Well, as we did with Damien, I will write up our birth story. This is more so that we won't forget the events surrounding Blaise's birth, so sorry that it's long.
I had my 38 week doctor's appointment on Monday, August 16th. I had hoped that I would have already had my baby by then, as Damien was born in my 38th week, and I was hoping my second would come earlier. I was getting extremely uncomfortable with lots of pelvic pain over the last month and some cramping. The summer heat and humidity wasn't too helpful either. Anyway, at the appointment, I was 4cm dilated (an improvement from 2cm the previous week), 80-90% effaced, and 0 to +1 station. So, the baby was low, thus my discomfort. My doctor said that if I was anyone else, he'd guess I'd have the baby that night or the next morning. However, given my history (walking around at 6cm dilated for several weeks with Damien), he couldn't predict when my baby would be coming.
We had a normal evening--watched preseason MNF with a friend and ordered pizza for dinner. I probably went to bed around 10:30 or 11 feeling exactly the same as I had been feeling previous days.
I woke up at 1:51am to use the restroom. Nighttime trips to the bathroom were regular now that I was this far along, but I usually didn't have to go that early...oh well, back to bed.
I woke up again around 2:59 with some cramping. I had experienced this feeling on previous nights, so I didn't get too excited. I decided to watch the clock and see if they had any regularity. I started to see that they were about 4-6 minutes apart, but they were lasting different amounts of time. I tried to rest, as I knew I would need the energy later if I was in true labor.
Around 3:45, the pains had not subsided and were becoming stronger, but still did not seem to be too regular. I decided to wake Andy up and tell him, "I might be wrong, but I think I'm in labor". So we both got up and I finished packing my bag (I had just started the day before) and Andy started to pack a bag, since he didn't have one yet. We were very calm and methodical in looking back. Some point in there, I was no longer able to walk around when the "pain" (which I now knew were contractions) came. I had to lay down on the bed or get on my hands and knees on the bed to get through the contraction. Andy asked, "if you were walking in the hospital, would you be able to keep walking through a contraction?" I answered no, I didn't think I could, and that was an indication to Andy that this was really happening.
We called my mom a little before 4:45 to come over and watch Damien, and at that time, the contractions were about 2 minutes apart and I was feeling somewhat nauseous. My mom got to our house a little before 5am, and she prodded us with some urgency when she saw me. She was like, "you guys have to get to the hospital...that baby is coming!" We were still calm and Andy took the bags to the car and we left for the hospital.
We got to the hospital around 5:15, and I was wheeled up to L&D from the ER by a security guard (luckily not one who would recognize me from working there). I was a little nervous because I didn't have a single contraction the whole ride up to the nurse's station. Did my labor stop? Did I come to the hospital too soon? Well, I checked in at the nurse's station and was taken to triage. In triage, the contractions immediately came back, and the nurse was getting a little nervous. She said, "I'm going to get the resident so she can check you". She came back a couple minutes later and said, "I can't find the resident, so I'm going to check you myself". At that point I was 8cm and 100% effaced. The nurse called the nurses' station and said she needed help and a room for this patient (me) now!
They wheeled me on the cart to the room around 5:45 and on the way I asked, "Has anyone called Nettum?" (my doctor). A nurse was like, "Oh yeah, we better do that!" I later found out at a follow-up appointment that when my doctor got the call, the nurse wasn't even sure what my name was, so my doctor wasn't totally sure which patient he was coming to the hospital for, although he guessed it was me since I had just seen him the previous day...
My doctor walked into the room around 6am and immediately gowned up. I had the urge to push at that time, and when he checked me, I was completely dilated, so they gave me the okay. While pushing, everyone, including Andy, got quite a surprise because my water suddenly broke/burst/exploded...ha, which was unexpected because they thought my water had already broken. Apparently, I was leaking amniotic fluid, but due to Blaise's positioning, the majority of the bag had not ruptured until that point.
Well, after a few minutes of pushing and great coaching throughout the labor from Andy (he helped me to focus on my breathing and keep my face relaxed), Andy announced that it was a boy at 6:27am.
Blaise James was 8lb 15oz and 19.5 inches long. He is named after St. Blaise and Blaise Pascal (check out Pascal's Wager) and James is a family name (my grandpa is James). Plus, we just like the name "Blaise"!
Here he is...!
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