Yea, I know I've been slacking on the posting on here, but you know what? Living my life as a stay at home mom (officially!) and my boss being 5 weeks old today (HOLY SHMOLY!) and demanding means I don't get to do very much for very long. But since the little prince is sleeping, I better get my hind end in gear!
So, as I'm sure anyone who is following knows (who IS following me anyway? Please let me know) I had my precious little bundle November 23, 2009 at 2:30pm. Now, not everyone knows how this little munchkin came into the world. Let me enlighten you...
So, November 20 (Friday)
Adam and I were doing all we could think of to cause contractions (at the very least trying to enjoy life as just a couple while it lasts) and I was reading What to Expect When You're Expecting and looking to see what hints there are in there. I had bought Raspberry Leaf Tea about a week earlier and was drinking that (real tea in a tea ball, no powder or anything fake like that) as often as I could. All that really did was cause some smaller contractions (no different compared to the usual ones you get anyway) so I looked up the other "natural" methods like castor oil, stripping the membranes, Raspberry leaf tea, walking, sex, nipple stimulation, walking, and some other VERY odd methods. I tried almost all of them and nothing was working.
Thinking I was going to end up going all the way to the 30th (talk of inducing at this point on this day), I tried to get to sleep. No go. I was starting to feel contractions and they were fairly timeable, but were about 7-10 mins apart. Kept an eye on them and started thinking about calling into work. Around 9 am, they were starting to get closer and a little stronger, so I messaged Adam and asked when he was coming home (he was only working a half day) and he said he was on his way. We grabbed the bags and headed out the door to the hospital. We had to stop for gas so I called the hospital and told them we were coming (had called them a few other times through the night, but they said stay home for now). Heading down, Adam and I were talking and praying this wasn't a false alarm. The contrax ended up slowing and at one point stopping in the car, but I was thinking that I was just over thinking it and getting too worked up. Get to the hospital and once I get in the door, I get sucker punched with a particularly strong contraction out of nowhere. I had to stop and lean against a partition in the front lobby and one of the nurses came over and I swear hit the panic button right away. She started talking about how I needed to hurry up and get registered and get up to L&D asap and I needed a wheel chair and someone to push me up there NOW and Adam would have to join me later since they wanted to take me now and there was no waiting. Its a damn contraction. Adam tried to tell her that I just needed to stop and let the pain pass, that I couldn't walk through it. She didn't want to listen and grabbed the wheel chair. I sat down (pain had passed at this point and I was thinking that it was protocol...) and the wheel chair pusher starts pushing me toward the elevator. Adam was freaking out on the registering lady since he needed me there to make sure we got all the info right. Finally we get it all straightened out and I get pushed into the registering office and have a nurse standing by just in case I pop out this kid with no warning (I told you, the lady hit the panic button WAY too soon). Good thing I ended up staying with Adam as we had to correct each other with some of the info. Get up to the room and all changed and ready to do this, when the nurse comes in and tells me that she needs to check me and see if anything is going on and if so, how much. She could see on the machine that I was contracting like I should, just not as often as they would like. Checked me. Still almost NO change. DAMN IT! She asked my dr what she wanted done and the dr said "send her home". They hold onto me until noon and then find still no progress...actually things were slowing down again. LOVELY. The nurse said that since everything was looking promising, she was going to have them leave my room as it was since I totally should be back by the end of the day. Got changed, left the hospital pissed, went out to eat, walked a few laps around walmart and then went to the ILs. I was exhausted from not sleeping (timing the contrax) so I took a nap. Woke up and everything had totally stopped. Tried to walk down to the river bottom and back and walked on a tread mill for almost a full mile as fast as I could stand it. Couldn't get anything real going. Went home defeated.
Since I had called into work as going into the hospital, they had taken me off the schedule just in case I did have the baby that day. I called the next day and asked if my shift had been covered or I needed to go in. NOPE. They covered that shift and didn't give me any more. But they would put me on call for the next week. Great.
Saturday, nothing happened out of the norm.
Sunday, my MIL came over and watched the Vikes game with us. During the commercials, we did some cleaning and organizing (NOT my choice!) and I took the vacuums. I ran the first one over the rug and felt a few pains. Went over with the second and felt more pains. The whole time my PITA MIL is telling me "Keep having those pains! I want my grandbaby!" No pressure ya know, since pressure caused my labor to stop only days before! Well, she ended up leaving soon after the game and I got on the computer to putz around. Put up the weekly entry and kept goofing around online. Then the contrax started up again. I started timing them since these felt...off.
The timing was any where from 4 to 20 mins inbetween and lasting from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. Right now, you are thinking "Hot damn! That's not labor. That's too long in bewtween, but those 5 min contrax must have sucked!" yes they did. Turns out, those contrax that lasted longer than 2 mins were really multiple contrax that piggy backed each other. All this started around 10:30pm. Tried to walk around the apartment and breathe through the worse ones. Sat in the tub and tried to labor there. There, they only got closer, more consistent, and more painful. Called the hospital and told them what was up and asked about the long contrax. That's when I was told about the multiples. Seems the first can go up, then as it starts to come down, another starts before you feel the first one fall, then the next comes before the second one starts to go down. Got out of the tub and decided to try sleeping. Its like 1 am at this point. I'm tired and yelling at Adam to wake up and take times for each one. about 2 am they are really close (3-5 mins apart) and I can't get comfy at all. I'm literally watching the clock to wish it along! About 3am I can't stand it anymore and we grab the bags again and head to the hospital. This time, the contrax don't stop in the car. Its foggy out and I'm wishing Adam could drive faster. We talk the whole time about how this better not be another false alarm and making a plan in case it is. I could tell something was different though.
Got to the hospital and left the bags in the car again (no use in bringing them up only to bring them back down if we get sent home). Head to the door and there's a friggin DUCK walking back and forth in front of the door, making it open and shut. White as snow DUCK. Get checked in and up to my room (same room, ironically!). dressed and hooked up, they check me. Sure enough there was progress. 3cm and about 80-90% effaced. They kept me there! Its like 4 am and the nurse is telling me to get comfy any way I can. I tried sleeping, that didn't work. I hopped in the whirlpool tub (OMG HEAVEN!) and labored in there for about an hour. I was actually able to sleep through the pain and it helped it not hurt so much. I got out of the tub after my hour and the nurse tells me that she'll call the dr around 6 am and let her know what's going on. 6:15 comes and the nurse lets me know that the dr says if there isn't more significant progress, she'll break my water around 8 and if that doesn't ramp things up, she'll start pitocin soon after. My dr comes in around 8 and says "Not too much progress, still about 3ish, but more thin. I'll be back in about 20 mins to break your water, if that doesn't do anything, around 10 I'll order pitocin." She comes back, breaks my water, and leaves. Contrax don't really ramp up, so I ask for a labor ball and get back in the tub. Not comfy this time, so I was only there for about 15 mins. I get out and bounce on the ball a bit. The nurses are confused as to why I'm not leaking more water but figure its coming. 10 am comes. I'm about a 4 and about 95%. Just enough to be there and in the way. Still can't figure out the water thing, but they aren't concerned. The nurse even goes so far as to say "There's a lady in the next room over who came in after you and is already pushing! Lets get this going, Megan" Thanks lady. Its no competition! They started the pitocin soon after that. Before they got the stuff in me though, I got so worked up and scared of pitocin (oh the horror stories!) and threw up a few times. The stuff sucks. It was cold, made me shiver, and ramped up the contrax. I got back on the ball and rocked. I almost pulled Adam's wrists with how some of them were! The nurse even gave me a back rub and kept encouraging me (these people were SO awesome!). they checked me soon after (I wanna say about noon?) and said I was a 7, 100% and could take pain meds if I wanted. After all the talk of med free, I knew I couldn't stand too much more without really hurting Adam and losing steam. I asked for the intrathecal and waited for it. They told me I had to get off the ball and on the bed for this. The drug people were finishing up a surgery and would be right with me. Seemed like FOREVER and the contrax SUCKED on the bed. I couldn't move into a comfy position, They were more intense than ever with how I was positioned. The guy comes in and tells me I need to sit on the side of the bed and bend over to expose my spine. I do as I'm told but tell him that my contrax are really painful so hurry if possible. Stupid I know, but I wasn't the happiest. Boy he really had to time himself well since he only had a window of about 20 seconds between the end of one contraction to the start of another. Took like 3 tries before he could get the needle in and start injecting before I started whimpering again. Had to lay back down, flat this time, to get the meds to work. OMG those 5 mins were the WORST! But once I felt the relief, it was AMAZING. I felt NO pain. Not even pressure. The machine had to tell me when I was supposed to be feeling it. Before too long though, they started getting intense again and I would actually have to breathe through it. About 1:30 or so, they check me and tell me I'm a full 10 and totally ready, whenever the pressure starts. Adam chooses this time to get out the camera and get it ready for the big moments. DAMN IT if the damn memory card wasn't full. So Adam asks if he has enough time to go out and buy another. I told him to hurry, and the nurse said there was plenty of time. About 25 mins later, Adam still isn't back and I'm starting to feel a lot of pressure. They were coming in to put in the labor bar and get everything ready, but no hubby! I called him and told him to hurry his ass up! he told me (and I'll never forget) "Don't push without me there!" Promising I wouldn't, we hung up and the nurse glared me down. Told me I had just worried him. Adam comes FLYING into the room soon after and gets everything ready. No sooner is he all set, they are having me push with the contractions. OMG that was sweet relief since I could do something about the pain, but painful since I was trying to get the hang of pushing and was laboring him out. Adam even told them that he wanted us both to feel his head. Weirdest feeling ever! At 2:30, our little miracle was born. Much to the disbelief of everyone there, I had only pushed for 30 mins and we kind of figured out why things weren't going the way we wanted them too. Anthony's head was so low that we think his head was causing a cork effect and making it so no water could get around it. She had even scratched his head with the wand used to break my water! I had also pushed so hard and so fast, that not just his head came out with that last push. I hadn't heard them say stop so I kept going! I guess dr didn't get to check if the cord wasn't around his neck and all was well and a little cleaning. He came out in a gush of water! The dr said he was all 9s and 10s for apgar scores and looked to be totally healthy. I had a second degree tear (no walk in the park) and couldn't really stop bleeding, but all said and done, I had done just what they said. Redheads seem to have a shorter labor, but bleed like stuck pigs.
My perfect little angel was born 14:30 on November 23, 2009 at a very healthy 8lb 3oz, 20.5 inches long, 14 inch head and 13 inch chest. He had a full head of hair to match his daddy and looks that blew me away. Adam went crazy with the photos while they were cleaning him up!
We stayed in the hospital until Wednesday morning, which sucked since we weren't supposed to have any visitors. Anyone who came, we had to kind of sneak them up. No one really stopped us though.
Since then, we've had a few appointments for Anthony. His first appointment was Friday, November 27 to check his jaundice (7 out of 30) and make sure he put on his weight. When he left the hospital, he was 7 lb 14 oz. At the appointment, he was 7lb 15oz. On December 8th, he was 8lbs 13oz, 20 3/4 inches long, 15 1/4 inch head. Growing like a weed! His next appointment is his 2 month appointment in January. How time flies! I've also been weighing in around my prepregnancy weight (195) and been wearing some of my prepregnancy jeans! Thats huge! Photos to follow soon. Looking for the camera for more from this weekend.
