I was sitting on the couch last night this morning holding a drowsy Miss T when I realized that I never posted her birth story. N wrote his version of it ages ago, you can find that here. But I thought maybe I should record my interpretation of events for posterity as well, so here it is. You’re welcome.
I could not sleep at all the night before the induction – way too much anticipation, I guess. So about 4:30 a.m. I completely gave up and lay there staring into the darkness. Around 5 I got dressed and had N take one final belly shot for the scrapbook. We had to be at the hospital at 5:45 a.m. to check in, and my parents were there to stay with AE, so around 5:35 off we went. (The hospital is conveniently located right down the road.)
Once I got checked in we were immediately sent up to Labor & Delivery. My doctor wanted me on Pitocin by 6:15ish so that he could come break my water at 7:00. By the time he got there, the Pitocin was already taking effect and I was having some serious contractions. And Miss T had positioned herself on top of my bladder, so with every contraction I felt like I was going to pee all over the bed. I think that part was more painful than the actual contractions and I seriously started to cry at one point because it felt like I had to pee SO DAMN BAD. OW.
They weren’t too busy in L&D just yet, so the nurse kept coming in to check on me every 20 minutes or so. She tried to keep me calm through the pee-contractions and promised me that if I could make it until 9:30 she would send for the anesthesiologist. Somehow I managed, and by then I was indeed dilated enough for an epidural.
Once the epidural was in place, I felt so much better. Relaxed and happy and with the catheter I no longer felt like a horrible Pee Incident was imminent. My in-laws had arrived to take their shift with AE (so my parents could be at the hospital), and N met up with them long enough to take AE for breakfast at the neighboring McDonald’s. My parents and sister came in to keep me company while he was gone. N returned shortly, and suddenly the nurses came in fussing about Miss T’s heart rate. I was briefly put on oxygen and thankfully the problem quickly corrected itself.
My parents and sister went to the waiting room for a while, and it was just me and N again. I drifted in and out of sleep (thank you, epidural) for the next hour or so.
My family came back in to check on me around noon, and while we were chatting I felt a wave of nausea and the unmistakeable urge to push. For some reason, I didn’t want to say “I have to push!” and then be told I wasn’t fully dilated or something (I don’t know), so instead I just started telling N to get the nurse. Get the nurse, there’s something going on, get the nurse.
My parents and sister were shooed out and I was quickly checked. Sure enough, it was a go, so one of the nurses ran off to find my doctor while the others got me ready to push. I couldn’t wait any more, so they told me to go ahead and start pushing when I felt the urge.
It didn’t take long, and the baby was starting to crown before my doctor arrived. It’s funny the things that stand out in your mind – one of the nurses was setting out some booties for the doctor to put over his shoes. I clearly remember her saying that she also had to put out a chair for him otherwise he would fall over while putting on the booties. I found this very amusing, even through the intense contractions.
N was worried that the doctor wouldn’t make it, that Miss T would be here before he was, but he showed up just in time. A few more pushes and she was out at 12:23 p.m.
Nine pounds, eleven ounces of healthy baby girl. Yes. My little girl weighed almost 10 pounds, a full six days before her due date. I hadn’t been carrying particularly large and wasn’t measuring ahead of schedule so everyone in the delivery room was pretty shocked by her size. What can I say? I grow ’em big. AE was 8 pounds, 15 ounces when he was born and that was in Denver, where they warned us that a lot of babies are low birth-weight (due to the altitude?)and have to be put on oxygen immediately after birth.
After Miss T was initially evaluated and deemed healthy, N went down to the waiting room to deliver the news. Then family started to trickle into the room. My brother-in-law’s girlfriend came in just in time to see me puking into a plastic basin. I’m sure she was thrilled to catch that show, my sister certainly was.
After that brief instant of sickness, I felt much better and was able to give my new baby a bottle. Poor little thing was quite hungry – the nurses told me to take it away after 1.5 ounces and that did not make her happy.
Everything after that is a blur – family coming and going, getting moved into another room, etc. All the pictures from the day are over here if you are interested.
And now you know. That’s the gist of it anyway, my memory is less than stellar under the best of circumstances. In this case, there were drugs involved and almost 5 months have passed but I’m pretty sure this is accurate. Mostly.
