I'm writing this less than a week since Andie's birth so I don't forget any details.
Up until Friday night (12/4), I had not felt any major contractions. I would wake up in the night and feel a few, but then would change positions and they would go away.
At my 39 week appointment (12/2), I had not progressed from 1-2 in dilation. This was how I was with Eli and I was dreading an induction. My doc said he would let me go until 41 weeks (12/12), but no later. I prayed to God that she would come on her own and ended the prayer with my constant intention for my pregnancy: pain tolerance. I know that if I could've hung in a bit longer with Eli that I may not have had the induction. It was very long, painful, and I had so many pain meds in me that everything is very foggy to remember.
I finished up my last day of school on Friday (12/4) and had everything set up for the next week when another teacher would take over. I thought that I might go to work for Monday and Tuesday to help out, but decided against it.
Friday night, I went to my mom and dad's to hang out and my mom noted that I looked tired. I did feel rather beat up and blamed it on being the last week of school for me. I fell asleep on their couch and eventually went home.
Around 1:30am I felt contractions. They felt like the others that I had been having so I tried to get into different positions, but that didn't help. At about 2:30, I got in the bathtub to relax and started to time them. They were about 6-7 minutes apart, but were very painful. I started to text my sister and kept updating her with contraction times.
They weren't consistent enough to go to the hospital and I didn't want to get sent home so I sat through them until 5:30 when I told Chris to call the hospital and see what they say. They said that until they were just unbearable it was best that I stay at home where I'm more comfortable than in a hospital bed. Since it was Saturday morning, we asked who the on-call doctor was. They answered that it was my previous OBGYN, who delivered Eli. I was ecstatic. I was so upset when he moved in the middle of my pregnancy, but this was a God thing. There was a reason why I went into labor Friday night. I sat through the contractions until 7:30 and I had had enough. 6 hours without any pain medication and trying to breathe through the pain was enough for me.
Chris started to get our things together and called my mom to watch Eli while we went to the hospital. The pain was worsening and I felt like Chris was taking his sweet time. I told him to get my mom to pick up Eli, but he insisted that we could just drop him off on our way out. I could hardly walk to the car and sitting was an entirely new pain. The bumpy road that we live on did not help either.
Chris took Eli in my parent's house and I sat in the car and was feeling the urge to push. I know that wasn't good, but I also know that I have a low pain tolerance and just knew that they were going to send me home. But if I was going to the hospital, at least they could give me some pain meds. My mom came out to the car to see how I was doing and I asked where Chris was and she said that he was inside getting Eli situated. I told my mom that I was in a lot of pain and we needed to go.
We finally got to the hospital at 8:45 and had to wait for them to take my information as I hung onto the wall because I couldn't sit anymore. The ER nurses asked me to get into a wheelchair, but I couldn't sit. They finally convinced me that they could wheel me faster than I could walk. When I got into the maternity ward, they wanted me to get in a gown, but I couldn't undress myself. Chris had to help me and I think the nurse overheard because she said that I needed to get into a bed NOW! She started asking me questions in between contractions and I said that I felt like I needed to push and she said no not yet. She checked my dilation and I was at 7!! She asked if she could have verbal consent to deliver because we didn't have time for paperwork. I agreed and asked her if I was past the epidural. She kind of laughed saying yeah you're past epidural. My eyes got big because I wanted the epidural and was feeling the contractions getting bigger. They reassured me that I could do this and had already made it through 7 hours on my own without pain meds. Chris called my family to tell them to head to the hospital because we were having a baby soon.
Ten minutes later, they checked me again and I was at a 9! My old OBGYN walked in the door and relief came across my face. I trusted the nurses, but seeing a friendly face who had been with me before made it even better. They told me if I needed to push to go ahead and push. I had a few practice pushes and then three big pushes and out Andie came!
I couldn't believe that she was here and so quickly. I think I was in shock for the first half hour because of what I had done. I never thought that I could bear the pain of childbirth without pain medication and that I had dealt with the bulk of it on my own at home. God really did give me pain tolerance and the nurses laughed when I told them I had a low pain tolerance. We checked into the hospital at 8:45 and by 9:15 we had a baby. I am so thankful that my hospital is only ten minutes away from our house or I would've had a baby on the side of the road.
Andie Rose Gilburt
December 5, 2015
9:15am
6lbs. 14oz.
18in.
Fresh as can be
My first picture with my daughter
The Gilburt boys looking at the new girl in the house
Our little family has grown just a little
I needed a pic with my firstborn
Eli is already in big brother mode
More pictures to come of our first days with Andie.
