February 9th (a Monday) came and Grandma was able to come out to Cali and stay with us. Once she was with us my anxiety went away and I was totally ok with baby girl coming. She decided to wait a little longer.
Wednesday night my mom and I went to the San Diego Temple and while I was in there I had a couple contractions but nothing crazy. We got back to the house pretty late I said, "well I'm not having this baby tonight" and we all went to bed.
After sleeping for a bit I started having contractions and they got really strong and pretty close together but not close enough. I went do the bathroom and it was blood tinged so I woke my mom asking if I should go. She said yes. So, I woke up Kyle and we got ready to get to the hospital. On the way to the hospital my contractions completely stopped, so I thought "Oh great they are going to send us back like they did last time with Clayton."
We got to the Navy hospital at 2:00 am. In case you are wondering that is a perfect time to go to that hospital because you don't have to look for great parking and junk because no one is there! I got out of the car and all of a sudden... my water broke. At least I hoped it was my water that had broken. "Um Kyle I think my water just broke. Unless I just peed myself which I don't think I did." I was completely soaked and had to walk across the whole complex from the parking lot to get to where we needed to be. I tried holding Kyle's hand but he was like "No way, you touched that stuff!" It was kind of funny. I probably would have done the same thing. While walking I just kept leaking, which is an interesting thing when you are completely soaked and it just won't stop coming! "Kyle it won't stop!" (We probably could have made money on YouTube with how ridiculous I looked trying to walk into the hospital).We walked past a couple of people that were guarding the doors but other than that I didn't have to be too mortified for looking like I had peed myself hardcore.
Once we got to Labor and Delivery I had to sign in and tell them when my water had broken. Which had been two minutes before. They said I was staying. Woot woot! I was in. Because I had Group B Strep during my pregnancy I had to be on Penicillin during my labor and delivery. They got me the IV in the triage room and we waited to get into a delivery room. I was still dressed from the waist up so I was wondering how that was going to work with the IV once I had to get in a gown. A little while later I found out. The nurse we had was named Marie and she was great. We went into the bathroom and I got completely undressed (with her help) and got the gown on. It was quite the ordeal but she was a pro. Nothing like standing completely naked 40 weeks prego in front of someone holding your IV. No shame at all. It is like once you are at the hospital all your guards are down and you don't give a dang. At least that is the case for me. I could care less. ha! Thank goodness for kind nurses.
Once I was settled into the room I got my epidural. Kyle was sitting in a chair behind us and the lady (can't remember her name and I didn't write it down) asked if he was gonna be ok watching. He looked at her, smiled, and said "Ya. This isn't my first rodeo." I think she was a med student and was very interesting. I know you need to sit still while getting it done or else bad things can happen. Well, I tried to sit still but I kept having contractions and would twitch a bit when she tried putting the needle in. I didn't think I was moving a significant amount but she kept telling me to sit still. I was thinking "lady! I am trying to sit still!" Eventually I must have sat still long enough because she was able to give me the epidural.
All went well with the epidural and things were going great. Heavens I love those things. It was kind of funny because I was numb from the waist down but my arm kept hurting really bad from the Penicillin I was on. I had to put ice packs on it quite a bit.
Because that hospital is a hospital where there are a lot of medical students, Marie had someone with her to teach. Later, I was asked if it was ok if other students came in and watched and I didn't mind. I said "as long as none of them faint" (during my delivery with Clayton one of the med students almost fainted).
I got my catheter put in but something weird happened and I started to feel woozy and started to pass out. Marie tried talking to me but I wasn't all the way there and I felt my body losing consciousness. My blood pressure dropped so I got put on oxygen. The whole rest of the labor and delivery I wore the mask (except when pushing). I'm still not exactly sure what happened but I am glad there were people there to take care of me.
Because my water had broken we were on a time crunch to get Piper out. So, I got put on Pitocin to help me dilate faster. After that we just waited... And waited... At 7:00 am the nurse shifts changed so I got a nurse named Jamie for the rest of the time. And then we waited some more. Kyle was in and out of sleep in a chair and I was somewhat in and out of sleep too. Every once in a while Jamie would come in and check on me (not checking how dilated I was, but checking everything else) but mostly we just chilled in the room. Then it was a while of no one checking on me. After waiting for so long I wondered if I had been forgotten. It had been a while since someone had checked on me.
At about 11 Jamie came in with the midwife and they checked me. The midwife said she didn't like doing checks often during labor so that's why she had waited for so long to check me. I was dilated to 10 cm so they prepped me for pushing. I was pretty scared because I had pushed for a really long time with Clayton. The midwife left and was gonna come back to deliver Piper. At 11:07 I started pushing and I felt like I knew what I was doing. Kyle was right next to me putting the oxygen mask on me in between pushes.
Side note: the human body is incredible. And another side note: my husband rocks.
I had pushed for a little bit and was making progress. Then all of a sudden, mid push, Jamie said "Stop! Hold on" So I stopped. Apparently, Piper was going to come out that push and she needed to call the midwife in (I feel bad that I don't remember her name. It was just who was scheduled that day at the hospital. That's how it works with the military) to deliver. So, she came in, got situated and POP at 11:27 am out came a healthy, beautiful baby girl. I only pushed for 20 minutes! It was awesome. Kyle cut the cord and immediately they let me hold her. I wasn't expecting that but I surprisingly didn't mind. 8 lbs and 1 oz and 21 1/4 inches of perfection with the exact same dimple as her older brother. Oh, and of course the long feet and toes like Kyle.
The only complication was that I got a hematoma and had to ice it the rest of the hospital stay. And of course the nurses had to check on it every once in a while. Oh, and I fell down in the bathroom trying to sit on the toilet because my legs weren't completely back to normal from the epidural. Ha! It was pretty funny actually and I definitely laughed at myself.
The postpartum room we were in had two beds and two tv's which was nice because Kyle was able to have his own bed and not a chair. The nurses were awesome and the day nurse (Matthew Cole) actually was buddies with one of Kyle's staff sergeants. The corpsman that came in with Cole was very odd though. I wondered if he had just recently started working there. Our night nurse crocheted a beanie for Piper during her shift which was very sweet. We were well taken care of and I am extremely grateful for the amazing people who helped us. We only had to stay in the hospital til the next afternoon and then we were able to go home and have Clayton and Grandma meet sister. All in all it was a very smooth, easy delivery and a great experience.
Ever since Piper became a part of our family it has been crazy to think about how life was before her. We all adore her. Even though I'm still getting used to being a mom of two, I'm so happy she is with us and I feel so blessed to be her momma.
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