Baby D is HERE!
(I wrote this 10 days after D was born, but didn't publish it. Sleepless nights=rattled brain.)
She's here! And she's gorgeous! She's seven pounds, nine ounces, and nineteen inches of L.O.V.E. Here's her birth story.
Sunday, July 10 was my mom's birthday. Barry and I started the evening off by taking B, C, and A to my parents' house for the night. We had birthday dinner with my family and then came home for showers and last minute packing. Lesson #1 for those of you who have yet to deliver a child--EAT! Once you get to the hospital, ice chips become your BFF. They aren't filling. They just make you have to go to the potty quite often...more often than you normally have to go in the last few weeks of pregnancy. It may be HOURS before you eat again. Lesson #2--take a shower before you go to the hospital. It may be HOURS before you get to take one once you get there. Are you noticing the HOURS theme? Yeah, hang in there. It comes back around later on.
We arrive at the hospital and use the emergency room entrance. I always find this a little embarrassing. I've been induced for the last three deliveries and it goes a little something like this: First of all, you get the "you better not get to go back there before me or I might go postal" stink eye. So I usually loudly tell the admissions clerk that I am just using the entrance to get up to Labor and Delivery. Insert collective sigh of relief from those who just gave me the stink eye right here. "Are you in active labor, ma'am?" "Oh no, just being induced tonight?" She gives the belly the once over. "Are you sure you aren't in labor at this time?" "Noooo...just being induced?" "I'll get you a wheelchair." "NO! I'm good." "Are you sure?" "I'll walk myself up to L & D, thankyouverymuch. Just, you know, using this entrance." Or something like that.
We get up to L & D and I'm the only patient on the floor. SCORE! A million questions, 8 needle sticks, a hospital gown with my rear end exposed and I'm good to go. And so it begins...
Or so it doesn't. I had cervadil which is supposed to get things going. It didn't. 6 hours later and I'm not any further along in the process than I was when I started. At 6:30 a.m. on July 11, I was given pitocin. That got things going but it was SLOW, even though my nurse pretty much had that bad boy on full blast.
I had Nubain and Phenergan at around 11 a.m. and went into zombie mode. I slept off an on until the afternoon, except for when a contraction would hit. I would wake up for that and then go back to sleep. It's a strange thing. Sort of like you hurt but you just don't give a rat's patootie. By late afternoon, I was only at 4 cm, so I consented to the epidural. My doctor and the nurses were worried about how much longer it might go on and at this point, so was I.
The anesthesiologist came in around 4 p.m., asked me a million questions and got me to sign some papers. I will NEVER understand why you'd ask someone in labor to sign something because I couldn't honestly tell you what any of it said. Something about it could kill me? I don't care. All I know is that they stick you a few times, the pain goes away, and all is well in delivery land. Except when it's not. The first attempt, he couldn't get it, so I had to get stuck again. I don't know if it was the alternate location (which is not the "preferred" location) or some other unknown reason, but it didn't take except in my legs. Well, it took in spots which would change depending on location and my legs were like lead weights. The nurse called the unaffected areas "hotspots". That's actually an excellent name since the spots that were unaffected felt like white hot searing, stabbing pain. And maybe some other adjectives. It was bad.
At 5:30 p.m., I had finally made it to 5 cm and there were more hotspots than medicated spots. By 6 p.m., I still couldn't feel my legs, but I could feel EVERYTHING else. My nurse asked if I wanted her to call the anesthesiologist. I told her to check me first. Now, here's where I will say that I had awesome nurses who actually listened when I told that when I get to 6 cm, they need to be ready. I mean ready! I go from 6 cm to ready to deliver within an hour. I know this about myself. Blessedly, I was at 6 cm, and I knew that I could hang that long. Okay, so I didn't KNOW that I could. I've never delivered without an epidural before. I hoped I could hang that long. I prayed I could.
Here's the rub...shift change was occurring at this time. YIKES! My mother came in at around 7 p.m. and asked if I needed anything. I told her that I was starting to feel a lot of pressure and I needed Barry. She also suggested that perhaps I needed a nurse as well. Mother knows best, of course. The nurse walked in and checked me and told me that she would call my doctor, who was only about 5 minutes away. She almost didn't make it. I needed to push in a bad way and I was trying to hang on long enough for my doctor to get there. I started crying when she walked in. D was crowning and I was focused on the task ahead. Push for the head...push for the body and she was HERE! I'm not a believer in love at first sight, except when it concerns my babies. The second they lay that sweet little thing on my belly, it's like the heavens open up and the angels begin to sing. Everything up to that point is 150% worth it. EVERYTHING.
Remember that HOURS theme? For those of you keeping count, I was stuck in that room for 22 hours, hence my advice about eating and showering.
Without further ado, here is the lovely lady herself. She was less than 10 minutes old at this point.
Peace and Love,
Jen
She's here! And she's gorgeous! She's seven pounds, nine ounces, and nineteen inches of L.O.V.E. Here's her birth story.
Sunday, July 10 was my mom's birthday. Barry and I started the evening off by taking B, C, and A to my parents' house for the night. We had birthday dinner with my family and then came home for showers and last minute packing. Lesson #1 for those of you who have yet to deliver a child--EAT! Once you get to the hospital, ice chips become your BFF. They aren't filling. They just make you have to go to the potty quite often...more often than you normally have to go in the last few weeks of pregnancy. It may be HOURS before you eat again. Lesson #2--take a shower before you go to the hospital. It may be HOURS before you get to take one once you get there. Are you noticing the HOURS theme? Yeah, hang in there. It comes back around later on.
We arrive at the hospital and use the emergency room entrance. I always find this a little embarrassing. I've been induced for the last three deliveries and it goes a little something like this: First of all, you get the "you better not get to go back there before me or I might go postal" stink eye. So I usually loudly tell the admissions clerk that I am just using the entrance to get up to Labor and Delivery. Insert collective sigh of relief from those who just gave me the stink eye right here. "Are you in active labor, ma'am?" "Oh no, just being induced tonight?" She gives the belly the once over. "Are you sure you aren't in labor at this time?" "Noooo...just being induced?" "I'll get you a wheelchair." "NO! I'm good." "Are you sure?" "I'll walk myself up to L & D, thankyouverymuch. Just, you know, using this entrance." Or something like that.
We get up to L & D and I'm the only patient on the floor. SCORE! A million questions, 8 needle sticks, a hospital gown with my rear end exposed and I'm good to go. And so it begins...
Or so it doesn't. I had cervadil which is supposed to get things going. It didn't. 6 hours later and I'm not any further along in the process than I was when I started. At 6:30 a.m. on July 11, I was given pitocin. That got things going but it was SLOW, even though my nurse pretty much had that bad boy on full blast.
I had Nubain and Phenergan at around 11 a.m. and went into zombie mode. I slept off an on until the afternoon, except for when a contraction would hit. I would wake up for that and then go back to sleep. It's a strange thing. Sort of like you hurt but you just don't give a rat's patootie. By late afternoon, I was only at 4 cm, so I consented to the epidural. My doctor and the nurses were worried about how much longer it might go on and at this point, so was I.
The anesthesiologist came in around 4 p.m., asked me a million questions and got me to sign some papers. I will NEVER understand why you'd ask someone in labor to sign something because I couldn't honestly tell you what any of it said. Something about it could kill me? I don't care. All I know is that they stick you a few times, the pain goes away, and all is well in delivery land. Except when it's not. The first attempt, he couldn't get it, so I had to get stuck again. I don't know if it was the alternate location (which is not the "preferred" location) or some other unknown reason, but it didn't take except in my legs. Well, it took in spots which would change depending on location and my legs were like lead weights. The nurse called the unaffected areas "hotspots". That's actually an excellent name since the spots that were unaffected felt like white hot searing, stabbing pain. And maybe some other adjectives. It was bad.
At 5:30 p.m., I had finally made it to 5 cm and there were more hotspots than medicated spots. By 6 p.m., I still couldn't feel my legs, but I could feel EVERYTHING else. My nurse asked if I wanted her to call the anesthesiologist. I told her to check me first. Now, here's where I will say that I had awesome nurses who actually listened when I told that when I get to 6 cm, they need to be ready. I mean ready! I go from 6 cm to ready to deliver within an hour. I know this about myself. Blessedly, I was at 6 cm, and I knew that I could hang that long. Okay, so I didn't KNOW that I could. I've never delivered without an epidural before. I hoped I could hang that long. I prayed I could.
Here's the rub...shift change was occurring at this time. YIKES! My mother came in at around 7 p.m. and asked if I needed anything. I told her that I was starting to feel a lot of pressure and I needed Barry. She also suggested that perhaps I needed a nurse as well. Mother knows best, of course. The nurse walked in and checked me and told me that she would call my doctor, who was only about 5 minutes away. She almost didn't make it. I needed to push in a bad way and I was trying to hang on long enough for my doctor to get there. I started crying when she walked in. D was crowning and I was focused on the task ahead. Push for the head...push for the body and she was HERE! I'm not a believer in love at first sight, except when it concerns my babies. The second they lay that sweet little thing on my belly, it's like the heavens open up and the angels begin to sing. Everything up to that point is 150% worth it. EVERYTHING.
Remember that HOURS theme? For those of you keeping count, I was stuck in that room for 22 hours, hence my advice about eating and showering.
Without further ado, here is the lovely lady herself. She was less than 10 minutes old at this point.
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| Sweet Baby Girl! |
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| With her very exhausted mother! |
Jen
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