Friday, January 11, 2008

The Good, the Bad and the um...Messy

It wasn't anything like the movies. After the insane walking situation on Sunday I spent most of Monday on the couch recovering. By mid-afternoon I was able to get around pretty well.

That evening I started having more regular contractions and watched my cell phone to time them. We watched a movie late and had some cereal. I climbed into bed around 2:30 and then realized I probably should go to the bathroom.

Could it be any more perfect that my water broke at exactly that time!? My thought was, "Hmmm, it sounds like I'm peeing, but I don't think I am."

Since it was "time" I took a nice long shower, made the bed and finished packing our luggage. Around 3:15 or so I went downstairs as Andy was still working in the studio.

"Hey," he says. "I though you went to bed?"

"Nah, took a shower instead."

"What's up?"

"Well, we should probably go to the hospital now."

Surprised look on face.

"Really?"

"Yep."

I think he wanted to rush around and just leave, but I tried to still take our time as my contractions weren't yet all that close together, but I knew since my water had broken, they wouldn't send me home.

Check in and triage were easy and we were taken up to our fabulous corner suite. We couldn't have asked for a better atmosphere for our delivery.

By 10:30 I was more than ready for the epidural. Not able to breath through the contractions any more and with Andy telling me he would ask for it if I didn't, they brought in the anesthesiologist.

My only thought after getting it all in was that it was way easier than getting the yellow fever shot I had last summer! Andy however didn't take it as well as I did.

He always finds medical procedures highly interesting and he made the mistake of looking over my shoulder as the catheter was being fed into my spine. At which point he needed both of the nurses to help him sit down on the couch!

As soon as the drugs took effect and I was sufficiently numb, we were both able to get some sleep. The best part was that everything progressed quickly while I was sleeping and by four it was time to really get to work.

Unfortunately, that's about the time when I started noticing the epidural was wearing off. I hit the button a couple times but by 5:30 I could tell that it wasn't going to be a very fun ride. The anesthesiologist decided that since the bag of medicine was almost out and it was supposed to take two hours to wear off she wouldn't give me any more. I tried to object, but to no avail. Needless to say, four plus hours of pushing without drugs is not something I want to repeat any time soon.

Hooray for those of you who choose the au naturale route, but believe me I would never be able to make that choice!

The doctor suggested we try using the vacuum to get her out and I was all for anything that would help. Merely two contractions later she popped her little body into the world.

I hear the doctor say, "If I knew that would help so much, I would have tried it an hour ago." Really, shouldn't this have been an internal monologue-type of comment? It was not something I was happy to hear by any means!

Oh, and the one thing they don't tell you that hurts the worst? The doctor getting the placenta out. I did plenty of moaning and crying during the pushing, but that was when I did the yelling.

An hour of stitches later and I was more than done. Guiltily, I didn't even want to hold or snuggle the baby. I was pretty much useless and non responsive for several hours.

They brought me food right away but by then I was not only too exhausted to eat, I was too far past hungry to want any.

The postnatal room we were going to didn't have a shower so I had to get one before we were taken down. Finally refreshed, but even more tired, I told the nurse I needed to rest before getting back in bed. She said she wanted to try to get me back anyway.

I tried to tell her I wasn't ready.

She didn't believe me until I passed out on the floor.

I finally ate, we made it up to our room and settled in and it was time to rest.

Five days later (has it really been that long?) we are still figuring out a baby schedule. Ice packs and motrin are still my best friends and my husband has been amazing.

Sweet Randall has lost most of the swelling in her face and is starting to get some true features. She makes tons of hysterical faces and silly noises and every day we are better learning what we are doing. Sleep is obviously caught whenever possible; I think I might go take a nap right now...

Thank you for all of your sweet comments and prayers for us. It is going to be quite a challenge and adventure to be sure!

10 comments:

Hillary said...

Oh my gosh! Anne! Pushing with no drugs? You're a superhero! :) So she was born on the 8th? At, what, about 9:30/10 pm?

Sounds like quite a day, my goodness. I can't believe they let you pass out!

Ooooh, I am SO, SO happy for you and Andy. Sending all three of you lots and lots of love!

sarah cool said...

Ahhh!! What a well-told story. I'm sorry it was so painful! I'm sure not looking forward to that part... epidural all the way for me, hopefully!

love you!! you look beautiful in that top picture!!

~cjoy said...

Congratulations!

I'm with you on the placenta thing...with my second and third births, I told my husband he HAD to remind me that the placenta was coming, and man I dreaded it more than any other part of labor. I can sympathize with four hours of pushing, as well...my firstborn took that long and it's some seriously hard work!

By the way, how big was she?

Jen said...

Congratulations- she is beautiful!

So glad to hear that everything went okay and that she is perfect and healthy.

Take care of yourself and get some sleep :)

Cheeky said...

I was wondering what the story was! That's a good one.

I have a meal for ya--just waiting for my assigned day!

Anonymous said...

This is really weird, but that is wildly close to my first birth story. And a little bit of my second which was inadvertantly drug free. Glad you are settling in. Now you're in for the hormonal fun that is post pardum. YippEE!!

Michelle B said...

She is just the sweetest thing! Soon you will forget about those four drug-free hours, or at least laugh about them, or maybe just roll your eyes in their general direction. ;)
Those nurses sure are persistent - perhaps we had the same one, mine convinced me I could walk to the bathroom even though I was pretty sure I still couldn't feel part of one of my legs - my falling on the floor seconds later made her decide I knew what I was talking about.
It's cliche but it is SO worth it! That's what I keep telling myself for future reference.
Sleep, sleep, sleep and cuddle your heart out!

Anonymous said...

Much congrats to you both on sweet Randall being born! She is very cute!
On another baby note: I became an uncle on Thurs Jan 10 at 9:35p when Scott and Megan had their baby boy, Joshua. Megan was induced two weeks early because of some blood pressure problems. Soo after 15 long hours of labor they finally had to preform a C-Section on her. Needless to say, Megan was pretty sore so her and Joshua did not come home till yesterday, but they are doing very well now :)

Kerri Anne said...

I love that right after your water broke you calmly took a shower. I would have been freaking out, and yelling "My water broke!" throughout the house. Or at least, that's how I imagine it whenever I think about it.

You are brave and amazing. As is Randall. Happy! new family. Loves.

Kat said...

So, did your devoted husband cut the cord?

My sister used vacuum help with her youngest as well, because Kelsey was upside down and not coming out. They positioned the vacuum on her soft spot, and sucked her brains out and made her look like a unicorn! My mother and I just stared at each other in disbelief and never once mentioned it to my sister.

I can't keep looking at the picture with you and Randall. She's absolutely beautiful - - but you, my dear, are stunning! Hard to believe you had just pushed for 4 hours!