The Birth Story

Well, I am officially a blog slack ass. I have had very little time to myself and therefore no time to blog. But, I wanted to get this out, while it was still somewhat fresh.

So we enter the hospital at 5:30am for our scheduled induction. I am 38 weeks pregnant and was 1-2 cm dilated. Both babies are head down, so we hope for a vaginal delivery. We get admitted and the party gets started at around 7:30am when the pitocin starts. I start contracting, but they aren't super contractions and nothing I can't live through. My doctor comes in and breaks my (Henderson's) water (which was more uncomfortable than I thought it would be - not the water breaking, but the hand shoved up my hoo-ha). And we wait. I get super hungry but thanks to the no food rule, I suffer. Pregnant women being forced to starve is kinda cruel.

The pitocin does its job and I dilate more. I get checked every once in a while and things are moving slowly... they say I should dilate at least one centimeter per hour with the pitocin. I was going slower than that, so they upped the pitocin, but then had to decrease it back because the contractions were coming too close together too early. At around 3-4 cm dilated I get an epidural. Contractions were uncomfortable (easy to say now, 3 weeks later) but livable - the nurse kinda talked me into it since I was getting one anyway, why be uncomfortable? Good reasoning, I thought, so I said sure! Let's go! I got the epidural from a very nice and talkative doctor (Dr. Duncan). The procedure didn't hurt but felt weird. And the sensations from it were also weird. It wasn't an experience I would like to repeat, but it worked, which is all that mattered.

So I labor on blissfully pain free. It was great - until it wasn't pain free. I realize that I was starting to feel things. Cramping and backaches. (Oh, yes - Henderson was faced the wrong way which invoked back labor - which hurts. A lot.) So I tell my nurse and she gets Dr. Duncan again and he gives me a boost. Which is lovely. I go back to not feeling a thing and keep laboring and slowly progressing. Henderson is still turned the wrong way, so I am rotated to try to help him turn. They can't try to rotate him in-utero because there simply isn't the space, and they don't want to disturb Zoe. I also start feeling things again. I try and hold off saying anything because at this point I'm kinda freaked out about how much medicine I'm burning through and that I'm able to feel things with the epidural (and that I'm feeling things faster than before - the boost didn't last very long compared to the initial start of the epidural.) I mention it and around the same time, I've been on my side for an hour without Henderson rotating at all. I'm dilated to 7cm at this point, but my cervix has started to thicken - I'm starting to move backwards.

A new anesthesiologist is on duty and is called in. She gets to my room at about the same time it's decided that I'll be having a c-section. Now, I could never envision myself pushing these babies out and kinda thought that a c-section would be pretty clean and simple... but alas, the c-sections I saw on TV were NOT what I would be getting. Please read no further if you are worried about getting a c-section or don't want to read scary things that could happen.

The anesthesiologist takes stock of everything and starts pumping me full of drugs. I am really, really hoping these things kick in quickly, because I'm still feeling cramping and having back pain on my left side and we're heading towards the OR with frightening speed. We get to the OR and I still feel things. I start numbing (finally), but am freaked out because I can still move my legs and feet. So they start. I don't feel the cut but feel a lot of pressure. It was surprising how long it took for them to get to the babies - it felt like a long time until they pushed to get Henderson out. They push on me and Henderson is born. The pushing and pressure hurt a lot. They then start to get Zoe. I feel more pushing, pressure and pain. She was up on my right side, directly beneath my ribs. She was born two minutes after Henderson and after she was out, I remember being able to take a deep breath, like I haven't been able to do in months. I remember my doctor saying that she was peeing on them, which made me laugh. All the pressure is gone, all of a sudden. I didn't get to see either of them, which makes me teary eyed even now. I'm getting pain 'tests' throughout their birth and am apparently failing them, because they start to get the placenta, which was at the top of my uterus and I feel sharp pains. After that, I remember nothing.

I wake up in recovery with a lot of pain. They pump me full of more drugs (Demerol, I think?) before giving me morphine on a pump. I don't know if any of that is normal or not, but all I know is that I was in a lot of pain and it was about 9:00 - two hours after my babies had been born. I still hadn't seen them yet. M was there when I woke up and was able to tell me about the babies - he got to carry them downstairs and introduce them to our family who was waiting outside the nursery. When I get released from recovery they wheel me down past the nursery for my first look at my babies. I finally get to meet them later in my room.

Needless to say, this was not the birth I had envisioned and it makes me a little sad to look back at my experience. I really wanted to see them and get pictures taken with them. I really wanted to be able to meet them sooner after their birth. I really wanted the experience to be pain free. I really hoped it would be like what you see on TV, but should have known better, I suppose. At least M was able to be there with them and me throughout, and they were both born healthy which makes me happy and is all that really matters.

Babies Are Here!

(I have a lot to write and no time to do it, so I'm going to try and work backwards and start from the beginning.)

We went into the hospital March 24, 2010 to be induced and Henderson was born at 7:11pm, Zoe at 7:13pm. They weighed 7lbs 6.8oz and 7lbs 1.5oz and were 19.75 and 19.5 inches long. We had complications during the attempted vaginal delivery so I ended up with a c-section (that is a whole different story - will have to write about that later).

But they are here, and perfect and we are just amazed by them. H had to stay an extra day (so we all stayed so we could go home together) due to jaundice, so we didn't go home until March 29.