Labor and Delivery

Jul 23, 2006 19:29

The following is a true story. . . terrifying, but true

So the baby was born early Thursday morning. We had been at mom and dad's because the air conditioning was out at our house. The home warranty took care of fixing it, but we had to clear out with the animals for awhile. We had been hanging out there for awhile. I'd had some uncomfortable moments during the day, but we didn't start timing anything until around 4 or so, when Gilmore Girls came on. Then I was like, well, these are too close together to be real. Crazy, I know. I was in total denial, up to the point they said, yes, it's real. It felt just exactly like a fist grabbing my spine, squeezing, then letting go. I had some greenish/brown discharge and a lot of mucus discharge, so I called the dr's office and they said it was most likely labor and we should go ahead and go. I was already 39 weeks and a few days, so it was time. So Scott drove us back to Mid-County in my Equinox with me timing my contractions. I hate him driving me around, but there wasn't much choice. At least I had the contractions to time. They went from 4 minutes to 3 minutes. He dropped me off and I went upstairs to labor and delivery. The nurse I saw there said I didn't look like I was in labor. That was the first irritating thing. I didn't know what to tell her. I was in labor, so they took me to a room, I took off my clothes and they checked me. It was the first unpleasantness coming from that area. They determined I was in labor. She kept asking me all these questions that I was hurting a lot to answer. I was feeling contractions pretty hard by this time. I know they needed to know if I could talk through the contractions, etc, but it was annoying. Scott had come in by that point. Poor thing, we just had no idea what was going on. When they decided I was in labor, they brought me to a delivery room and hooked up an IV in my hand, took blood before they could do the epidural, etc. I had some Nubain and Pellegrin (?) to help until they could do the epidural. Scott was making all the phone calls to his parents, my parents, etc. So eventually everyone was up there. After the epidural, I labored very easily for hours. I didn't think the nurses had much experience. The one I had kept having to get someone else to come make sure where I was at. The risk of a night birth, I guess. I threw up twice from the medicines. I had gotten to a 10, but she wasn't in position, so we started pushing. The epidural make my legs completely numb, so I couldn't really tell how to push or where to push, etc. It was bad, so they turned down the epidural. It was way harsh. I know I couldn't have dealt with the pain without the epidural, so after they turned it down, I wanted to die. To get me to push correctly, they played tug-of-war with a sheet, propped my feet up on a bar and pushed on my legs. I kind of lost track of things there for awhile. Like an out-of-body experience. Lots of pain, nurses telling me to push, push to my bottom, breathe. Poor Scott, I don't know what he was doing during this time. At some point they put an oxygen mask on me. I was really close to going into a c-section when she started coming out. By that time the numbness had mostly gone away and I could push in earnest. They should have taken the epidural out earlier, I guess. So she came out and it was such a relief, then they started in on me getting the placenta out and sewing me up. There was a lot of blood; I think I lost more than usual. Stitches, etc, then they started pushing on my belly to get the placenta out and the uterus back in shape. It was traumatizing. Such a total insult to my person. I've never had to much trauma to that part of my anatomy.
So it took some time to do that. Since the whole labor took so long, Scott's parents were able to see her when he brought her out, which was nice. They were really excited. Everyone stayed until she was born and brought out. She came out at 2:26, I wasn't ready to be seen until 3:30 or so. Nana, mom, Mary, Amanda, Hillary and Scott's parents were all there. I was so tired. They let me recover for a few hours then brought me a Vicadin, then took me to a post partum room. this was about 4:15 or so. They brought her in a little while later, and helped me start breastfeeding. Didn't work out so well, still working on it now at home. But we got to see her and spend time with her. The dr came by early that morning and different nurses with different instructions. I was in a lot of pain, bleeding a lot, my back was hurting, my arms hurt from the tug-of-war. Scott's parents came by to see her, take him home to shower and have lunch, clean up the house, etc. Mom came by before she had to go to work to see us with some flowers and cookies. Amanda and Hillary came by before her class. Pastor came by to see us. It was nice, but still painful. They said I could go home on Friday. It took forever to get the paperwork finished. I had to be checked out, the baby had to be checked out, etc. I had been trying to take a nap earlier that morning and everyone and their mother kept coming in and didn't have any compunction about waking me up, either. I had been trying to nurse, but again, everyone and their mother kept coming in. The final straw was when the guy bring the Port Arthur News just waltzed in. So I just gave it up until we got home. Scott drove us home. Mom and Dad were there and had made a big fish fry for everyone. Mom stayed Friday night and Saturday night and we thought she was going home Sunday, but she came back with Starbucks and a baby book. So it's Sunday night and I'm just now sitting down to record this. I felt bad being on the computer while she was here working, so I waited until she left, but now she's back and I need to do this. Thank God for her, really. We'd be ok tonight by ourselves, but she feels like she needs to stay, so she came back. I guess I'll have a lot of time to ourselves. It'll be a little relief to have my house back, but she's a much better cook and house keeper than I am. Lily loves having her around.
About the baby . . .
Our baby is just the most perfect thing. All pink and rosebud lips. She looks just like my baby pictures, but her facial expressions, especially when she doesn't want to wake up, are just like Scott. The first night we were both up for most of the night; the second night we had a plan - she would take the first half, I would take the second, but the baby slept pretty peacefully most of the night. Restless, but not fussy. I took her bassinet to the bedroom around 3:30 and she was really good for the rest of the night. I sang to her when she was restless, but she was just fine. We'll see how tonight goes.

I can't imagine doing it again. I swore I'd never do it again, but time has passed, just a few days and I catch myself thinking about next time. I don't want to do it again, I'm still in a lot of pain.
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