Thursday, October 23, 2008

The middle of something big...

Pitocin started at midnight Wednesday/Thursday morning. They increased contractions exponentially, with most of the time spent in 1 minute increments of contracting for 60-90 seconds and then a break of a minute. Basically like the transition stage of labor, except it went on all day Thursday. Instead of the expected 2-3 hours of contractions like that. Around the middle of the afternoon, I took a shot of stadol, so I could get some sleep in between contractions. Matthew said I would fall asleep for 60 seconds wake up and do my breathing and fall right back to sleep. This went on for an hour and a half. After all that time, I was still only at 6 cm dilated, when I had been at 4 cm at 8 am Thursday morning. Needless to say I wasn't getting anywhere and being in that much pain for that long and learning that I wasn't making any progress just made it worse. When I got to the point that I was crying instead of breathing (picture 12 he he he whooos on the way UP a contraction without ever coming back down), my husband said it was time for the epidural. I just nodded my head. The first one didn't really work. They went to put my catheter in and I could still feel everything. I told them that and at first they didn't believe me, but then they put in a second epidural, tried again, whatever and got it right. They told me I was ready to push about then. I pushed for 4 hours and the doctor finally came and said that I couldn't have the baby naturally. So basically we were forced into a c-section by the position of the baby (face up) and either the way she was positioned and the way my pelvis is shaped. Either way, we found out we were not going to have the baby any other way but by c-section. I slept through the procedure until they said okay dad, tell her what it is... and I opened my eyes to hear my husband say, "it's a girl". I got to see her pretty face and then watch my husband be all teary as he held his baby for the first time. All in all, 28 hours, most of them without drugs, if anyone is counting.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I hope you can post pictures soon & that you're recovering as quickly and painlessly as possible. Also? THE BABY! Stats? How's she doing? Is she sleeping? I bet she's gorgeous! YIPPEEEEE!

Arizaphale said...

Congratulations indeed! Just popped over to see how you were doing with the move and everything and voila!!! A mommy no less! Hope we get to see pictures soon. Sorry you had such a miserable time of it but now that she's here, enjoy every second.

Jenni said...

Congratulations on your new baby girl! It sure doesn't seem like it's been even close to 9 months since you announced you were expecting. Time flies when you're not the one pregnant:o)

28 hours! That's...wow. All mine went pretty quickly, but Caleb was the most difficult. He was born face up with a lot of back labor. It was very painful. They gave me an epidural, but I think they gave it too late. It didn't help in the least. The doctor had the nurses go to prep for a C-section and Caleb was born just in time to miss that.

I'm glad all the hard work is over (they don't call it labor for nuthin') and you can finally enjoy your sweet baby girl! So, name? Pics? Sheesh, you'd think you've been busy or something;o)