McReynolds Memories: Kevin's Arrival

Sunday July 26 I woke up as usual and got Amanda's breakfast ready. Ate mine and got dressed. That's when I noticed I had lost my mucous plug. I had heard in the many "expecting moms" communities that this usually means labor is probably starting in the next day or so, so I woke Mike for Church and told him about it. We decided since nothing seemed different, we would go to Church as planned. While at Church I started getting what I thought were braxton hicks. They were all over the place, sometimes 5 minutes apart, sometimes 10 minutes. And certainly not painful. When we got home, I checked my "What to Expect When You're Expecting" book and it said losing your mucous plug could mean nothing. Sometimes it's weeks until you go into labor. So I just pushed it to the back of my mind and went on with my day. Put Amanda down for a nap and watched some TV. Fell asleep in front of the TV and contractions stopped. In the afternoon we decided to take Amanda to the park. That's when contractions started up again, but again nothing regular and nothing very painful. Came home and had dinner, then I took a quick trip to the market to get food for our lunches for the week. Put Amanda to bed, and settled in front of the TV again. By this time contractions were a bit more regular, but still 7-8 minutes apart and still didn't feel like "labor" to me.

I headed to bed about 9:45 and that's when they started getting painful and closer together. Finally gave up trying to sleep about 10:30 and decided to get up and time them. 5 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute... yup, must be in labor! Still, Mike had to convince me to call my mom to come and take care of Amanda. I didn't want to be the woman who shows up at the hospital and gets turned away because she's barely 1 cm! Anyway, we changed the sheets on our bed so my mom would have a place to sleep and finished packing everything for the hospital. My mom arrived at 11:30 and contractions were 3 minutes apart by that time and getting more and more painful. We left for the hospital and arrived there at midnight. Checked in and got in my hospital gown and got checked - I was already 4 cm!

The nurse told me to just let her know when/if I wanted an epidural, I said ASAP PLEASE!! So she got the IV drip ready. It took about 30 minutes to get the necessary fluids in, during which time she entered me in the computer and got everything set up. Then they had to call the anesthesiologist and by the time he got there it was 1am. I moved into position for the epidural, and that's when my water broke. By that time I was screaming in pain and begging him to give me some relief already! He finished (1st time, thank GOD!) putting in the epidural and asked if I was still feeling pressure, I said yes, so they checked me - 10 cm and ready to push! Just then the doctor walked in, so they set up and after about a push and a half, Kevin was born at 1:40 am! 6 lbs, 2 oz. and 19.5 inches long.

Mike and are still surprised at how fast labor went compared to Amanda's which was about 12 hours. Anyway, I had a very nice stay at the hospital for 2 days. They took great care of me. My mom & sisters took care of Amanda on Monday and all came to visit me. Amanda was a bit scared of me in the hospital bed and wouldn't come say hi, but she got over it by the time I got home.