Miss Addie is here, and we are home from the hospital.
My water broke on August 5th, at 4:45pm. I was emptying the trash when I felt a small gush of fluid. I didn't want to jump to conclusions and have another wasted trip to Labor and Delivery, so I went on about my business of unloading groceries and cleaning. A few minutes later, there was another much larger gush. Then another. And another. I was leaving a trail of amniotic fluid with each step I took. It wouldn't stop. I wound up sitting naked from the wiast down, on a pile of towels in the middle of our bedroom, because I kept soaking through pads and underwear. I called the OB's office, and they advised me to get in by the evening. I took my own sweet time, as I wasn't in active labor yet. We fed the boys, I packed my bag, took a shower and got the boys ready for bed. By about 7:45, I was starting to have some contractions, so we went to the hospital.
I was only at one centimeter and 60% effaced, much to my disappointment. She was also still very high up. So I labored for a few hours, and by 10pm, things were starting to happen. The contractions were getting stronger and lasting longer. By 11pm, she had descended more and I was at about a 2. They had me get up and walk the halls, and man oh man, did things kick in then. Let me state at this point that this is the first time I have actually gone into labor without the aid of pitocin. I never had the opportunity to let a labor progress naturally, so this was all new to me. We made one lap around the hospital, but the pains were too intense, so we came back to the room. I sat on the birthing ball, which took a lot of pressure off my lower back, but after awhile, I was in so much pain that all I could do was crawl into bed. I really wanted to see how long I could make it without drugs, and at 3am, I hit my wall. Big time. I was not dealing with the pain very well at all, I was a bundle of tension and on the verge of tears. It was epidural time.
They get in to do the epi at 3:30, ,and sitting upright and holding still for it was not the most fun. Neither was the lightening bolt of firey pain that ran down my left leg when he accidentally scraped a nerve as he put the catheder in my spine. But the worst part of this whole portion of the evening? Oh, that would have to be when my husband passed out on me.
He passed out on top of me.
I felt that deserved repeating. He apparantly couldn't take it and had a mini seizure. The big burly anesthesiologist had to pry him off of me and lay him on the bed. They called in extra nurses ("we have a dad down!") to try and revive him. One nurse offered to get the camera and take a picture. Had I not still been in pain, I would have had her do it. I was beyond pissed. It was one of those "this is so not about you" moments. Truly comical. I was sitting alone on the edge of the bed, epidural not entirely done, having to hold still through contractions while my husband got all the attention. Seriously. This is my life. I know he felt badly, and he should. Will I ever let him live this one down?
Um, no.
So, I finally am pain free, and I was able to rest for a little bit. At 6am, I was at a 7 and they wanted to start pitocin to speed things along. They hook me up, but with a few minutes, unhooked me because my body kicked back in and I dilated from a 7 to a 10 within a few minutes. Unfortunately, Addie was not tolerating the strong contractions, and her heart rate was dipping way down with each contraction. My doc was on her way, and in the meantime, they had me do some gentle bearing down so the nurse could try to make some room for her in the birth canal during the contractions. I was feeling like crap at this point, I hadn't eaten or drank anything (they only let you have ice chips) and I was feeling very queasy. I also had to wear an oxygen mask, which was making me even more queasy. Finally, my doc got there, I had one contraction, pushed a few times, she snipped me, I pushed again, and she was out. Shortest delivery ever. She looked wonderful, a little on the blue side, but she pinked up quickly. There was a big knot in her cord, which may have had something to do with her heart rate during delivery.
She's perfect and little and feminine looking, and very fair, which is bizarre! Both the boys were born with full heads of black hair, and she just has a light amount of dark blondish hair. She latched on within the first hour of her life, and nursed beautifully. She hardly cries and is so sweet natured, I'm wondering if I have the right baby! We have pictures and video to post, Bryan is taking time off, so the pictures really will get put up this time! I even had him take a picture of the placenta, because I'm just weird that way.
General vital stats: Erin Adeline ("Addie") born August 6th, 2004, at 7:02 am, weighing 7lbs, 2oz, and 19 inches long
I'm off to breast feed again.....
...so, here's the placenta. Gross? It could be worse. I could be posting the birth video.
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