Since I'm nothing if not verbose, you can read Parts 1 and 2 to get caught up on the birth story so far.
We took the elevator up to the labor and delivery floor where a hilarious nurse asked me to sign papers, realized that was so not happening, and allowed Drew to sign me in. Drew then wheeled me into triage so they could check my progress. After all the water in the car, I desperately had to pee, so I asked the nurse if I could go before they checked me. She laughed and said "just don't push". Whatever. I went into the bathroom... and then realized I had to push. I yelled to the nurse (sidenote: they let me into the bathroom BY MYSELF at this point AND closed the door... what were they thinking?) who came sprinting in. I was half bent over as I heard her say "yup, there's the head".
I guess we were in business. The next couple of minutes are kind of a blur, but from what I remember they laid me on a stretcher, covered me with a blanket, and sprinted me down the hall to the delivery room while several people yelled at me not to push and to hold on. Did they not realize I was trying as hard as I could? We got to the room, and I somehow moved onto the labor bed and then begged to push.
A few agonizing moments later, and Bentley was here. All 5 lbs, 10 ounces of tiny baby. The doctor laughed and asked the nurse how long this had all taken. She said I had arrived 8 minutes earlier.
That's right people. EIGHT minutes. If Drew's parents had taken a few more minutes to get to our house. Or I had waited ten more minutes to wake up Drew (which I had debated about because I wasn't sure it was really labor) or if Drew had parked in the parking garage like I told him to- this kid would have been born in the car... or in the parking garage... scary.
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The next couple of hours were spent actually admitting me to the hospital, checking on B (who was perfect, though tiny) and texting everyone we could think of with the news. Now that it's over, it's hilarious how quickly it all went down. From the first contraction at 12:40 AM to baby at 3:26 AM, it was a birth story worthy of retelling; which apparently the hospital staff did, because every nurse and doctor we saw in our two days there knew all about Bentley's grand entrance.
If you missed the beginning; read how labor started with Part 1 of Bentley's birth story. Otherwise, continue on.
Okay, so Drew's parents arrived, and we headed out to the hospital. Oh, did I mention that we now live 45ish minutes away from the hospital, and that by the time we left my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart? No... probably not important anyhow.
The entire ride to the hospital I was working on my deep breathing and trying not to concentrate on the pain. As much as I had planned my labor out to the nth degree with Fynn, I actually hadn't thought much about labor this time around... stupid, stupid. I knew I wanted to go for an all natural labor again this time, but I hadn't thought about labor breathing or any other labor techniques, except for food- I had Sour Patch Kids and chocolate-covered almonds in my bag- the important stuff.
The closer we got to the hospital, the closer the contractions became. I stopped timing them about 5 minutes into the ride because they were almost on top of each other and it was kind of freaking me out. Luckily, it was 3 AM, so there wasn't much traffic beyond the plow trucks and dump trucks that were trying to remove some of the snow... we may or may not have gone through a couple of red lights.
Oh, did I mention the other stupid thing we'd done? We hadn't practiced the drive to the hospital from the new house... so when we got into the city, we couldn't remember which way to go. Now, this is nothing new to me- in labor or not I would have had no idea where we were, so this was all on Drew. We didn't drive around much, but I was a little panicked for a moment when I thought we were going to be lost and I was about to die.
The contractions this time around were SO much stronger than last time; I was a mess and on the way told Drew that I was maybe, kinda, sorta, need something to take the edge off the pain if this was going to go on for another couple of hours.
By the time we reached the hospital, the contractions were back to back and I could barely breathe. However, I still told Drew to go ahead and park in the parking garage- I could totally walk from there. Good thing Drew knows I'm an idiot and didn't listen to me. He pulled the car up to the front entrance and just left it there as he helped me inside. Right as we got through the doors, I had another huge contraction and had to lean on Drew just to keep from falling over. I must have scared the security guard on duty because he sprinted over to the doors with a wheelchair which I happily collapsed into.
All I had to do for the next couple of minutes was breathe and ride in the wheelchair. Easier said than done, but I managed.
