bAby eLaM: Maverick Carter Elam has ARRIVED!!

It's bitter-sweet to not have done my 40 week blog yesterday! As you all know, I had "the plan" of when he was supposed to come and for my many reasons, but Maverick had his own. Here's how it went down...

Let's back up to Monday, January 27th. I slept on Davis Island the night before on my air mattress because we are pretty much all moved in, but I had a 7am doctor's appointment. I felt great. I literally said to Tessa as I was going to sleep, "I don't even feel like I'm at the stage of 'OMG I feel huge, I feel like I just want him to get out of me'!" I went to work, was wearing heels (for most of the day), and then went to a PCTA Legislative Reception until 7pm. I STILL felt great! Well about 8:30/9ish I started feeling these pains in my lower uterus. It felt like sharp pains of gas bubbles and constipation. They say that's a normal part of pregnancy, especially towards the end, so I didn't think much of it. Around 9:13 I felt them more and more and was really uncomfortable. But stupid me, still was convinced that it was just gas/constipation. I tracked my pains all night. They got to be pretty consistent--anywhere between 3 and 8 minutes apart. ALL NIGHT. The most I slept was in a one 20 minute increment. The rest were like 5 minutes at a time and then I was up with pain. I sucked it up and went to work Tuesday morning. I was still feeling the pain, but it was tolerable. I was just praying at some point I'd have the time and urge to go to the bathroom. Then I could go back to the plan as scheduled.

Tuesday, about mid-morning I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't focus on work. I couldn't sit in a chair for a long time. I was miserable and TIRED. I decided to go ahead and take a half day. I was really trying not to let my pregnancy get in the way of my job and I had done a really good job so far. I was a little disappointed that it was happening like this. I had a mani/pedi scheduled for later than afternoon and thought I'd try to move it up so that I could get home sooner and lay down. SPA801 was very accommodating. They moved my haircut up, my mani/pedi, and even my waxing from the following day to right after my mani/pedi. I thought a spa day might be a good relaxer and if nothing else I could check it off my to-do list before I did go into labor. I napped in my car, went to the SPA and went home feeling a little bit better. Not for long. Again I was up all night moaning, punching/tapping the wall, complaining, and taking a million baths/showers. I dirtied EVERY single towel and pair of underwear we own. Every time I got out of the shower I'd put on new panties and they'd be damp/wet within minutes to an hour. Thank goodness Justin wasn't staying at the new place yet. He would have been a) uncomfortable with me walking around half naked, moaning and b) really pissed I kept him up all night. Around 3 am I called USF Health and tried to talk to an on-call physician. (I did this Monday. They told me "just try to relax" and that I could take gas-x or something.) So I called twice Tuesday night. Both times I talked to the same doctor. She was not very nice or compassionate. She basically told me it sounds like warm up labor and to keep tracking my
"contractions" and not to come in until they follow the "511" rule (5 minutes apart, last at least 1 minute for 1 hour). On average I could have gone in, but if I literally tracked every one I couldn't get to the exact 511 formula and STILL wasn't convinced that they were real contractions. I made it until 4am and texted my mom. I wanted her to come hang out with me the next day and maybe take me to the hospital to get checked out. We concocted a plan and were going to wait until it got later in the morning and she could do a few things before coming over. At 7 Kyle came out to the couch were I was "napping' every 4-5 minutes and moaning and groaning the rest of the time. He suggested I call again. So this time, I called and tried to make a regular appointment to just get checked by my doctor. This nurse was SO NICE AND COMPASSIONATE and listened to me. She said it sounds like my water did break and that I was in labor. She said I could go right into the hospital and they would check me there since was 39 weeks and it sounded like I was already in labor.

Kyle got showered and ready. We headed over the bridge to Tampa and pulled up the ramp and into the emergency valet lane. They took our car and directed us up to the 4th floor. Just in case I was wrong and I was in labor, we had all my bags and everything. Sure enough, I get into triage, get naked, and lay down. The nurses come in, start asking me all these questions--including: "Why did you wait so long to come in?" REALLY LADY? YOUR STUPID DOCTORS KEPT TELLING ME I WAS IN WARM UP LABOR AND TO BASICALLY SUCK IT UP!!--anyways, sure enough, I was 5 cm dilated, 90% effaced, and his head was in a -2 position (below my pelvic bone). They got me admitted and moved into a beautiful room overlooking the bay. Too bad the weather was so crappy and we couldn't enjoy the view. But it was still nice. Kyle did an AMAZING job of immediately updating everybody and keeping them updated throughout the rest of my labor. (See all of the facebook posts below for the blow by blow according to the new daddy.) My mom headed right over to the hospital and so did Kyle's mom.

My "now for sure" contractions, were coming on stronger and stronger now, but I held it together. I breathed through them, squinted my face, and tried not to embarrass Kyle (or myself) too much by moaning and groaning too loud. I immediately asked for an epidural and they got the process started. Once that was in it was SMOOTH sailing. It wasn't even scary. It also didn't hurt at all. It was EXTREMELY uncomfortable how I had to sit with all the pressure and contractions happening. I didn't like that at all. I just had to keep telling myself that as soon as these people were done I would be home free. Sidenote: One of the anesthesiologists had to explain all of the "risks" to me and he sounded like freaking Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Talked so slow and mono tone and said ooookkaaaaay after every sentence. YES I FREAKING GET IT. I DON'T CARE. GET THIS THING IN MY BACK ASAP AND BE CAREFUL. I took a little nap around 7cm dilate and tried to rest up for the rest of the day. When the nurses came back I asked if they would just check me for shits and giggles and see if I had made any progress. They agreed and surprisingly announced that I was fully dilated!! wooo whooo! Next up is pushing. They went and got a doctor, but she was going to the OR so they had to "see how I was going to be at pushing" and then find "somebody to deliver my baby". LOL Well they didn't have much luck, everybody was having babies at the same time. BUT they said we could see how I push and then go from there. Good thing I didn't tie up a doctor because I sucked at pushing. I couldn't feel anything from the epidural and wasn't being very helpful. They called anesthesiology and they came to lower my dose of epidural. So once I could feel again I tried to push. I pushed for 3 hours. I was exhausted and Maverick was making minimal progress. At one point his heart rate started to dip, I was on oxygen, and I just wanted it all to be over. I didn't think he was ever coming out.

The doctor that was checking in with us came in and checked our progress. She said she didn't think it was a good idea for me to keep pushing and that we needed to get me into surgery ASAP. I wasn't even worried. I was more relieved that it would be over and I didn't have to push (or feel like I sucked at pushing) anymore. Then the excitement came. LOTS of people came rushing in. I started getting wheeled into the OR so fast the nurses were still trying to get a sheet on top of me as they were taking me out. Everybody had to go to the waiting room, except Kyle. They took him and got him suited up. I felt like I was in Grey's Anatomy. It's so bright in there. But it's like a party!! Everybody was greeting each other and doing their stuff as fast as possible. They were all extremely nice, funny, and took great care of me. Before I knew it, I was strapped to the table, poked, prodded, and tested. They fixed my epidural so that I couldn't feel again (thank god that worked ASAP). Then I was cut open, Kyle came in, Maverick got pulled out. Apparently, he was positioned a little from the side so he was trying to go crooked down through my pelvic bone. He was also a little face up instead of down, which isn't the end of the world, but combined with the crookedness, the dr. said no matter what I would have done it wouldn't have mattered and he wouldn't have come out naturally. Oh well. Kyle got to stick around with Maverick as he got cleaned up and checked out. I got stitched up and wheeled to recovery to meet the rest of our families.

So all in all... 43 hours of labor (36 of which I just thought I was extremely constipated). 3 hours of pushing. and then an "emergency" c-section. (It wasn't a super emergency but they said they had to have me done in 30 minutes and they were very "urgent".

He is perfect and I don't care how it happened or that he was 1 day early or that I missed 2 extra days of work. It was all worth it to hold this perfect little bundle of job.