Living the Bishop Family Dream: Happy Birthday Camden

At 37 weeks I started experiencing prodromal labor or false labor. It really played with my mind! It would last pretty much off and on all day and all night but never intensified and remained pretty sporadic. It definitely didn't help with the "any day now" mentality that is hard not to get trapped in after 36 weeks. But anyone who knows me would agree... I'm a planner. We had set an induction date for 39 weeks, my parents had their plane tickets booked, and I had a to-do list a mile long. So even though the idea of my discomfort coming to an end a little early was very appealing I was definitely okay with waiting until 39 weeks to meet our little guy. With Rae I was induced. I loved the predictability of the situation (my parents were already in town, my bag was packed, I bought donuts for my nurses, went out to dinner with our family the night before, and my house was perfectly clean- ready for a newborn). I remember telling Bradyn that I did feel like I missed out on the unknown and exciting experience of timing contractions, laboring at home, and Bradyn speeding to the hospital. But not enough to not to cancel the induction date haha.

When I hit 38 weeks I actually started feeling pretty good again. I was sleeping through the night for the first time in months, my pelvic pain was a lot less, and the prodromal labor stopped. I was looking forward to the last few days with Rae as an only child, crossing the last few things off my list, and cleaning my house. Monday January 15 Bradyn didn't have school. I took advantage of him being home to get some serious cleaning done. Basically all those weird "nesting" cleaning things that don't really matter but bug you when you are 38 weeks pregnant. Like the dust bunnies accumulating on the ceiling fans and under our beds. My shark vacuum and I spent a good part of the afternoon together as I vacuumed the heck out of my house. Then I decided to let dad have some one-on-one with Rae as I headed to the store to stock up on groceries and household essentials. After pushing my heavy cart through the store for 30 minutes I started to experience what I thought was prodromal labor again. I'd gotten pretty good at ignoring at it at this point. I got home and Rae was already in bed. Bradyn had to run a few errands of his own so I took advantage of the quiet house and took a bath (this had become a nightly ritual for weeks now).

At 9:30 pm I noticed the "prodromal labor" was starting to intensify but I was still trying to ignore it. Bradyn got home and by 10:00 pm I was in a lot of pain but still not convinced I was labor. Everyone says you'll know when you are having contractions but it wasn't at all how I thought it would be. I was trying to time the contractions and they were coming 2 minutes apart but at different intensities. So I told myself it was still prodromal labor. At 10:15 I told Bradyn he should probably start packing our bags (which was on the to-do list but I was saving it for tomorrow... oops). I figured I would be able to help between contractions. I had luckily made a list the week before but lets just say I was definitely more in the way than I was helping. I was pacing around our room like a crazy person. It took me about 20 minutes to just get myself dressed because of all the contractions. By 10:45 pm we were headed to the hospital. I had two fears as we drove to the hospital- both on opposite sides of the spectrum. On one end I was worried they would tell me I was just experiencing gas pain and on the other I was afraid they would tell me I was a 10 and I wouldn't have time for my precious epidural. We had to check-in through the ER so it wasn't until about 11:30 before we were up to Labor and Delivery. They checked my cervix and I was at 5 and my membranes were bulging. Perfect... right in the middle. Definitely not gas pain and still time for an epidural... yay!

The anesthesiologist was a busy guy that night and I had to wait about an hour for him to come in. Every new person who walked into my room for that hour I was so disappointed to find out they weren't the anesthesiologist lol. By 12:30 I got my epidural I was a 7 and they decided to call my doctor (he is awesome and delivers all of his patients' babies... even if its 1 am).

When my doctor arrived he confirmed I was a 10 but the amniotic sac was keeping the baby's head too high so he broke my water. 20 minutes later the resident came in and asked if I was feeling any pressure or urge to push. I wasn't but asked him to check anyway. Boom there was the head! They had me do one practice push and then gowned up. I pushed through 3 contractions and at 1:34 am on Tuesday January 16 we got to meet our sweet little Camden.

He weighed 6 lbs 4 oz and was 20 inches long

<OVER-SHARE WARNING> I delivered at a teaching hospital so in the room was my doctor, the resident (who was the one to actually deliver the baby) and a med student. Also there was my nurse, a nurse for Camden, and a nurse being trained. It was a full room. My doctor let the resident stitch up my tear. He did a great job but it took a really long time. As I was sitting there spread eagle admiring my cute little Cam I heard a weird noise. It was a sound I recognized but couldn't quite figure out what it was. My doctor looked up and said "don't worry about that- its not your fault- its the epidural making you do that". Do what? What did I just do? Then I realized. I had just farted on the poor resident as he was stitching me up. (To that poor resident out there... I am sorry). I've always been worried about pooping while pushing (which has never happened) but at least that is a little more discrete while there is the excitement and hustle and bustle around you as you push. I farted in a room full of people when it was pretty much silent. It was pretty embarrassing, It honestly just makes me worried for future births. I'm not longer worried about pooping on the table. I worried about farting uncontrollably. Eek.