I have been thinking about what happened last week a lot. I wanted to make sure I remembered everything because it was one of my most meaningful spiritual experiences I have ever had. Right below going to the Temple for the first time and being told that I was marrying the wrong person. This pregnancy has been a miracle to begin with since my doctors have always told me it would take a miracle to get pregnant and stay pregnant because I don't produce those hormones. So the fact that I made it to 36 weeks is crazy! In order to understand the events of last week I have to tell you some other information. Also- this is a LONG post. Just know you have been warned.
Eric has an out of town trip for work planned from November 2-9th. He will just be in Milwaukee which is about an hour and a half away. He can't cancel the trip, but he is able to leave the trip if I call him and tell him I am in labor. Back in July when Eric was told about the trip I didnt think it would be that bad, and if I felt my contractions were getting closer I would just call him and wait for him to come home so we could go to the hospital. These last 2 weeks however I no longer liked this plan. What did I know about contractions?! I didn't know what they were or what they felt like, and I didn't want to call him and then get to the hospital only to be told what I felt was not contractions, or that I wasn't far enough along to be admitted.
I have been really anxious about this. I have had my visiting teachers, neighbors and friends tell me that I can call them at any point and they will take me to the hospital if I want to find out from the hospital if I truly am in labor before calling Eric. I really appreciate these people, but if I am going to be honest with everyone - I won't call them. I just can't bring myself to call someone so they can take me to the hospital. I don't want to inconvenience anyone, and and if it was really nothing I would feel awful. So I would be sitting at home wondering if I should call Eric or not. Driving myself was not an option since I have been told that driving with contractions is not safe.
SO that along with being exhausted from all my new pregnancy aches- back pain, can't put on my socks cause I can't bend that way, stretch marks, etc. I wanted to have this baby early, but not while Eric was away. I couldn't figure out what to do or what my plan was going to be- and all of you who know me, know I love plans. I always have a plan and at least 3 other plans in case plan 1 doesn't work. So here I was with no plan! I had been praying about finding a plan or the best option but nothing was coming!
Monday was my doctors appointment- and my doctor made the mistake of telling me that if I was to have the baby from Monday on, he would be ok. So I left the appointment with the end in sight! Even though he also told me since I didn't have braxton hicks or any other contractions, it wouldn't be any time soon, and most people with their first actually go over their due date. I still was thinking, yes I could go over, but maybe I can pray for a miracle!
Monday night I started having constant pressure on my chest- like an elephant was sitting on it, and some slight abdominal cramps. I googled it :) and the internet and plenty of forums told me I was having braxton hicks, since they were not close together- I couldn't track them. So I thought- awesome! I at least can know what this feels like, so anything different will be a real contraction. One of my worries was already going away! Tuesday not much changed concerning my braxton hicks, still sporadic and not trackable- except they started to hurt- bad! I thought how do people live the next month like this?! Wednesday I set my mind to figure out how to induce labor naturally- within reason. I cleaned my house, I went and walked the mall, drank a lot of Diet Coke (it seemed to cause the contractions)
Wednesday night, Eric and I were reading from Helaman. He had just been told by God that because his will was in line with God's, whatever he said would happen to the Nephites would happen. How does your will align with God's? I can accept God's will, that I may want or ask for something that isn't right for me in the grand scheme of things and because I can't see the big picture I don't realize that. But God does, so I understand that I may not get what I want, or I can but not in the time frame I want. So the next dilemma that I had with this idea was that we are told we have to have Faith to move mountains. How do you have both? How do you have enough faith to ask for something that it happens, and yet the ability to make sure that what your asking for is in line with God's will- or accepting God's will on that matter? Eric and I talked about this for awhile- and I told him that I could do one or the other, but I dont know how to do both. So I prayed about it. I told God that I wanted this baby to come when Eric was in town. I didn't want to worry about it while he was on his trip, so if that meant the baby came early or the baby came after the 9th I was ok with that. But I would prefer early. I felt pretty good about my prayer and went to bed.
That night those braxton hicks contractions were a total pain. I kept waking up, and trying to do what I could to get the pain to subside. Around 6 am I decided to take a bath, because that was one of the suggestions online. I also drank a ton of water, and changed my position to try and get them to stop. Nothing was working. It wasn't until 7 am that the thought occured to me that I should track these- to see how far apart they were. I didn't want to do this- I didn't want to start tracking them and then have them stop, like they had the rest of the week. This was really an internal battle I had, but I kept feeling like I needed to track these. So to appease both sides of me, I just calculated it in my head. That way I could justify that I was paying attention, but not in so much detail like the apps do- you know how far apart and how long your contractions are. After doing this for about 20 minutes I realized that my math said these pains were about 6 minutes apart. So I grabbed my phone and started using the app. 20 minutes later- 5 minutes apart, 70 seconds long. I started to panic a little, but again my pride got in the way, and I just kept waiting till they just disappeared on their own. When Eric woke up I didn't even tell him! I didn't want to because I KNEW they would just go away so there was no point in paying attention. It wasn't until Eric took my phone while I was in pain to see what I was doing. He saw right on the screen where it said in the last hour my "contractions" were 5 minutes apart. He got up, grabbed the note on the fridge that said when you are supposed to call the hosptial, and said- " You need to call the hospital" I said, no I don't, they will go away on their own. I'm not concerned about it. It wasn't until 2 more when the average dropped to 3 minutes apart that I finally called the nurse. I just wanted to see if i could go into the doctors to get checked, but she said I needed to get to the hospital. Eric was in the shower and when I walked into the bathroom I started crying. I was SO scared and not prepared! I didn't have a bag packed, and I was worried to get my hopes up! So Eric got out, hurried around the apartment as I told him things to grab, and we headed to the hospital. We got to the hospital around 9:00 and went to Triage. It was taking forever to get checked in and get a bed, and I was in so much pain! They finally hooked me up, and left, so they could get data. Again SO MUCH PAIN, and I was losing patience with the nurses. They just kept leaving. It wasn't until one nurse- Patty, was like I am so sorry everyone keeps leaving you, I won't leave until you are checked in and have more information. She asked if anyone had even checked yet to see if I was dilated. I said no, so she did one. This was at 9:40- she kinda did a little jump and said oh my- you're at a 7! She immediately called the doctor, because I was only 36 weeks, I was put into a high risk situation. Doctor got to me at like 10:15- did a check again and I was at a 9! I started panicking again, because I NEEDED that epidural! I was so worried that I had passed the window to get one. I knew that when my water broke and the pain was worse, I wouldn't be able to handle it. So I started praying again that I could get this Epidural, and not to let my water break until I got it.
After that, everything moved REALLY fast. I got put in the new area of the hospital because they didn't have time to wait for a room on the other side to be cleared. I got another nurse Chantel. They did an ultrasound to make sure the baby was the right away- but when they did the ultrasound he was breach. I thought this was an answer to a prayer! Cause I knew I had to have a C Section with a breach baby! They wouldn't try and twist him because his feet could fall out since I was so far along if my water broke while they were turning him. And I also know with a C Section came an EPIDURAL! I was so relived. Eric however was not. :) They called the doctor again to find out- he came running, and in that 5 minute window I felt the baby moved and when the looked again he was head down. Everyone else was relieved.... Me- I started panicking again! My nurse said she would call the Pain doctor, and when she got him on the phone, he didn't want to give it to me. He said I was too far along and I wouldn't be able to sit still. My nurse convinced him that I had been really calm through all of my contractions- so he came. I prayed and prayed that he would hurry. My nurse was super impressed and kept asking if I really wanted this, because I was not screaming, or crying or withering in pain that I could make it through the whole thing naturally. I just kept saying I just want the Epidural. Finally at 12:30 I got an Epidural! My miracle happened! In 20 Minutes I had gone from a 7 to 9, but I stayed at a 9 with my water unbroken for 2.5 hours! The doctor and nurses could not believe my water hadn't broken yet, they said that never happens! I knew it was because God was answering my prayers. They let me enjoy my epidural until 2, when I said I stared feeling the pressure and that I was ready to push. They broke my water at 2, and 10 minutes later I was at a 10. The water was the only thing keeping me from being fully dilated. They had me wait til 2:30 to start pushing, wanted my body to do more of the work, and they had to get the room ready. They called the doctor and told him to meander his way over to my room. After 4 pushes, she made me stop, and called the doctor and told him he had to hurry. Meanwhile, my nurse told me I couldn't push! I didn't know how to stop pushing! Doctor hurried into the room and at 2:51 Quentin was born! Eric made the comment that it seemed really fast. The doctor said that it was- then he thought about it for a second and said, actually this was more than fast, it was more like a Sprint. He hadn't seen a first baby happen so fast!
As I said in the beginning of this very long post, this was one of my top spiritual experiences because in 1 day I had 2 prayers answered. I learned that God's will and your will can be the same and you might not even realize it, also sometimes all we need to do is ask. The second was if it matters to you, it matters to God. I needed that Epidural and even though it wasn't a big issue in the grand scheme of things, God made a way so that I could get it. I know that if it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have the Epidural, and could still be pregnant.
Quentin Eric Dolder
October 25 at 2:51 PM
5 LB 10 oz
18 inches long
My mom was able to change her flight so she got here on Friday, and we stayed at the hospital until Saturday at 1. Since Quentin is considered a Preemie, he had to have a couple of extra tests done, like the Car Seat Test, and blood sugar tests. After we got home, me and mom ran to Target to get all the last minute baby items we hadn't gotten yet because we thought we had until November 19th. We also had to frantically look for Preemie clothes, because he doesn't fit into any of the clothes I have. He is SO small!
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