It was a wintery day on April 18th. (Crazy Minnesota!) I had been feeling off, having contractions for a couple weeks, but suddenly that morning everything felt different. I called the Dr's office and Dr. Peterson was in a meeting so the nurse said, "Don't worry, it's probably nothing. If your contractions get to be 5 minutes apart come in." I knew Dr. Peterson wasn't going to let that fly because everything went so fast last time, but I said, "OK." I called Faye (Greg's mom) and told her what was going on and made the decision to drive on down to her house with Avery just in case anything were to happen then we'd be 20 min closer to the hospital. And, it was snowing so that 20 minutes could have been the difference. About an hour later Dr. Peterson called me and told me to go immediately to the Maternal Assessment Unit at the hospital because he wanted to know if I was progressing any more. (I was already fully effaced and a 3 last time they had checked...at almost 37 weeks.) So I called Faye and she decided she should just come up and get me and we'd go in and she'd drive. Which honestly was a great relief to me...not because the contractions were painful or anything (they weren't at all), but because I hate driving in snow. Seriously, I grew up in the South so snow is still foreign to me and I know enough not to drive in it. So off we went to the Maternal Assessment Unit. They just built this fancy new birthing center so I got to check it out. The nurse looked at me and said, "Well you don't look like you're in labor." I just shrugged my shoulders. I mean I knew something was happening but it certainly wasn't painful and I definitely wasn't going to complain. She checked me and just kind of gave a startled look and said, "You're a 4 with bulging water...which I'm surprised hasn't broken yet...go walk around for an hour until your contractions are good and painful and come back." I looked at her for a long minute. Seriously!! Go walk around and wait for your water to break in some random hallway in front of a bunch of strangers. Awesome. Oh and by the way, we want you to be screaming bloody murder next time we see you so good luck with that. Yeah thanks lady. But I just said, "Ok." So Avery and Faye and I started walking around. Avery showed me all the fun random toys they had around the building (the maternal assessment unit is connected to Children's Hospital so they have a ton of fun little things in the hallways and waiting areas). We decided to go get my bags from the car...because it was still snowing like a blizzard and I had decided I wasn't going anywhere. By the time we were coming back from the car, the contractions had started becoming quite painful (thanks lady...I was having a nice progressive pain free labor before your little suggestion/order). So the same nice lady checked me again and I was a 7...bulging water still intact. So at least that hadn't broken in some uber embarrassing way. They wheeled me to a room. And I texted Greg to get to the hospital RIGHT NOW. Dr. Peterson came in and said we'd wait until Greg got there before they broke my water, and until then they'd give me my epidural. LOVED IT once again. They gave it to me so that I could still feel everything I needed to and nothing that I didn't. My blood pressure dropped pretty low a couple of times but it finally settled down and Greg showed up. He came in eating firey cheetos and asking if I wanted any. Still makes me smile, because food wasn't on my priority list right then but I thanked him for offering. The nurse checked me and I was still a 7 so she said "Why don't you turn over on your side sometimes that helps things progress."
She said that at 7:10 pm. (We got there at 3:30...walked around for an hour...4:30...checked me into a room, changed clothes, got an epidural, Greg showed up at 6:45...snow made traffic awful..watched my blood pressure for 25 min and then checked me) Then she said I'll be back in a half hour to check on you. I was thinking...hmmm something feels a lot different right now. As soon as she walked out of the room I turned to Greg and said "Get her back in here now."
He said, "She just checked you, you're fine."
I said "Go grab her now!"
He said, "Can't you just push your button?"
I then politely asked him if he wanted to deliver his son. So he went and got the nurse. She checked me, and she could see his head. So she said, "Alright lets try a practice push." So I pushed and she yelped, "Stop, Stop. That's good. Let me get the Dr."
Time check 7:15.
Dr. Peterson came in and said "Alright, lets go!"
So I pushed again.
He said "Whoa! Stop just a second."
He did a little episotomy, then said "Give me just a little push."
So I did and out Bridger popped.
7:19 pm.
Bridger James Hawes was born quickly and with VERY little pain. (I know you're jealous, but it was kind of awesome for me ;)
He weighed 7 lbs. 9 oz and was 21.5 in long.
Greg looked at me after it was all over and said "Did that even hurt?!"
I just smiled, and said "Yeah but it wasn't too bad."
He just kind of shook his head and said "Maybe you shouldn't say that too loudly on this floor."
We're a pretty lucky bunch to have this little guy in our family. We just love him to pieces.
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