Thursday, June 05, 2008

From Pregnant to Parents



Ok. Boo is asleep for the moment, so I've got a chance to tell you the story of his arrival.

As everyone should know, Friday was my due date and it came and went with no Boo. Thursday we'd gone to the hospital for a few hours with high blood pressure, but that wasn't very eventful either.

Saturday was pretty uneventful. I dropped Gak off at work and did the laundry. I came home, fiddled around a little bit and took a nap. Mostly I was just tired and beginning to feel tired of being pregnant. It was pretty warm and very sticky, so that didn't help me out any.

After picking up Gak from work at 3, we went to the video game store next door to say hi and look at a few things. We also went over to Target, just because we could. We didn't really need anything, but it was air conditioned. It also gave me somewhere to walk around for a bit, as I was feeling a little stir crazy. We decided that we didn't want to go home right away and that ice cream sounded good. So, we had an early dinner at Friendly's. We ate too much (which turns out to be a good thing...). (By the way, if there's one near you, try the summer ice cream that's Resses Peanut Butter Cup... way yummy!)

We went home and were both just mostly bored and antsy. We half thought about going to the movies to see Iron Man again, but decided we'd already spent too much money on movies this month. Mom called around 7 to see how we were doing and we both had the same answer: "bored".

Well, shortly after that phone call I decide to read for a bit, as that's about all the attention span I had. Gak was playing around on the computer. At about 8:45 I rolled over to change sides. (Mind you, at this point, that was a major accomplishment with my belly...) Something wasn't quite right. Things were a little too damp. I go to the bathroom and sure enough, soaked pants. It didn't smell like pee and I was still leaking. I tell Gak and call the doctor's office.

Here we go!

We head up to the hospital and start calling people to let them know. It was turning into a pouring thunderstorm. Therefore, we had Mom go to Kat's house and then both of them come up to the hospital. (Mom's good at getting lost, and we really didn't want her wandering around Allentown in the dark and rain...) Ed joined us after he got off work.

I was checked in when we got there and changed into a gown and put on the monitors. Everything was going just fine. They checked and yes, it was my water that broke. No, I hadn't dilated any further than I was on Thursday. Little did I know how long a night this was going to be.

The bed in L&D isn't the most comfortable. Of course, being tied to two monitors and having an IV line in my arm (but not hooked up) didn't help things any. I wasn't in pain and really wasn't feeling any contractions. We were joking around, telling stories. At about 1am everyone but me went out for a bite to eat. That, apparently, was an adventure in and of itself.

Around 4am they checked me again and still no progress. They decided to start some pitocin to see if that would help. That meant I couldn't get out of bed again until this was over with, since I had to constantly be on monitors at this point. Well, the pitocin didn't do much at all. Around 7 my doctor came in and checked me and still nothing. I wasn't feeling any contractions either. They decide to put internal monitors on to better see what's going on. He also re-broke my water. This is when the pain started. Gak and Mom were both out of the room getting breakfast when the monitors were put in. Thankfully Kat was there (Ed had gone home around6). Anyone else, I would have broken their fingers.

Due to the pain that started (almost constant, with some major spikes now and again), I decided that the next time I got checked, I'd ask for the epidural. The pain so wasn't worth it. Well, around 8 or so is when I got checked again. Tons of pain, but no real progress. I was dilated to about 4cm and Boo was still at -2 station (high in the pelvis...). My doctor and I talked about it. He'd been concerned for a few weeks that it might come down to a C-section. I'd been wondering about it myself for a while. The fact that he just wasn't moving down, his probable large size and my small stature, pointed strongly to a C-section. He offered to let me work on it another hour or two and then decide. I told him that there really hadn't been any progress since at least Thursday even with breaking my water and adding the pitocin. I told him if it comes down to a C-section, I'd rather do it soon under controlled conditions than have it become an emergency. I know it was beginning to really stress me, and I didn't want this to stress Boo any more than it had to.

Well, he convinces me to wait on the epi, so that I could have a spinal block for the section. The next hour was one of the hardest I've ever gone through. Any doctor like the one Kat had that made her go through three days of this before finally ending up with an emergency section should be shot.

All I have to say is that spinals are wonderful! It hurt a bit going in, but within about 30 seconds, my toes were getting warm and tingly. I totally couldn't feel my legs shortly there after and could only feel pressure up into my chest. I think they got it a little high and with a slightly high dose because my fingers were a little tingly. Gak was outfitted with scrubs and came in. I could feel them working on me, but only the pressure and a bit of tugging, but no pain. I kept feeling like I wanted to move my legs, but didn't try because I knew I couldn't.

Seamus was born screaming. Mom and Kat said they heard him from down the hall in the waiting room. Gak had the option of watching them pull him out, but being who he is, he declined. (Between being a little squeamish to begin with and not liking to see me in pain... not his thing...) They then stitched me up and taped me up. They have this really cool thing to move patients from bed to bed, called a hover-mat. Basically, they turned me into an air-hockey puck. There's this pad that inflates like a hover craft and allows them to move even the largest person with only a few people. It was actually fun.

Gak had accompanied our son (still not quite used to that...) to the nursery to watch him get cleaned up and weighed and everything. He was born at 10:38 am weighing 8 lb even and 20.5 inches. My guess on his size was pretty close. I was calling it at 8 lb 10 oz and 20.25 inches.

My recovery from the section has been pretty good. I'm still pretty stiff and a bit sore. I can't bend over or get up too easily without something to lean against. (Luckily I can do that one-handed so taking care of the little man by myself isn't impossible, just a little tough at some points...) It's good to be home, although we don't have the air conditioners in yet and it's supposed to get miserable in the next few days. The last two nights have been a little rough, with Boo wanting to cluster feed from about 9 or 10 pm until about midnight. Then he'd only fall asleep and stay that way on my chest. Luckily I did get about 3 hours in a row of sleep last night. (I was able to move Boo to his bed for about another half hour or so before he woke for feeding... which was fine...) Breastfeeding is going fairly well. My right boob is pretty sore and cracked, but that's because for some reason I can only manage to get him to latch right from one direction and the left is a little tender. My milk is in, so at least he's getting good nutrition now.

Anyhow, I'd best wrap this up because Seamus should be waking up soon. For more pictures, check out my flickr as always. I'll have more soon.

Peace to all and may you have good things in your life.

2 comments:

Chelsea said...

Sounds like everything went pretty well! So happy for you guys.

Addey said...

Yes, things went amazingly well for all the trauma that birth can be. We're all three learning what to do and how to be a family. It goes well though.