Our new adventure began a little over a week ago. It had been a fairly normal day. I did not have to go to the center, but I did have to go downtown to see my tutoring students down there. I had been particularly uncomfortable that day and so I was glad when I found out that one of the three kiddos I see from that family had a basketball game and would be skipping his session for the night. On this particular night, it was nice to be able to go home early.
I got home and used my extra time to have a nice long conversation with Jaime...a much overdue conversation at that! After talking for over an hour, I helped Stephen get ready for dinner. I wasn't feeling good all of the sudden so he did most of the work and luckily I was able to choke down half a fillet of tilapia, couscous and...broccoli, I think it was. After eating something, I felt much better. Still uncomfortable, but my stomach was no longer turning.
Stephen discovered recently that I never watched the TV show 'West Wing'. Apparently, this was unacceptable so we have started adding season discs to our Netflix queue. We had just watched the second to last episode on the disc. I still wasn't feeling great, but good enough and we decided to finish off the disc so we could go ahead and send it. About 5 minutes into the show, I felt two swift kicks from the baby. Only they didn't feel like they normally did. It was almost like she was kicking me, but without the hindrance of fluid. They were strong kicks! I mentioned something to Stephen about how it felt odd...I didn't say anything to him yet, but in the back of my head, I was wondering if maybe it was my water breaking because it did feel an awful lot like a 'pop'. Nothing happened right away so I figured it was just a few big kicks.
And then I moved slightly.
I believe my next words to Stephen were...'RUN and get some towels...we're having this baby!' I remember thinking about how the lady at the birthing class had emphasized the fact that water breaking is not necessarily like how it is in the movies...some people only feel a trickle...
Yeah, right.
Let's just say by the time we made it to the hospital, I had soaked through 3 maxi pads, 3 towels, and 2 pairs of pants. And it's the weirdest feeling because you have no control over it! You move just slightly and fluid is everywhere! The birthing class instructor was right, it's not like the movies, it's worse! At least for me it was. I actually laughed out loud when the birthing center nurses said they had to wait to admit me until they had tested me to make sure I actually broke my water. At that point, either my water broke or we were headed to the ER with a bladder problem!
After reaffirming that yes, my water had indeed broken, I was hooked up to monitors and an IV port was placed. We spent the next few hours watching the rise and fall of growing contractions. When I was checked in, I was 2 cm and 80% effaced. At 2 AM, the nurse had me start walking the halls to get the contractions going. We walked for an hour, Stephen holding my big jug of water and charged with rubbing my back with my breathing every time I had a contraction. It took us about 15 minutes to walk the circle of the birthing center (approximately the same as walking the perimeter of the house, maybe just a smidge more. My contractions were much stronger now and each time one would hit, I would have to grab the hand holds on the wall and sway back and forth until it was over.
At 3 we made our way back to the room and I told Stephen I was ready for some pain meds. At this point, I was moaning with each contraction. The nurse checked me and I was...
a whole whopping 3 cm...fully effaced. But still, 3??!!
Um, yeah...epidural please?
The anesthesiologist came in around 3:30 and the epidural went smoothly. I was having a contraction during the whole thing, but the nurse was wonderful in helping me stay still and breathe through it.
At about 5, a new shift of nurses came in and introduced themselves to me. They checked me and I had made it to 5 cm! Hooray! But my contractions were still not picking up which means that although I was dilating fine, the baby might not be descending so they decided to give me a very small dose of Pitocin. They didn't want to give me too much because the baby's heart rate had been elevated so I was on Oxygen as well.
I was told to rest. Yeah, right. Well, admittedly, I did get about 45 minutes of sleep...just enough to gather my strength for what was yet to come...
Finally I could get some sleep...only about 45 minutes worth, but I'll take it!
No comments:
Post a Comment