Bryant's flight was supposed to land at 9:30 pm on the 30th and my induction was scheduled for 11:00 that same night. Unfortunately, there was something wrong with the plane in Grenada and the delay meant he didn't land in Utah until 11. Luckily, the hospital told me it was just fine to show up whenever since they weren't busy, so my original plan of picking Bryant up and heading to the hospital remained intact. Picking him up was amazing and also a little weird since we hadn't seen each other in months. He's gotten so skinny!! He needs me there to make sure he's eating well.
Anyway, I picked him up, we stopped at my parents' house so he could take a quick shower and wash off all his airport/plane germs before holding his daughter, then it was up to the hospital. Can I just say, by the way, how weird it is to just drive up to the hospital to have a baby when you're not in labor? It seemed completely unreal. We got there around 12:45 in the morning on Halloween, they checked me (I was dilated to about 3 1/2 cm), and they started me on the Pitocin at about 1:30. Bryant and I were both pretty tired but very excited! They came back to check on me around 1:45 and I said I thought I had felt one contraction, so they upped the dose. I then proceeded to have a contraction about once every minute (Bryant was timing them) and they were KILLING me. The nurse came back at two and I told her the contractions were very close together and that I wanted an epidural. She turned down the Pitocin and I got the epidural at 2:15, Bryant watched and was full of amazement at the pushing that was involved in getting it in. I was just grateful that it worked! Around that time I noticed some hives on my arm. They went away in about half an hour, so I think they were stress related.
After the epidural, I felt nothing. And I mean nothing. It was glorious. I could still move my legs and everything, but I couldn't even tell when I was contracting anymore. At about 3 we requested to take a nap for a while and the nurses turned down the lights and left. Bryant fell asleep immediately, but I was kind of drifting in and out because the monitors on my belly kept slipping and the nurses had to come in to adjust them so they could watch Lydia's heartbeat. At 3:30 they came in to put a catheter in and I was dilated to an 8. The nurses were floored but said I could keep resting for a while. My mom had requested a phone call when I was getting close, so I asked if this qualified as close and they told me no, I would probably still have to labor down a lot.
We were left alone again for about 15-20 minutes when the baby's heartbeat disappeared again. The nurse came in to adjust the monitor and discovered that Lydia had moved down a lot. She checked me again and said I was dilated to a 10, complete, and the baby was moving down. She actually seemed pretty confused about what to do next since I hadn't been there that long. Eventually she said she wanted me to push with a contraction to see what would happen. Bryant called my mom while I did that (the nurse had to tell me when to push since I couldn't feel the contractions) and after he hung up the nurse had him come down to see the head while I pushed--apparently the pushing was helping things a lot! My waters were still intact, but Bryant could still see her head and informed me that she had hair. Hair! Bryant and I were both bald as babies, so that was a surprise.
My nurse left to call the doctor and when she got back she took out my catheter and had me push once or twice more. My doctor got there at around 4:20 and they got me ready for delivery. I pushed for maybe 15 minutes and Lydia was born at 4:56. I kept turning to Bryant and saying, "Are you sure you can see her head? I swear this shouldn't be so easy." It was painless, quick, and required very little effort on my part. My doctor told me I was made for having babies (tell that to my uterus which successfully repelled babies for 3 years) and to be careful about telling other people because they'd be jealous.
Little Lydia Belle came out perfect. Her head was still very round (thanks to the quick delivery) and she's just the cutest thing I've ever seen! Also, she cried very little and was very alert from the beginning. I know all these pictures show her sleeping, but she was awake a lot, too!
My parents got to the hospital just after she was born and visited for a while, then left us to take a nap. We enjoyed the day with Lydia and welcomed many visitors, including Bryant's parents and my older sister. She got dressed up in her Minnie Mouse Halloween costume as well.
Unfortunately, the end of the day was not so happy, so I'll save it for Part Two. How's that for a cliffhanger?
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