We were officially admitted, officially upstairs in labor and delivery, officially going to have this baby soon.... I was so not quite ready there. I had been ready to meet him (so impatient) but so not ready for everything that meant.
My first request was drugs! I wanted them quick. It wasn't so much that I couldn't take it anymore, but I had this overwhelming feeling of why should I keep taking it if I didn't have to. I had been having contractions for 36 hours, I was just tired of it. They called in the anesthesiologist, and John went to go get lunch. (No one is allowed in the room for epidurals except medical staff) The anesthesiologist was great, very nice. When he walked in the room he asked how I was doing, and I made some lame crack about how he must love his job since everyone is probably extremely happy to see him when he walks in a room. I'm funny. He let me know how it would all go down - they stick me in my spine with a needle, inject instant relief and then ultimately the true epidural will sink in after about an hour. I was psyched, but so nervous that during a contraction I would move and mess everything up. There is such a small area that they do all this in (think millimeters... aack!) that I didn't want to move.
As he gets ready to stick a needle in my spine he warns me that it will feel the pinch and then a burning for about 10 seconds. He wasn't kidding, it literally felt like he was setting a small pinpoint of my back on fire. I commented as such, in not a "holy mackerel dude, it feels like my back is on fire" but more in a "wow, sir, you weren't kidding.. it does in fact feel like burning". I was very polite. Haha. After a few minutes, he said to let him know if I felt anything in my legs... sure enough, I started feeling some sort of "twang" in my right leg. Then I heard him and the head anesthesiologist chatting behind me, and it didn't sound good. Apparently there is a small risk of going too far with an epidural, and then your spinal fluid can leak, and wouldn't you know - I was part of that small risk group! Fan-freaking-tastic. So lucky me, I got to have the epidural experience twice! He ended up having to move up my back a little ways and try again. With this second tap, that apparently removes me from being able to get the instant relief portion... so I was stuck waiting for the actual full epidural. Not.a.fan. Once he did the second location everything seemed to work out just fine, I started feeling warmth in my toes on my left foot which meant that it was working. When he came back later to check how it was going, I was starting to internally panic. My right side wasn't feeling the effects. My left side, heavy and happy - my right side, light and painful. I could feel the contractions start on my right side and then disappear as it moved to the left. So, while it was better than before since it was only lasting half as long, half of my body, it was still painful. It took 45 minutes for it to finally migrate to my right side - the minute that I started feeling warmth in my right toes, there was so much relief ... I was starting to get so scared.
At this point, John, me, and my dad were just hanging out. John's family was planning on heading down once Martha got off work. We thought we had a lot of time. I had been put in my room at 2pm, by then it was about 3:30pm, and so we thought there was still plenty of time. They checked me again at 5:30 and I was at 7cm.. I couldn't believe how fast that had gone. They also realized that Colin had decided that he wanted to stay safe and cozy in the amniotic sac because he had apparently resealed himself in there. They had to rebreak my water. How often does THAT happen? I was already on pitocin, and when they broke my bag again they saw that little Colin had already pooped... Awesome kid. So that meant that they had to have pediatricians on hand for when he was born to ensure he hadn't aspirated anything -- and they warned me that they weren't going to encourage him to cry once he was born so that he hopefully wouldn't breathe anything in.
Not too long after they checked me, I was getting a lot of pressure on my tailbone. I couldn't figure out why the epidural wasn't working because I felt like my contractions were come back. I was clicking my little clicker (I was taking full advantage of these free pain meds)... and still there was pressure. I mentioned this to the nurse who brought in the doctor... 20 minutes after they had checked me at 7cm, I was fully dilated and ready to push...... if I wanted to. The doctor said that I could also just wait a little while longer and have my body labor him down. The minute she said "you can go ahead and start pushing if you want to," I might have freaked out a little bit. I wasn't ready for it to happen that fast. I wasn't ready to push. So I took the option of letting my body do it's own thing for a while. I needed to be mentally prepared for this - especially since they told me it could take anywhere from 1-3 hours of pushing to get the baby out. Umm, that part was NOT made clear to me in my classes. I didn't know that the actual pushing could take that long.
John's family made it down to come in for just a minute to say hi before it was time to get the show on the road. John and I kind of kicked everyone out to give us a few minutes to wrap our heads around the fact that this was about to happen.. we were about to have a baby...
I don't know what I expected in labor.. I guess I expected moaning, and freaking out, and something like I've seen in movies or something. I thought there would be a lot going on and everything would happen really fast and loud. I was so off. The doctor (our doctor wasn't on call - but I have to say, if there was someone to take her place, this doctor was AMAZING... like our doctor in almost every way and just so calm) sat at the end of the bed, explained kind of how we were going to do this and we got started. With a contraction I started pushing, they started counting. Oh yeah - they.... so Prentice is a teaching hospital ---- so that meant that I had two students hanging out and holding a leg and watching me labor. Kind of awkward, but they were really nice and very encouraging. Then in between contractions we sat there and chatted, made jokes, relaxed. It was so far from what I imagined, but so exactly what I now realize I really wanted. They said amazing things to me, that made me feel like I was the queen of labor. Ha. It was great. I learned about the gossip from the small town the doctor and one of the nurses was from (yeah, I had three different nurses throughout my time there that kept being called away for other women in labor, but they all ultimately ended up in the room.... I had quite the audience). It was excellent. I started pushing around 6:15/6:20. I was just so thankful for the epidural.
Colin was making excellent progress, things were going so well. After a long series of pushes where he was just siting right there, waiting to enter the world, I just wasn't stretching enough. They were starting to get concerned because his heartbeat was a little lower than they would have liked, and he had been there for a long time and wasn't advancing. The doctor told me that she thought an episiotomy was needed because he just wasn't getting that final push through. I went with it, but I don't know that I will ever forget the sound of scissors in a place where scissors should NOT be allowed. ...:::shiver:::... Again thankful for the epidural. Once that cut was made though, it only took a couple more pushes to bring him into the world. I couldn't believe it.
Colin came out and cried (way to go buddy... you were supposed to wait) and the pediatricians took him away to clean him off so that he wouldn't breathe in the poo. I was laying there while the doctor and the students cleaned me up. Now, I won't go into TOO much detail there. I don't really know that much detail since I couldn't see anything. But, when you have two students learning what to do after a delivery you can imagine how not fast they were. The doctor providing instruction, the student doing the work... I felt like it took FOR-E-VER. And I was hearing things like "we need to make sure this goes back to where it came from" (umm, what?) and "well, if you do it this way, that's going to hang there and cause her pain, so you can just trim it" (excuse me???). Luckily through most of it, I had Colin on my chest and I was far more interested in checking him out than listening to all the terrible nightmare inducing things they were saying.
And that's how we became a family of three. It still feels completely surreal even almost 6 weeks later.
Now some pictures to show off the fruits of my labor.. ha, get it?
As he gets ready to stick a needle in my spine he warns me that it will feel the pinch and then a burning for about 10 seconds. He wasn't kidding, it literally felt like he was setting a small pinpoint of my back on fire. I commented as such, in not a "holy mackerel dude, it feels like my back is on fire" but more in a "wow, sir, you weren't kidding.. it does in fact feel like burning". I was very polite. Haha. After a few minutes, he said to let him know if I felt anything in my legs... sure enough, I started feeling some sort of "twang" in my right leg. Then I heard him and the head anesthesiologist chatting behind me, and it didn't sound good. Apparently there is a small risk of going too far with an epidural, and then your spinal fluid can leak, and wouldn't you know - I was part of that small risk group! Fan-freaking-tastic. So lucky me, I got to have the epidural experience twice! He ended up having to move up my back a little ways and try again. With this second tap, that apparently removes me from being able to get the instant relief portion... so I was stuck waiting for the actual full epidural. Not.a.fan. Once he did the second location everything seemed to work out just fine, I started feeling warmth in my toes on my left foot which meant that it was working. When he came back later to check how it was going, I was starting to internally panic. My right side wasn't feeling the effects. My left side, heavy and happy - my right side, light and painful. I could feel the contractions start on my right side and then disappear as it moved to the left. So, while it was better than before since it was only lasting half as long, half of my body, it was still painful. It took 45 minutes for it to finally migrate to my right side - the minute that I started feeling warmth in my right toes, there was so much relief ... I was starting to get so scared.
At this point, John, me, and my dad were just hanging out. John's family was planning on heading down once Martha got off work. We thought we had a lot of time. I had been put in my room at 2pm, by then it was about 3:30pm, and so we thought there was still plenty of time. They checked me again at 5:30 and I was at 7cm.. I couldn't believe how fast that had gone. They also realized that Colin had decided that he wanted to stay safe and cozy in the amniotic sac because he had apparently resealed himself in there. They had to rebreak my water. How often does THAT happen? I was already on pitocin, and when they broke my bag again they saw that little Colin had already pooped... Awesome kid. So that meant that they had to have pediatricians on hand for when he was born to ensure he hadn't aspirated anything -- and they warned me that they weren't going to encourage him to cry once he was born so that he hopefully wouldn't breathe anything in.
Not too long after they checked me, I was getting a lot of pressure on my tailbone. I couldn't figure out why the epidural wasn't working because I felt like my contractions were come back. I was clicking my little clicker (I was taking full advantage of these free pain meds)... and still there was pressure. I mentioned this to the nurse who brought in the doctor... 20 minutes after they had checked me at 7cm, I was fully dilated and ready to push...... if I wanted to. The doctor said that I could also just wait a little while longer and have my body labor him down. The minute she said "you can go ahead and start pushing if you want to," I might have freaked out a little bit. I wasn't ready for it to happen that fast. I wasn't ready to push. So I took the option of letting my body do it's own thing for a while. I needed to be mentally prepared for this - especially since they told me it could take anywhere from 1-3 hours of pushing to get the baby out. Umm, that part was NOT made clear to me in my classes. I didn't know that the actual pushing could take that long.
John's family made it down to come in for just a minute to say hi before it was time to get the show on the road. John and I kind of kicked everyone out to give us a few minutes to wrap our heads around the fact that this was about to happen.. we were about to have a baby...
I don't know what I expected in labor.. I guess I expected moaning, and freaking out, and something like I've seen in movies or something. I thought there would be a lot going on and everything would happen really fast and loud. I was so off. The doctor (our doctor wasn't on call - but I have to say, if there was someone to take her place, this doctor was AMAZING... like our doctor in almost every way and just so calm) sat at the end of the bed, explained kind of how we were going to do this and we got started. With a contraction I started pushing, they started counting. Oh yeah - they.... so Prentice is a teaching hospital ---- so that meant that I had two students hanging out and holding a leg and watching me labor. Kind of awkward, but they were really nice and very encouraging. Then in between contractions we sat there and chatted, made jokes, relaxed. It was so far from what I imagined, but so exactly what I now realize I really wanted. They said amazing things to me, that made me feel like I was the queen of labor. Ha. It was great. I learned about the gossip from the small town the doctor and one of the nurses was from (yeah, I had three different nurses throughout my time there that kept being called away for other women in labor, but they all ultimately ended up in the room.... I had quite the audience). It was excellent. I started pushing around 6:15/6:20. I was just so thankful for the epidural.
Colin was making excellent progress, things were going so well. After a long series of pushes where he was just siting right there, waiting to enter the world, I just wasn't stretching enough. They were starting to get concerned because his heartbeat was a little lower than they would have liked, and he had been there for a long time and wasn't advancing. The doctor told me that she thought an episiotomy was needed because he just wasn't getting that final push through. I went with it, but I don't know that I will ever forget the sound of scissors in a place where scissors should NOT be allowed. ...:::shiver:::... Again thankful for the epidural. Once that cut was made though, it only took a couple more pushes to bring him into the world. I couldn't believe it.
Colin came out and cried (way to go buddy... you were supposed to wait) and the pediatricians took him away to clean him off so that he wouldn't breathe in the poo. I was laying there while the doctor and the students cleaned me up. Now, I won't go into TOO much detail there. I don't really know that much detail since I couldn't see anything. But, when you have two students learning what to do after a delivery you can imagine how not fast they were. The doctor providing instruction, the student doing the work... I felt like it took FOR-E-VER. And I was hearing things like "we need to make sure this goes back to where it came from" (umm, what?) and "well, if you do it this way, that's going to hang there and cause her pain, so you can just trim it" (excuse me???). Luckily through most of it, I had Colin on my chest and I was far more interested in checking him out than listening to all the terrible nightmare inducing things they were saying.
And that's how we became a family of three. It still feels completely surreal even almost 6 weeks later.
Now some pictures to show off the fruits of my labor.. ha, get it?
Our board when we checked in - luckily I got the epidural BEFORE the pitocin.
Me being happy with the epidural and just waiting it all out.
Hello Colin!!
His stats - 7 lbs 15 oz, 21"!
And then there were three...
The next day, checking out our new baby boy
I think this is just a really good picture of John
Colin at home for one of his first couple of days
So here we are. A family of three. I can't believe how smooth everything went and how "easy" it was in the grand scheme of things. I'm happy for this next chapter in our lives -- but I have to say I'm terrified of it too. It's so much harder than I thought it would be, but not as hard as it could be.
Colin - we are so happy you're here. It's been such a crazy 5.5 weeks, we have both changed so much and are starting to figure each other out. We love you!
