
