We went into the hospital on Tuesday at 7 am. The nurses hooked me up to pitocin almost immediately. I was on pitocin until almost 11 o'clock with no serious contractions. Although they were coming every two minutes, I didn't find them painful and they wanted to get things moving so the doctors broke my water. When they broke it, we were amazed at how much fluid came out! Even the doctor was amazed at how much fluid came out and even went so far as to call it a 'fountain.' As they were putting the internal monitor on your head the fluid just kept gushing out. As soon as they broke my water the contractions started coming on strong and heavy.
I labored through the contractions for three hours. It was painful and we tried lots of different laboring techniques. I used the birthing ball, the jacuzzi, leaned over on the bed, and walked the hallways. Your dad was great. He was with me through the whole process and would help me breathe and was constantly telling me how much he loved me as I was going through each contraction. He particularly found it comical when I started swearing. All through the day he was constantly updating Facebook with my progress so all of our friends and family that were wanting to hear about your arrival could stay informed.
At around two I decided I had had enough of the contractions and couldn't take it anymore. I asked for the epidural. The nurses offered to check me in case I was close to being able to push. After being checked and finding out I was only at 6 cm I decided to take the epidural. The pain from the epidural was not nearly as bad as I was worried about it being. In fact compared to the contractions it was nothing. The hardest part was sitting still while there was a contraction going on and they were trying to administer the epidural. As soon as the drug hit me I felt tons better. In fact, I couldn't even feel the contractions by that point. Your Dad and I rested and watched 'The Office' on his new e-reader while we waited. Then there was a lot of waiting!
At around five o'clock your Harper grandparents came up to visit us at the hospital. I should mention that before them visiting we did have two other visitors, my friend Tina came and I immediately kicked her out as I had just finished having a contraction and was in no state to see anyone. I felt awful, but I did not want visitors. Then your grand-popper Harper came to visit right before I got the epidural and your Dad asked him to leave as well. So, once the epidural was administered and we were just waiting we asked for company. They came and hung out for a few hours before leaving.
At 5:30 I was dilated to an 8. This dilation process was taking a long time! Since I had an epidural I was told that I wouldn't start pushing until I hit a 10, even though you can frequently start pushing at an 8 when you have a baby without an epidural. Finally around eight o'clock I hit the point of a 10 cm and it was go time. The doctors had turned my epidural way down by this point since they had me try to start pushing at around 9 1/2cm and I wasn't feeling much. So once I started pushing around eight I could certainly feel again. I pushed for two hours. It was rough. I had a headache from not eating, was nauseous, and running a fever. They were extremely concerned about the fever because if you had been born while I had the fever they would have had to put you in the NICU for two days for observation of any infection passing from me. My temperature got up to 100.5 degrees and then they gave me some Tylenol. This broke the fever. Right about the time we got to the end of pushing I thought I was ready to give up. It didn't seem like you were ever going to come. However of course you did and your dad called out that you were a boy. Then he cut the cord and they cleaned you up a bit and placed you on my chest. You were beautiful!
I got a chance to breast feed you right after they cleaned you and me up. You latched right on and fed for a good 20 minutes. The nurses were amazed at how quick you latched on. Dad and I spent a little bit of time with you just the three of us and we got some pictures.
After the commotion died down and you were pretty much done feeding we had a waiting room full of grandparents anxious to meet you. Dad had gone out and announced to everyone that we had a handsome baby boy that greeted us. Grandma and Grandpa Miklos and Aunt Megan had been in the waiting room the whole while we were pushing. Grandpa and Grandma Harper joined at the end and then they all came to meet your precious self. Everyone took turns holding you and you were wide awake and alert for the whole thing.
