Anyway, I didn't want to make Mark get out of bed (yet) since contractions hadn't started or anything. But of course I couldn't help but wake him up and be like, "My water broke!!! Now go back to bed, I'll let you know when you need to get up and pack." I was kind of ticked that I had cleaned the house and gotten everything ready, but I *hadn't* packed yet because my due date was still almost 3 weeks away. (Lesson: Listen to your body's intuition! It's okay to think you're going to have your babies early!)
I called the doctor and asked her what I was supposed to do, and she said to try to sleep or whatever and come in when the contractions got bad. Second labors go faster than first labors, etc etc. With Carmen, my contractions were *never* less than 5-7 minutes apart (they're usually supposed to go to 2-3 minutes apart at some point) and my body took its sweet, sweet time to get ready to push Carmen out. But then my contractions started and they were all 2-3 minutes apart. Mark, it's time to start packing!
I tried to remember the things I had learned in my Bradley Method class. I had my birthing ball and the couch and Mark was willing to do counter pressure. I made it about an hour before I decided I wanted to die and there was no way in heck I was going without an epidural unless I was dilated past a 7 or something. I. Hate. Labor. Pain. I felt like there were millions of baby velociraptors in my abdomen trying to tear apart my thighs. My legs shook uncontrollably with every contraction and I felt too tired (and still sick from the sinus infection) to handle it.
Mark woke a sleepy Carmen up and told her Mommy was having a baby. She rubbed her eyes, confused, and said, "Is it my birthday?" (Mace was due on her birthday.) Mark explained that Mace decided to be born early and it wasn't quite her birthday yet. "Oh, okay." she said. We called Chris and Becca (our friends who were going to watch Carmen while I was at the hospital) to tell them we were heading to the hospital, and I'm in the background going, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's so early, I'm sorry to wake you up!!! I'M SO SORRY."
We dropped Carmen off and drove to the hospital. I was just about crying from the pain, thinking natural childbirth people are masochists, and I repeated to Mark over and over again, "I'm not kidding, I'm not doing this, I want an epidural if I'm not very dilated and I don't care."
My favorite midwife (Dr. Kubesh) was on call at the hospital until 8 and I don't remember if I had brought my birth plan to my last appointment (on Wednesday) or if I had left it at home ... anyway. She looked over my birth plan and said everything looked great. I stopped her informed her, "The only thing I'm changing is I WANT AN EPIDURAL. I'm sorry. I thought I wanted to do this naturally, but ... I'm sorry ..." She was so sweet and reminded me there's more to my birth plan than avoiding medication. ;)
Around 7 am, Dr. Kubesh checked me and told me I was about 80% effaced, 3 cm dilated (sad, sad days!!), and at -1 station (Basically, you get to 100% effacement, you dilate to a 10, and when you get to a positive station the baby is basically coming out.) She told me that since my water had already broken, they wouldn't do any more vaginal exams because that increases the risk of infection and they would pretty much leave me alone until I felt I was ready to push.
I was in lots of pain, but I tried to stay cheerful about it. Nobody likes a whiner, right? I had a nurse and a student come in and take my vitals every so often and they were both really cute and sweet. They teased me about being too cheerful for being in labor, and they wouldn't know whether or not the epidural was working because I was so peaceful and happy-seeming. Honestly, every time a contraction started I just tried to relax through it like I'd tried to learn in my Bradley class. BUT DANG IT HURT SO BAD. BURNING BABY VELOCIRAPTORS.
Finally, I got an epidural. Soon afterwards, I could tell that my left side was way more numb than my right side. In fact, my right side hardly felt numb at all. They tried having me roll over onto my other side so gravity would pull some of the medication down to my right side, but it never really seemed to work ... This epidural was not as amazing as Carmen's was. But since my legs were mostly numb, I was stuck in bed with half a happy body and half a body being eaten by velociraptors. Oh, well, let me tell you - half an epidural is still probably a million times better than no epidural at all. ;)
And the contractions continued to be as close together as they had been. I was kind of miserable and I had no idea how long I had left. Occasionally I'd press the button to get more epidural drugs, but I couldn't get my right side to stop hurting. After an hour or two, I called the nurses back in to see if there was anything they could do for me. They brought the anesthesiologist back in at some point and she pulled on the epidural IV they put in my back, and it seemed to straighten things out and help my right side get a little more numb.
At about the same time, they decided to check me and see how far along I was, because if I was in so much pain I might just be in transition. Man, that would be awesome! It was only, like, 11 am!! Sure enough, I was dilated to a 9. Really? After only a few hours? Awesome! They told me to call them back in when I started feeling the urge to push (you feel pressure down there like you need to poop.)
The doctor was actually delivering another baby when I started feeling the urge to push, so I had to relax and resist the urge to push until the doctor came in. Dr. Sebestyen set everything up and put Mark in position so he could help catch the baby when he was born (that was something Mark wanted to do, so we put it in our birth plan if the doctors would be okay with it.) She told me to start pushing when I felt ready, and suddenly I had stage fright. I couldn't remember how to push or how to breathe or ... anything. My mind was blank. Dr. Sebestyen was so nice and told me when to push and inhale and exhale and remember to breathe. (me = dork.)
I pushed for the first time and everyone told me they saw the baby's head. I didn't believe them. I pushed a second time, a third time, and his head started coming out. (I'd asked for a mirror so I could see it. It's so gross, but so cool!) I didn't watch much of it, actually, because I clamped my eyes shut while I pushed to block out some of the pain from my half-epidural. A few times she asked me to push a little bit and hold him somewhere ... and ... I don't know. Then he was out. It took like 20 minutes. I am a stud.
The baby was born at 11:53 am and they sat him on my stomach as soon as he came out. Mark caught him. They covered him with a blanket and I just wanted to hold him and hold him and hold him and hold him. Eventually, Mark cut the cord, the placenta came out, and Dr. Sebesteyen showed it to us and described everything. It looks like a giant red and gray unskinned chicken breast. (Yuck, cool?)
They told the student that I had done really awesome and it was something like a perfect delivery. They asked me how much I thought my baby weighed, and I said, "Well, at my last appointment they didn't seem to think he was very big, and he's two and a half weeks early, so I'm thinking he can't possibly weigh more than 7 pounds?" He was 7 pounds 7 ounces. SWEET! And he was 19 3/4" long.
And I didn't tear. I couldn't believe it when they told me I didn't tear - I felt AMAZING.
For those of you who are going to have a baby some day - DO SQUATS. I think that's what made it so I didn't tear.
The epidural wore off quickly and I wasn't in very much pain at all (I think I took 2 or 3 ibuprofen total, and stopped taking them early the next morning?) and I wanted to walk. They have you go to the bathroom before they take you to your new suite and the nurse kept teasing me because I wanted to walk to the bathroom myself (with a half-numb left leg). I'm sure I looked a bit like a drunk Jack Sparrow, or Inigo from The Princess Bride. "This is where I am, and this is where I'm gonna stay! I will no' be moved!"
And oh man. I didn't tear. I could walk! I felt awesome! I wanted to go home! I had the one of the biggest hospital rooms (because it was in the corner!) Mace roomed in with me the WHOLE TIME and they only took him away twice (at midnight, to be weighed) (okay, and to be circumcised) and he nursed really well (even with a really bad tongue-tie) and I love my pediatrician (Dr. Juan Guerrero) and Mace was SUCH A QUIET HAPPY PEACEFUL CHILLED OUT BABY.
I was just in love on cloud 9. I have never felt so amazing in my life.
My hat's off to you women who do natural childbirth. That day, I learned if I had a choice, there is no way I would do a natural birth or a home birth. As much as I hate the nurses coming in and harassing you all the time, I hate labor pain even more. ;)
Man, I love these cute people! Carmen cried when she came to the hospital and I told her Mace couldn't come home with her yet. "The doctors want to keep checking on him." I said. "Oh no!" she cried. "Are they going to give him SHOTS?!" and started crying for all the pain the doctors would inflict on her poor baby brother. She told me that if anyone says anything mean about him, she would hiss ("fiss!!") at them and chase them away. You go, girl!
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