9.13.15 Poppy's Birthday! The day started out horribly! I was up in the middle of the night feeling horrible and then started getting sick around 5am. It wasn't my typical pregnancy nausea so I immediately thought I had food poisoning. We had gone to eat at Stroud's with both our parents the night before in hopes of sending me into labor (Cole's mom once heard this would do the trick and it worked with Sylvie so we were going for round 2). No one else was sick and I spent the entire day in bed not eating a thing and having failed attempts at keeping fluids down. Cole took the kids to eat with his family and his mom took Sylvie to build a bear for her birthday present. Meanwhile I continued to be terribly sick. I called my OB who agreed that I must have some sort of a bug. She encouraged me to stay hydrated and warned this might send me into labor. Late afternoon I started having some non painful contractions and noticed Poppy didn't seem to be moving around much. I still at this point didn't think I was any where near going into labor. I called my sis and we decided if she still wasn't moving much in a bit I should probably head into the hospital to get checked out. After eating a popsicle and immediately throwing it up, I decided to take a hot bath in hopes of feeling a little better. Not long after I started having some painful contractions. I called Cole who was downstairs and told him I was worried about her not moving and I was thinking we should head in to make sure everything was ok, I also casually mentioned I was having some painful contractions and he immediately went into Dad mode and headed to move car seats into his parents cars and said we were definitely heading to the hospital. For some reason I was still in denial and slowly started to get out of the tub and walk around our room throwing the final items into the hospital bag. I called my mom to let her know we were heading in just to get checked out and told her I'd call and let her know if she needed to come, she knew better and said she was on the way to the hospital. After a few more minutes of gathering items it became obvious I was definitely in labor. The contractions were stopping me in my footsteps and I was bent over in pain. I started to panic a little since I'm known for having quick labors and rushed out of the house. We told the kids we were going to the hospital to see if Poppy was ready to come and they got so excited! Sylvie said, "Really???" So at 5:30pm I waddled to the car in horrible pain and spent the whole 15 minute drive to the hospital in contraction after contraction. They were coming super fast and I knew it wasn't going to be long. We got to the hospital at 5:45pm and as I was checking in a the front desk I was kneeling on the floor bending over a chair attempting to get through the back to back contractions. Then I got the terrible feeling that I was going to get sick. Unfortunately there was no trash can near and I ended up throwing up all over the waiting room floor...which was occupied by many families including kids...talk about embarrassing! That seemed to get everyone's attention and I was stuck in a wheel chair and wheeled up to the triage room. There it was determined I was already dilated to a 6 and most definitely in labor. I was taken to the labor and delivery room where I was immediately asking for an epidural. I was so weak from not eating for 24 hours and was terrified to be going into labor with so little energy. I had low platelets throughout the pregnancy so they had to wait for results from my blood draw to be sure my platelets were up before giving me the epidural. These were the longest minutes of my life! The contractions were pretty constant and I had zero energy to get into any positions to help ease the pain. I just laid in the bed on my side gripping onto the rails and Cole's hand. Finally the platelet count came back fine and the anesthesiologist began administering the epidural. After it was in I was still in lots of pain but was starting to feel a small amount of relief. Then the Dr. came in and checked me and I was at a 10 and ready to push! She broke my water and all of the sudden it felt like the epidural had never happened. She told me it was time to push to which I replied, "I don't think I can" and she smartly said "Well that's how you have a baby!" With my mom, sister, and Cole by my side I somehow gathered the strength and pushed for just few minutes and then at 7:03pm (only an hour and 18 minutes after getting to the hospital) miss Poppy Lynn Erdmann entered the world! No one could believe how fast the whole thing had gone! As predicted the epidural kicked in right after she was born and I was numb for the next few hours...just a little too late! We had skin to skin time and she nursed for the first time like a champ! She weighed in at 7 lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long. Sylvie and Magnus came to meet her and as you can see in the photos were beyond excited! They loved on her and held her for the first time and we got to be together for the first time as a family of 5! She was also lucky enough to meet two sets of grandparents and and Aunt and an Uncle within her first few hours. What started out to be a very rough day, ended in one of the happiest days of my life!
