Sent home from the hospital again and finally: the birth.........

Wednesday evening, March 10th, Frank and I spent the evening watching NCIS episodes. I started noticing contractions that were consistent and more painful than before. They eventually got closer together until they were 5 minutes apart. We waited for 2 hours and then headed to the hospital around 10 pm. At the hospital, I was hooked up to the monitors again and the nurses confirmed that my contraction were 5 minutes apart but I was only 1 cm dilated. After about 2 hours they sent us home and said to wait for the contractions to get stronger but they were sure I would go into labor in the next few hours - days. We arrived home around 12:30 am and by 1 am, I was pretty sure I was finally in labor. The contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and much stronger! I took a bath and walked around the house, bounced on my exercise ball, etc to try to distract myself from the pain. Finally around 2:30 am, I awoke Frank and told him we had to go back to the hospital. This time the hospital kept us there. I was still not dilating but since I was feeling so much pain, they admitted me. Around 5 am, I was 2-3 cm dilated and they offered me the epidural which I gladly accepted after 4 hours of painful contractions. The epidural was incredible!!! I felt no more pain and I was able to sleep! After receiving the epidural, the nurses started me on pitocin to kick the contractions into gear and they broke my water. Then they moved us to a labor and delivery room that was huge! We had a gorgeous view of the Hollywood Hills and we could even see the Hollywood sign!

At 1 pm, the nurse came in to check me and I was fully dilated but the baby was still high so they were going to wait for him to drop more before pushing. A couple hours later, he still had not dropped so the nurse decided I should push some just to see if it would help him along. I pushed for 2 hours before the doctor came in and said my pushing was great but it was not doing anything :(. Everytime I pushed, he would move down the birth canal but once I stopped pushing, he was returning to his original position. Also, I was now running a fever so the doc was concerned about infection. He told us he felt a C-section would be best at this point. We were extremely disappointed but ultimately we just wanted Frankie to be delivered safely. Once we agreed to the C-section, Frank was given sterile scrubs to put on and I was whisked away to an OR for prep and Frank was brought in to sit beside me before they started. Baby Frankie was born March 11th at 7:10 pm; He was 7 lbs 12 oz and 20.5 inches and he had a head full of hair! Frank cut the cord and snapped lots of pictures.