Freddy's Birthday

Karen scheduled for me to be induced the morning of May 15th at 7:00 in the morning. First births usually take awhile, so best to start early. They asked us to call the hospital at 6:00 to make sure everything was ready. When I called, they told me so many walk-ins had come during the night that there were no rooms available. What a depressing start to a day. I has already showered and went to bed crying. I did not want to wait a moment later. So I slept heavily until my phone rang at 9:00. They told me another nurse came in so they could enter me whenever I could make it there. I was so relieved. I showered, dressed, and we packed everything in the car. In a way, I was so excited, and in other ways, I feared for the unknown. We stopped at McDonald's for a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit cause I knew it would be the last meal for a very long time. We checked into the hospital and started signing papers. That only took about ten minutes, and then a nurse took me back to the room. She explained that Karen want to come in and break my water, so before she could do that, I would need to be strapped to an IV. This was a part I was pretty scared about. I had had an IV once before for my wisdom teeth, but never while I am still up. I have to say it was one of the more painful parts of the delivery. Maybe that's a wimpy thing to say, but it was a continual ache through the experience. Only after the epidural numbed my arms (because I was too short) did I get some relief from my IV. About 30 minutes after my IV, they started me on Pitocin. It is the medicine that starts your labor. The contractions started off very small, almost like the Braxton Hicks. An hour later, they had gotten a little more painful, so they started my epidural. I was so scared because I had heard horror stories about how long the needle was, how it hurt and sent pain down your legs, and how it causes paralysis if it is done incorrectly. Fred held my feet while I leaned over. He kept talking about something to help me smile, but I told him to be quiet. I wanted no noise. I felt a sharp pain down my leg and a cold liquid running on the inside of my back. Honestly other than the sting of the needle, it felt pretty funny. Once the epidural started to spread, I could feel nothing. It felt so wonderful. It was the best I had felt all of my pregnancy.

We watched Downton Abbey as I felt my legs, stomach, and even my arm with the IV went numb. That felt really great. They checked me, and I was dilated to a 3. An hour later, the nurse came in and put an oxygen mask on me, but didn't say why. I finally asked when she came in to check the monitor.  They said that the baby was slowing his breathing during the contractions, so they were going to have to take me off of the Pitocin. I was really worried and upset because they didn't want to talk about it with me, I guess not to worry me. But by not talking about it, I was more nervous. So they turned off the Pitocin, and they propped my right leg off on a stirrup and I was hanging sideways with a sheet over me since I was all out in the open. I was a little embarrassed and sad that things weren't going well. 30 minutes later they can in to check my dilation. I was at a 9. So they took me off the horse :) and they prepared me for delivery. It all happened really fast. The nurses started moving in an incubator to clean and test the baby, they started putting down towels and the nurses got dressed to get dirty. They wanted me to start pushing to start stretching me out. So I pushed for ten easy minutes. I didn't feel anything, but a little pressure in the lower part of my stomach. Then Karen came in and wondered why I was pushing. She said he needed to move down in my uterus and turn his head more and I would have to wait another hour or two. I was fine with that because I was really in no pain. But after Karen left, I took a 30 minute nap, and woke up with heavy back pain. I realized I had not been pressing the pain button on the epidural button. SO basically, my epidural stopped working. The guy came in twice to give me two doses of medicine, but it was too late. The medicine only kicked in at certain parts of the body. I felt contractions in all the wrong places for about an hour and a half. I seriously felt like dying. Fred brought me ice, rubbed my face, and helped in every way he could. But then the pain really kicked in and I started to yell at Fred that he needed to just leave me alone. He felt pretty helpless I am sure, but I just needed to go through the contractions alone. I had never felt pain like that. Finally, finally, the doctor came in and we started to push for real. My nurse that had been super great all day had to leave at 4, and when I started pushing at 5:45 or so, I got a nurse that was a little harsher. It hurt every push. Finally they told me the head was approaching, but I was so tired by this time I couldn't push anymore. So they called in another doctor to get forceps in to pull him out. Luckily though my midwife told me if I didn't push hard enough, I might have to have a C-section. Well that made me a little mad and a little scared. SO I pushed like I had never pushed. It was hard just because I couldn't feel where or when to push, but finally he came out and I felt relief. They placed his blue, wet little body on my stomach. He head was cone-shaped, and right away I saw his cute little heart nostrils.

The next few hours were a blur. I held him for the first time, and he was beautiful. I felt tired and happy all at the same time.

Other than a little Jaundice, he was healthy. His little cries were so small and it was a tiny miracle he recognized my voice. He was so alert and I loved him right away. I was so excited to show him off to our parents and friends. We were lucky. Here's to a new chapter in our lives.