I went to my regular weekly appointment on Monday, April 7th and the doctor that checked me didn't think Lucas was coming anytime soon! This actually made me happy since my mom was scheduled to arrive on Friday and I didn't want her to miss his birth.
That being said....on Tuesday night (April 8th) my stomach was pretty hard and I was getting worried because it took a lot of prodding to get Lucas to move. I mentioned to TJ before we went to bed that if it still felt like this in the morning, I was going to call the doctor. TJ slept in the spare bedroom because at this point I was getting up every hour to use the bathroom or reposition myself and he had a job interview on Wednesday.
Around midnight, I woke up to use the bathroom and when I stood up, I felt a gush (sorry TMI) so I ran to the bathroom. I remember thinking, if I can stop it, then my water didn't just break. No such luck...my water had officially broken. This didn't happen with William until after my epidural so it was all new to me. I went to tell TJ and he was so confused, his response was, "Can he wait?...LOL!"
Keep in mind that at this point I had not felt any normal contractions, I called the after hours care and waiting for the doctor to call me back. Within 10 minutes of waiting for the doctor to call back, I had 3 contractions!! The doctor advised me to come on in! We frantically called TJ's parents to come on down and watch William since he was sleeping. We were still living in Bealeton so they were at least an hour away!
I showered (YAY!), had a pop tart, and then monitored my contractions, now 3 minutes apart and very painful! I was so worried I was going to miss my "epidural window!"
We got to the hospital a little after 2:30 a.m. and I was admitted being 5 cm and having regular contractions. The plus side to having your water break is that you go right into a labor and delivery room, no triage room to check your contractions :)
I got my epidural around 4:30 and both TJ and I tried to get some rest before Lucas was born. We had to giggle because the lady in the room next to mine was screaming in pain (It sounded like a tortured cat!) which made it a little hard to sleep!
As with William, the epidural slowed down my labor so we had a little while to wait! At 8:30 the nurse told me I was ready to go and we would start pushing soon! The doctor came in at 9:20 a.m. and after 3 1/2 pushes Lucas was born at 9:44 a.m. I remember thinking, that's it, he's really here?? It was so easy!! They weren't worried with Lucas so I got to hold him right away and TJ got to cut the umbilical cord. It was amazing!
Little Lucas was 8 lbs 13 oz and 20.75 inches long (three weeks early....lets just say that Mommy was happy he didn't wait much longer as he would have been huge!)
Lucas did have an extended stay in the hospital due to jaundice, but Mommy got to stay with him! Lucas also broke his clavicle during delivery :( When he had his first pediatrician appointment, I mentioned that he always cried when he breastfed on the left. An X-ray confirmed he had a broken clavicle. Apparently, it is very common and they only treatment is to be extra careful and keep him comfortable for 2 weeks until it heals on its own. In hindsight, I now know why he screamed and hated the light therapy....look at how his arms had to be up....he must have been in so much pain :(
We are so fortunate and blessed that our little family is complete :)
The light therapy for his jaundice...was very hard as he hated it!
You can tell here that his left arm isn't up like the right one :(
