a baby story
friday, june 26th: my replacement had just joined us that day at the office. i spent a lot of the day filling her in on just one of my two main clients. mostly on the backstory of their drug, it's launch plan and the politics/strategy behind it. between all of the meetings and me filling her in, by 5pm she was overwhelmed and we decided to continue on monday.
i was feeling restless and bryan and i decided to head to roebling tea room for dinner and a visit with bryan's brother, the chef there. by the end of dinner my belly was so ridiculously uncomfortable i just wanted to get out of there. my pants felt super tight. dennis came over and marveled at my large belly and sent us a wicked strawberry shortcake for dessert. for dinner we'd split the ridiculously good burger and a special seafood ravioli.
when we got home i putzed around on the computer. i added items into the shopping cart for the cradle that bryan's sister had given us. i never did hit "purchase" due to my agonizingly slow online shopping process where i must search around for a few days for the best item/price.
i decided to hit the sack because i was so damn tired. at about 12:15 my eyes opened. not unusual, really, but a few moments later i heard and felt a pop in my belly, followed by a gush of water. i clenched up and then sat up in bed and called out to bryan.
"call dr. fong!"
i was terrified! haha. this was it. no question about it. i sat on the edge of the bed until we talked to the doctor and she asked if the baby was moving. he had moved just a bit earlier, but was now quiet. she said to hop in the shower and take my time getting to the hospital, but to get moving. my bag was only half-packed (the maternity bra had just shipped!) so bryan ran around grabbing things while i hopped into the shower. i felt the baby move while i was in the shower. i was reassured so i was able to relax a bit more.
i started to feel VERY mild contractions. more like menstrual cramps. not at all what i had expected. we called a car service so we didnt have to worry about parking the car. we got to the hospital about 2 hours after my water broke and the hospital OB was there to check me out. i was 1cm dilated and i don't remember how much effaced. he called dr. fong on the phone and she requested that i be put on cervadil to move the process along. i had to lay in bed for two hours, so i wasn't able to walk around and use my birthing ball. at the end of two hours, the contractions were coming regularly, but i was still only 1cm dilated. at that point i decided if i wanted to have any strength by the time i reached 10cm, i was going to get the epidural. it took a little while for them to arrive and then again for it to be inserted. it offered me solid pain relief only for about two hours. i wasn't able to sleep really in that time, only relax.
i asked them to top it off a few more times and by about 1pm i had hit 4cm. my doctor was going to arrive in a few hours and i decided to hold off on another round of the epidural until she arrived. i thought it might move the process along more quickly. they also ordered to put me on an IV of pitocin, again, to help speed things along. by the time she arrived at about 4pm, i was 7 cm dilated. she was very excited that i had progressed so quickly. but now the contractions were so wicked strong, i was regretting not asking for another top-up on the epidural. dr. fong said i could get another one if i wanted, even though we were so close. YES! yes please! haha.
it took a while and they topped me up at about 5pm. it really only helped on one side and i was uncomfortable and highly annoyed. bryan was there to help me do my breathing, or should i say, remind me to do my breathing. it helped a lot. if i focused only on the pain, it flat out sucked.
women in the other birthing suites were screaming and yelling out. i joked around with one of the nurses there that they need to be quiet so i could relax. she leaned in real close to my face and said:
"listen to me, when you are ready to push, you are not going to do that. ok? you are going to take deep breath and hold it and push as hard as you can."
dr. fong came in a short time later and was like "let's have this baby!" at that point i was 10cm dilated and the epidural was only taking a slim edge off of the pain. she asked if i was ready to push. well, not really. hehe.
"pushing may actually help with the pain."
that convinced me, so we started. i had two nurses, dr. fong and bryan all holding my legs, pushing my knees up into my face, everyone yelling "push, push, push!" she was right, it did help with the pain. for a short time. and then i got TIRED. i was pushing very effectively, and just when i thought i couldn't push anymore, she was like "there's the head!"
it was at that point i decided if i "gave up" for a little while, it was just going to prolong it. so i found the strength somewhere, i'm not sure where because my muscles were kaput. but anyway, we did a few more rounds of pushing and out came his head. she asked if i wanted to touch. "NO!" i really just needed to focus on the pushing part. i only needed the verbal assurance of his presence. that and i could *feel* his shoulders.
one more push and out he came! they put him on my chest and let me tell you, it was surreal. he was so dark and long. definitely bryan's complexion. bryan was so excited. his eyes were bright and just filled with... happiness. "you did it! great job honey!" he was there, holding my legs and yelling until the very end. :)
next installment: recovery.