Just like my other two pregnancies, I was overdue and super ready to have this baby. I was scheduled for an induction on Friday, August 19th. When I got to the hospital we signed in at the ER and it was completely empty in there. I was really happy because I thought that meant that labour and delivery would be fairly quiet as well. When we got up to Labour and Delivery, the nurses were just about to do a shift change and had told me it was going to be a very busy day. I started getting nervous that they might send me home. Max had not dropped AT ALL. Thank-goodness the doctor came in at 8am and put the gel in. I knew I was golden after that! My contractions came on within 5 minutes with this baby. I immediately felt a lot of pain with each contraction. I started timing them on my labour app because the nurses seemed really busy that morning. The girl next to us was a first time Mom and had to have an US to confirm her baby was breach, so I kind of was forgotten about for an hour or so. My nurse seemed distracted and didn't really seem too concerned with my pain level (side note-this post is coming off as kind of negative towards nurses, not my intention at all, just trying to get my raw feelings and experiences down in writing). Anyways, she encouraged us to go walking(about 9AM by this point). With Lexi I went walking for 10-20 minutes, every hour, with very manageable contractions. I was able to chat with Andrew and walk quite a bit between each contraction. With Max, I could walk maybe 5 steps (dead serious), before having a pretty painful contraction. Heck, I had a nap after getting induced with Lexi, so I knew it wouldn't be a terribly long labour with Max. Our walk took about 30 minutes and all we did was walk up the surgical hallway and back with lots of talk about Andrew getting a vasectomy LOL. I was ready to get back in bed! When we got back we had to wait another half an hour before it was time for me to have another blood pressure check. I continued to breath through each contraction but I was definitely in a significant amount of pain. I could hear one nurse say to the other nurse "the girl in bed one sure is huffing and puffing"...now I'm definitely not one to ask for things because I usually feel like I am putting others out...but I was hoping after that comment they would send someone in to check on me! I don't know what was going on behind the scenes but it took until about 10:20AM before anyone came to check on me. I was about to ask Andrew to go out there because I knew I was about a 4 and I was super ready for my epidural lol! A new nurse came in at 10:20 and took my blood pressure...I asked if she was going to check my cervix but she said that I wouldn't get checked until the doctor came at noon. Well, I finally got some courage up because I was NOT having a baby without my epidural haha!! I asked her to check me but she was still really hesitant...I think the whole "this is my third baby and I know how far along I am" helped A LOT. She came back and checked my cervix...and I was 4 cm! This mama knows her body! So they had to wait a little bit before I could get into the actual delivery suite because of how busy it was. I finally got stuck with the suite with no windows...I was doing so good with those girls of mine haha! The anesthesiologist was already in there and getting ready for me. It took him a while to get the epidural in and even then it was only working on one side..the other side was about 50% numbed. It was about 11:20AM by the time he left the room. I felt so much relief after getting my epidural. I couldn't believe I had been in so much pain for so long with this baby. I was still feeling some burning on my right side and was having some major referred pain in my upper thigh and hip but SOME pain management is better then NOTHING! I felt some warmth and realized my water had broke. It's never broke on its own before so I was really happy they didn't have to stick that thing up my vajayjay and pop it themselves! Andrew said there was a lot of blood and the nurse had to keep changing my bed pads. Then came the waiting game...with my girls I had both of them within 15 minutes of getting the epidural. My body just relaxes and everything goes very fast after that but not with this little guy. The nurse checked me around noon and I was at 8cm. My doctor came in very shortly after that and had me flip onto my left side, he then went to check on another one of his patients. Within 3 minutes I felt pressure and the nurse started yelling to the other nurse to go get the doctor because she could see the head crowning! He popped back into my room just in time to catch Max. 12:22PM Maxwell Gordon Maclean was born! 9lbs 2oz (which I totally brag about all of the time) 21 inches long and his head was huge. They had him all wrapped up for me and I got some major newborn snuggles for the next hour! I lose a lot of blood after my babies so they put me on an oxytocin drip and monitor me in the delivery suite for about an hour. I told Andrew to go and get some lunch while he was waiting and boy was that a mistake! Everyone had left the room and I was holding Max when I started shivering pretty badly. My teeth were chattering, I was trying to get my blankets up higher, I'm surprised Max didn't have shaken baby syndrome!! But honestly, I was so scared something was wrong but I didn't think I would be able to hold Max with just one hand in order to push the call button. Someone was looking out for me because Andrew walked in just in time for me to say "take the baby". Then I really got shaky!! My whole body was going crazy. The nurses brought some heated blankets but those weren't working so they got me in the shower at the hottest setting it would go. Finally, about 10 minutes in, I started feeling less shaky. I guess it was just my body reacting to the anesthesia. Everything after that went pretty well. Andrew had asked me if I was nervous while we were getting ready that morning (keep in mind,it was right after the olympics and my pregnancy hormones make me a bit loopy)..my response "hunny, I'm not nervous at all, labour is like my olympic sport, I'm going to rock it in there". I am a crazy person, right?! LOL I love looking back at all the crazy stuff I say! Anyways, you sure do things differently on your third go around. I packed hardly anything...we didn't even bring wipes..which they don't provide anymore, just an FYI. So during Max's first meconium diaper, Andrew had to try and clean it with a wet cloth...best.thing.I.have.ever.watched. This kid is literally crapping and peeing all over Andrew and he is like a deer in headlights with this teeny tiny wet cloth. He kept trying to fold it different ways to find a clean spot to use..it was just so little! I still laugh just thinking about it. Anyways, there is definitely a part two to this hospital experience...I'm just not sure how much of it I want to share lol.
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