Guess what? We had a baby and I didn't die. Time management is a foreign term around these parts so my posts will be few and far between. However, I figured I'd better get something out on the old blog before someone set up a search party.
My birth experience was wonderful after the epidural. I hadn't planned on medications during labor and delivery however, but the best laid plans don't always pan out. Contractions started at 12:25am on 5/9/13. They weren't so bad. I waited the prescribed hour before calling the doctor's office. My contractions were consistently 4-5 minutes apart. Still not terrible but getting stronger by the time I woke the husband to leave. His response? "I need to shower and shave!" We arrived at the hospital around 2am, did the check-in thing which was rather quick since the doctor's office called ahead, and then we hung out in triage for a little over an hour hooked to a monitor with a nurse named Susan. I will say that triage is no place to labor. There are no squat bars and when you're hooked to the monitor you cannot walk around. At some point Susan said she was going to get me some apple juice and I swear she was gone for hours. My contractions were getting ridiculously stronger and by the time she got back I agreed to have all the necessary hook-ups put to my arm just in case we decided to go the epidural route. I still managed to walk up to the labor and delivery room and continued to stay upright to let gravity do its thing. Not long after getting to our room my water broke. Friends of mine had insisted that after their water broke they felt instant relief from the pressure. I can't say I felt any relief. If anything it made things worse. The contractions were coming so close together I couldn't catch a breath and no matter how Justin rubbed my back or what I did I was ready to climb out of my skin. All the techniques from class went out the window. Visualizing, relaxation techniques, and fixating on something other than the pain was not an option. Squats didn't help, especially when my knees felt like they were going to buckle at any given moment. Breathing techniques were useless and laying down made things worse as I had terrible back labor. If anyone was curious what it feels like to pass razor blades, I'm fairly certain birth is comparable. Anyways, as you can imagine I was finally ready for the epidural. The anesthesiologist arrived somewhere around 5am. I had all I could do to stay still long enough for him to get the needle in. I remember looking down at my hospital gown at the little teal square pattern and spelling out the word T-E-A-L in my head and counting the squares. Three contractions later and I was pleasantly pain free. Why I waited so long to let them give me the happy juice I have no idea. Next kid I'm telling them to hook me up right away. I felt instant relief and was actually able to enjoy labor and the excitement that Jayson was only two hours and twenty-three minutes away. Due to the limited sensation I had, however, I found that I had to gauge when I was having a contraction by listening to the baby's heart beat monitor and anytime it slowed meant it was time to push. Dr. Dewey was the physician on duty and he was just awesome. Small world moment - we got talking in a down moment and it turns out he worked at Bassett Healthcare with friends of ours, even more amazing was that we found out he actually delivered my younger twin sisters. Insane right?? Well enough with all the gory details. Who wants to look at some pictures?
