So let's take a trip back to Friday, Jan. 29. I had written a blog earlier that day. I remember I think I called it bad mood bears and was complaining about not feeling well. During my third grade class, I started feeling really bad. My heart was pounding like I had drank a couple pots of coffee and I was getting dizzy sitting at the piano. So when they left and I was waiting for my 6th grade band to come in, I called the Dr.s'. I left a message telling them how I was feeling. At this point I had a pretty bad headache too. They called me back within 5 minutes and said that I needed to leave work and go straight to the hospital to be monitored. They normally would have done this in office, but Fridays are their half days.
So I went into my principal's office and told him that I had to go. For once, he was sympathetic and even managed to give me a half hug. He came in to run the rest of my band class and I packed up my things.
Called A on my way home and told him that he needed to meet me at the house to go to the hospital. I could tell that he was nervous and excited - could this finally be it? But we had no idea since I wasn't actually in labor. He called his mom and I called my mom and it felt like forever for me to drive home.
A managed to beat me home, and as soon as I walked in the door we were on our way. It didn't take any time at all to get registered at the hospital and then we were up on our way to L&D. I got changed into my (crappy) gown, peed in a cup, and got hooked up to the monitors. I had to get blood taken. As we were waiting for the results of my tests I just laid there thinking that we should have stopped for lunch before coming here. I kept talking about Chick fil a and I think quite a few of the nurses ended up having the same craving after coming into my curtained area.
Before we got the results back my Dr. came in to talk to me. She said that I had two options. If my results came back ok, I could go home and be put on bed rest for the weekend. Or she could go ahead and induce me regardless. I used the excuse that my sister-in-law was coming in this weekend and that we should just go ahead and get this show going. Sucked for my midwife since she had just gotten off work for the weekend though! But if I had gone home, I still would have had to do that 24 hour pee test and be all around miserable.
We called our family to let them know that they needed to get up there and then before we knew it we were in the birthing room and I was being hooked up to the iv. Let me just say how bad that damn iv hurt! It hurt something awful! So I had the iv in my left hand and the stupid uncomfortable blood pressure band on my right arm. A's dad awkwardly sat in the room making weird comments as we waited for the drugs to kick in and everyone else to get there. I don't think A knew what to do. Of course I wouldn't know what to do either if I were in his place!
All of this was around 1 in the afternoon. I didn't start pushing until 3:30 in the morning!
I managed to go a few hours without any pain meds at all. I kept having to get up to go pee. I flipped channels on the tv and talked to my mom and A.
My Dr. came in to break my water and that was painful! She had this long plastic stick hook thing. It was pretty scary looking. It felt so gross when my water did break and warm stuff started coming out - ew. At one point it actually shot out and got on my sock! The nurses put towels under me to manage the mess and my Dr. put a fetal heart monitor up my who-ha so that they didn't need the one on my belly anymore. That was sure strange. But then again everything about the whole experience was strange to me.
When the pain started getting pretty bad, they gave me something in my iv to take the edge off. I don't know exactly what it was. It made me feel immediately high, and it was hard to focus on what people were saying to me. It was like I wasn't really there. Then I slept for a while. Oh, and I had to keep using the bed pan because after they give you any meds you aren't allowed to get up and walk around anymore. That was really hard to do. Even though I had to pee so super bad, it was hard to tell myself that it was ok to pee in bed. And I kept wanting to say sorry to the nurses for having to dump my pee and wipe me off.
I don't know what time it was or how many cm dilated I was when enough was enough, but I finally asked to get my epidural. I think having the other medicine first helped because I really wasn't too scared like I thought I would be and it didn't actually hurt that bad. I was a bit upset when they said that everyone had to leave the room. I was super jumpy when the anesthesiologist was cleaning my back and poking around. I bent over the bed with two nurses at my head and the med was put into place.
Then they put in my catheter. Now when I was reading through my book about labor I wondered why this had to be done when you get an epi. Now I know. Because you can't feel anything! I filled up a bag of pee without even knowing it!
It was a really weird feeling. My legs and feet went completely numb. I couldn't will myself to move them at all. I slept for quite a bit after this, and every so often they would have to move me. Right side, left side, back, repeat. The only help that I could be was grabbing the rails. The nurses had these tricks with the towels under me to help twist and move me.
At some point, the medicine wore off and I still wasn't near ready. They gave me a boost of the medicine. This made it better, but my pain still wasn't completely gone. By the time I was ready to push and my Dr. was back in the room I could feel every contraction. I could also feel my legs, although I still couldn't move them.
I originally thought that I only wanted A in the room while I was actually giving birth, but I had my mom stay after all. She had been so good staying by my side the whole night and reassuring me that I knew I needed her in there.
A was on my left side and mom was on my right. My Dr. was in position and I started pushing. I sat up, held my legs as best as I could, held my breath and pushed. I got about 3 pushes in per contraction. I pushed for a total of an hour. Yes, I pooped. Even though the only thing I had had to eat that whole day was a poptart first thing in the morning I still pooped. But there wasn't anything I could have done about it. You've got to give it everything you've got regardless.
A was really good about getting me ice chips and sips of water throughout. Finally, I could feel that something was actually happening and a few pushes later, Daven was here! I had been pushing for an hour. Daven was born at 4:38 in the morning of Jan. 30.
It was such an amazing feeling to see our baby boy held up and to hear him cry. A actually cut the chord! I don't know that I would have been able to do that if I were him, but he did it and I'm sure that he's glad he did it in the end. Then they set him on my chest and I was able to say hi to our baby boy!
They took him over to the other side of the room to clean him and get him warm, and A followed to make sure everything was ok. But I wasn't finished yet. I had to have a few stitches, and since the meds had worn off and I hadn't been allowed to have any more because of my bp, I felt all of the stitches. Then there was the placenta, which wasn't too bad. My Dr. asked if I wanted to see it - hells no!
What was super painful was all the pushing on my belly after it was all said and done to try to get things cleared out and make my uterus start to shrink back. I think I made more noise while they were doing that then I did the whole laboring process. Everyone commented on how quiet I was during the whole thing. A expected me to shout obscene things and scream. I did neither. The only time I got short with him was when I needed the oxygen mask and he wasn't putting it back on my face fast enough.
I also remember that throughout, especially close to pushing and after, my arms shook uncontrollably. I was also super cold. Apparently these were side effects of the medicine.
Finally they brought Daven back to me and I was able to try to breast feed for the first time. Then they took him down to the nursery for some tests and his first shower and I was prepared to be moved down to another room.
Becoming a mom has been truly amazing. I can't even really put it into words. It's also been extremely tough as well, mainly the breastfeeding, but it is worth it.
We've got pictures from the hospital, but I don't have those yet to post. Hopefully I will have some time to continue to update the blog. A and I love our baby boy Daven!
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