But there are some strict standards and expectations put on you as a pregnant women. And everyone has their own opinion on those standards. So to me the first experience of true parenting (deciding what I considered to be the best interest of my child) was the pregnancy. But there was a moment when he entered the world that I thought, 'What if I was wrong?'
Needless to say it was an amazing moment when the doctor who checked him over said he was a perfectly healthy baby boy! After he was placed on me for some bonding time (which included him pooping all over me) and the pain of labor had all but disappeared from my mind, I knew I needed to write down what happened. Which I did, 2 days later. And now it has taken me 21 days to get it out to public.
For those who I haven't talked to directly about this, and also like to hear these kinds of stories, here is my labor story...
On Friday 16 Sept, I went for my normal morning walk with Piccadilly. I had some contraction type feelings during and after my walk, but nothing of note. I was concerned about some bodily functions occurring and did call Labor and Delivery that morning. They told me to come on in to get checked to make sure my water hadn't broken. My mom was already in town, so she and I jumped in the showers ('this could be it' we thought, 'might as well shower'). I went in and got checked out. It was not my amniotic fluid and I had not dilated anymore (I was at 3cm). But I was having contractions, which was nice to have the machine confirm that for me. Now I knew what I was looking for! So I was sent home.
The on going joke that day was tracking my 'contractions'. At this point Ryan and I were convinced the pregnancy was on track for an induction the next week. Well, the fun turned into a realization that the contractions were actually pretty consistent. So we headed to bed (you can sleep these away, right?). The contractions then became a consistent 5 min apart, 1-1.5 min long. And they were increasing in pain. I became the cliche of breathing through them. So off to Labor and Delivery we went (after calling in first, of course).
We arrived at 12 midnight on the dot, 17 Sept. Went to triage where they checked me. I was at 4 cm dilated and was indeed having consistent contractions (thanks again technology for confirming what nature was telling me!). So we were admitted and taken to our birthing suite. By this time my mom was called in (this really is it!). So I disrobed and put on my fashionable Fort Belvoir Community Hospital gown, had an IV started, belly monitors placed on me and informed I could have the epidural whenever I'd like it.
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| At triage |
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| 1:05 am and we were in our room |
The nurses told us to try and get some sleep. That was fun for us all! The 'bed' was not really made for anyone over 5ft and there was only a office chair for alternative seating. So my mom and Ryan tried to rotate on the 'bed'.
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| Ryan on the bed |
Meanwhile I was trying to figure out how exactly to sleep through contractions. Which didn't happen. At 3am I opted for the epidural. They got that going at 4am. At 4:20 was checked and had dilated to 9 cm, but baby was not as engaged so they did not want to break my water, yet.
I have a love/hate relationships with the epi. I loved not feeling the pain, but hated not feeling my legs. And that is what became Ryan's number one job, to make me feel my legs. He then had to continuously massage my feet and move my legs back and forth for me, all while I continuously wiggled my toes. But I did sleep for a couple half hour increments.
At 7am they broke my water. There was meconium in my fluid. The midwife was not too concerned due to it not being much but we would still have a doctor present to examine the baby immediately at birth to insure he was ok. We were disappointed because that meant the skin to skin contact would be put on hold. The staff assured us that they would be quick and bring him right back to me (which they followed through with and it was less than 2 minutes that he was away from us).
At 8am lots of medical professionals started coming in and introducing themselves. We were also in the midst of shift changes, so our night staff were leaving and the morning staff were coming in. They did a great job of making sure we knew who would be delivering our baby.
At 8:30am our nurse came in and it was time to start pushing. So on my back I went with my mom holding one leg and Ryan holding the other. I was holding them too, but that's a whole other story. (there are human legs in my hands but I can't feel that in my legs, so who's legs am I holding???) Then I started to pass out (happened to me during ultrasounds also, the baby was laying on some blood source of mine that got pinched when I was on my back). So pushing stopped and we took a break. The nurse came back in at 9am, put me on my side and the pushing commenced. Ryan was an amazing partner in the process and turned out to be the best "counter" a girl could ask for. We pushed for 1 hour and 45 minutes.
It was amazing because for about 1 hour and 15 min it was just me, Ryan, my mom and nurse K with us working it out. Then the masses arrived. At this point my eyes pretty much stayed shut (no I don't want to touch the babies head!?). And we worked it out. Oliver was check out by the doc and cleared and brought straight over to us.
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| He's perfect! |
So as your reward for making it to the end of this post, here are some recent pics of our guy.
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