Well Friday, May 2nd started off as another normal day- I woke up still pregnant! Being 5 days away from my due date and already 4 cm dilated and 50% effaced, I was getting anxious to say the least. I had been trying everything to bring on my contractions, and they were coming, just not strong enough to put me into labor. So I had decided I was going to take castor oil- yes I was that desperate. I loaded up the girls in the car and we went to Albertsons to buy some and then to Carls Jr. to buy a yummy cookies and cream shakes to mix it with. I consulted with my friend, Liz, who had successfully done the same thing to go into labor once and I felt good about my chances. At 9:40 that morning I took 2T of the castor oil, mixed in with some of the shake. Then at 11:00 I realized that wasn't the full 2 oz I had read online to take so I took 2T more with a little bit of shake. I had decided to keep Brooklynn home from school just in case anything happened (we had previously already decided, after her expressing her desire, to be apart of the labor and delivery process). I informed Paul and my mom that I had taken the castor oil so they were "on-call" so to speak. I also told my friend, Haley, so she offered to come pick up my Maylee and take her to school. Brooklynn and I had a little lunch and then we put Lyla down for a nap. I started to feel a little queasy around 1:00 so I laid down on my bed for awhile to take a rest. At 2:10 I had my first contraction. Then another at 2:15, 2:19, 2:21... It was hard to determine if they were going to keep coming or stop just as they had been doing for so many days now. The oil did send me to the toilet for about 10 minutes and just flushed me out, but I was actually grateful to get it all out before delivery. My mom called to check on me when she got off work and I told her I was having consistent contractions and she just needed to come straight over. The contractions kept coming... 2:24, 2:27, 2:31, 2:34. I called Paul who was finishing up delivering a car in Temecula- I told him he should come home, I had decided it was time to go to the hospital. I wasn't in a lot of pain yet but that previous Sunday I had had consistent, low-pain contractions for about 3 hours and after I showered to prep for the hospital they had stopped and when I told my OB about it the following Tuesday, at my weekly check up, she scolded me saying if my contractions were ever 5 minutes apart again I needed to get to the hospital so they could set me up on antibiotics for my positive Beta Strep. They like to have you on those antibiotics for a minimum of 4 hours prior to delivery. So to the hospital we were going to go. My sweet friend, Haley, offered to pick up Maylee from school and keep her and Lyla for me while we were at the hospital. So we packed up (Brooklynn was SO excited the time had finally come) and dropped Lyla off on our way, around 3:15 pm.
Here we are arriving at the hospital- Loma Linda in Murrieta- and walking in...
When I had registered at the hospital they told me if I go into labor between the hours of 11pm-5am to enter through the ER, otherwise just walk in the front door and they would take us to labor and delivery. Well I walked in through the front door and they said, "you need to enter through ER." Okay I thought, so they escorted us over. We checked in and they couldn't find my pre-registered paperwork (how annoying) so they told us to have a seat and they would call triage to come get us (and one other girl who had come in). So here we were waiting:
The ER was packed and my contractions were still coming every 2-4 minutes depending, and I was nervous thinking after every contraction, what if that is the last one and they just stop and I'm not really in labor? I was second-guessing myself the ENTIRE time. It was killing me. But they never stopped. Finally, an hour later, at 4:15 someone came to take us to triage. The nurse hooked me up to the monitor and sure enough there were my consistent contractions, just not peaking as high as I knew they needed to be. Paul told the nurse I had taken castor Oil (thanks a lot), which I'm sure she relayed to the OB on-call. After checking me she said I was maybe 4.5 cm and still 50% effaced as I had been at my appointment a few days prior so I know she didn't think I was really in labor (I really wasn't even fully convinced yet that it was going to happen that night), but because of my needing 4 hrs of antibiotics for the group B strep they decided to admit me- at 5:00. I walked from triage to my labor and delivery room and within those few minutes I hit active, intense labor. I had to stop a few times to breathe through the contractions and they were coming every 2 minutes. When we got to the room I felt like the staff got the word that I was coming to my room to have my 4 hrs of antibiotics and not that I was really in labor so they were moving at SNAIL speed, as my labor was progressing RAPIDLY! The nurse tried to get my IV in, but popped my vessel in both hands. She went looking for someone else to help (meanwhile, the castor oil sent me to the bathroom one last, quick time). At this point I had asked for my epidural and the anesthesiologist had come to give me one, but I still did not have my IV in, so seeing how much pain I was in, he administered it (with Paul and my mom's help because no nurses were to be found in my room- see SNAIL speed). The nurse checked me after and I was a 7, almost 8. Baby boy was coming quickly, no way I was going to get 4 hours of that antibiotic. I finally got my epidural in about 6:00 and then I kept waiting and waiting for it to kick in, thinking every contraction would be the last one I would feel... but it never really happened. Something didn't feel right. The nurse checked again and could feel that baby boy was down and in position, but face up and she thought that might be the reason the epidural wasn't working. I was getting relief, but feeling all the pressure in my abdomen with each contraction. By 6:30 I was at a 10 so they called my Dr. Safie who was on her way. To my surprise, right as I had hit a 10, my dad walked in. I was holding it all together until I saw him, then I lost it... the tears came. This would be the first birth of mine he would see and it made the moment feel that much more special.
Waiting for the Dr. to come so we can push! As you can see, Brooklynn was into it all. She held my hand, she watched them give me my IV, she held my throw-up bag. She didn't want to miss out on ANYTHING!
Dr. Safie finally arrived around 6:50 and got all prepped. As she went to check me, my water popped- all over her... poor thing! And when my water popped baby flipped so he was now face down to come out... HOORAY!! And just as that happened, in walked Paul's Mother. Talk about timing. This was grand baby #11 for her, and the first she would ever actually see be born!Pretty exciting!
Isn't Brooklynn so cute peeking over the side!?
A few pushes later and out came our first baby BOY, at 7:10 pm, with lots of dark hair- just like his sissies! I can't begin to tell you how special it was to have Brooklynn there and in love with the whole process! I hope she always remembers it!
Skin-to-skin
They FINALLY cleaned him up and weighed him- 8 pounds, 4.5 ounces and 20 inches long. Healthy Boy was here and still nameless! lol.
Paul and I had struggled the entire pregnancy with a name. I wanted something that was cute for a little boy, but strong for a man. I also wanted it to start with a different letter then any of our names so far (for our christmas stockings- I know, a silly reason), and I really wanted to continue our tradition of a "Y" in the spelling of the name (all my siblings and all my girls have a "Y" in their name). Paul just wanted a cool name. By the end of it, his two favorites were Paul Jr. (which I was NEVER going to let happen) and Bennett. My two favorites were Shayne (after my sister) and Deacon (got it from the show "Nashville"). I always knew Paul would give me my way, I was just patiently waiting for him to say it. He finally said for me to decide but of my two favorites he didn't really want Shayne because I would spell it with a "Y" and he thought it looked feminine, so Deacon it was! And we LOVE it!
Deacon Paul Giddings
May 2nd, 2014
8.5 lbs
20 inches
The day actually turned out perfectly because I went into labor just as my mom got off work, and was home for the weekend and for Paul too. We ended up needing to stay in the hospital for two nights because I didn't get those 4 hours of antibiotics but Deacon was just fine (just like Maylee was when I was positive for group B with her too and didn't get antibiotics for longer than 45 minutes).
How blessed and grateful we are to have this little man in our family and in our lives. It was a long, rough 9 months but all worth it. We already feel his sweet and calm spirit. You can already see such strength and wisdom behind his eyes. When I look at him, I just see endless stories he wants to tell us about getting here. So many emotions surround His story already... can't wait to see where it goes from here!
