Friday, August 26, 2005

birth story

my water broke about 6:15am while i was taking a shower. getting ready for what i expected would be my last day of work anyway. i wasn't sure if that's what it was since i was already in water, just felt a sort of pop and what i thought was a small gush. once i got out and dried off i couldn't really tell anything was different. that is until i got dressed and couldn't stop the flow. wow! weird feeling...
called the doc's office - no pains yet but they told me it would probably be about 45 min before they started to be noticeable and to check into the hospital. i planned on having a VBAC so knew i would have to labor there once my water broke. i was a little bummed but excited that our new babe was finally on its way out!
i woke up adam and told him we needed to make our way to the hospital...we decided to take owen to daycare since it would be a long day anyway. got dressed, finished packing my bag(since i had never really done it anyway) got about 10 other bags filled with cameras, snacks, pillows, clothes, then owen's overnight bag for grandma...sheesh! meanwhile, i'm still leaking water all over the place - lovely, really.
we take owen to daycare (after adam decides to install the infant carseat- uh...hello, i'm leaking here! he can do this at some point on a break from me being in labor or after the kiddo shoots out).
anyway, we drop off soon to be big brother and let them know he'll be out a few weeks after today, and head for the hospital. we are birthing at Seton SW by the way, which is such an awesome hospital - i hate to even mention it cause its such a wonderful out of the way place. right in the middle of the hill country with the most awesome views from all of the rooms. we check in thru the ER and go up to LD. they check me in the small triage room where i proceed to leak water everywhere and then get my med history and hook me up to the uh, heartbeat thingy. -hey, this is my 2nd kid- i can't retain any information anymore - you know the thing i'm talking about. anyway- baby's heartbeat is strong and i'm actually having contractions 3-5min apart and didn't even know it.
they move us into a larger delivery room and there i sit and wait...
more later...owen is demanding i find his thomas engine...

ok, so its going on lunch time and i can feel a few contractions here and there. nothing to strong but noticeable. dr L. had come in about this time and told me i was progressing just fine but didnt see me really going full force until early in the morning. oh, and no solids just liquid diet...uh, ok, i had only had a few bites of muffin cause i had forgotten to eat more in our hurry. adam came in a few minutes after that with a sub sandwich- which i promptly wolfed down (i would pay for it later).
my mom, tia tiller and dad came up about then too. then adam's mom and his sister arrived soon after that. if i could have taken a nap at this time i would have but really, the excitement just wouldn't let me. we got up and walked around the floor twice just to get my but out of bed.

by 6pm a nurse shift change- i was ready to walk again. unfortunately this nurse chastised us and said i'd have to stay in my room cause i needed to be hooked up to the monitor. seriously i didnt see how taking a 5-10 min walk would make that much of a difference. i was already getting up every 30 minutes to pee. anyway, i was thinking she was going to be a nazi about stuff but then she asked if we wanted to change rooms and if we needed a remote control. we got a bigger room, a remote (the other room didnt have one and apparently they were pretty scarce) and she got me an egg crate mattress for my ever flattening ass. ok- i loved her again.

so, as i'm finally feeling like drifting off to sleep about midnight- holy crap! the contractions start full force. man oh man...so i could tell this would be a long night. by 3am i am thinking things are going to be moving along. we call my mom and my doula to let them know. they had to start me on antibiotics after hour 18 since my water had already broken. this would continue every 4 hrs and this stuff was cold. i started getting the shakes from this and reminded me of how i felt after my previous c-section. i think the dr. came in around 6am and said we should start on a slow pitocin drip to get the labor working- this could have happened around 7pm the previous night but i cant quite remember . i was only about 5 cm at this point so not too much progress had been made and baby had to really moved into birth position.

i just remember my only comfort was standing there when a contraction came on, holding on to adam's neck and rocking back and forth. i was ok with sitting on the birthing ball in between but standing seem to make it more comfortable and then moaning really loud. i just remembered in my childbirth book that moaning and concentrating on making your mouth into the shape of an "O" would help the cervix open . they kept trying to get me to change positions. laying on my side was excruciating- i thought i was going to pull the armrails off of the bed. positioning on all fours was even worse i stayed this way thru maybe 10 rounds of contractions - literally sobbing my way thru them. i just could not relax enough to feel like they were even doing any good. i think at this point i was giving up- but adam and lanell (doula) kept telling me i could do it so i tried to concentrate on how short the contractions really were.

i cant remember when the last time dr. l came in to check on me was it before lunchtime? that becomes a total blur. at any rate she told me i was at 7 cm but the baby had still not dropped although i was almost completelty effaced. at that point i think i just let out a big sigh- told adam if we had a 3rd child i didn't know if i could handle a "natural birth". anyway- at least not 3o some odd hours of it. it was at this point i gave in and asked for the drugs. best thing i could have done- it was about 11am when i asked for it and would be another 6hrs. ahhh...so sweet...i could at least lay on my side and labor comfortably. i think that really helped the little booger move its way down the birth canal. plus i was able to close my eyes and rest for awhile.

by 5 or so dr. reddy (the dr. on call) came in to check on me - lanell said she thought later that she (dr. reddy) was very uncertain whether i would be able to continue much longer. she's writing a up a birth story so i'll have to compare later. anyway, about 6pm the nurse said i was at about 8 and she thought the baby had moved enough to where i could start pushing to try and get it to get a move on. at that announcement i thought "helll yeah, i'm pushing this baby out as fast as i possibly can!" it's weird cause i could feel the contractions and i could feel the pressure but other than that i just felt like i was holding my breath and wrinkling up my face.

everyone was cheering me on...lanell made me feel the head when it first appeared- honestly i didnt really want to but i did. um...yeah, just felt kind of slimy- i really had no idea that i was touching my baby's head. so about the time the head was about to pop all of the way out the nurse told me to stop pushing. what?!?! they had to call the dr. in and an army of nurses started piling into the room. all i can remember was them telling me to just hold on and all i could say was "i can't ~ its coming out!" she was in her office in the other building but somehow made it just as i could hold on no longer. adam and my mom said later they thought the baby was going to drop on the floor cause they were all getting "dressed" for the birth and no one was waiting to catch it. it came out so quick. left meconium all over the dr.'s scrubs and they rushed to clean him off. nothing got in its lungs just came out with all the pressure pushing it out. i could tell immediately he was a boy as they lifted him up. i had a slight tear so wasn't able to really sit up and enjoy him until he had been wiped down and passed around to dad.

man was he a buggy eyed little man! 8lbs 8oz, 22in long, born @ 6:57pm 8/11/05. Finnegan (Finn) James -he's a little white boy like daddy and has light colored eyes. i honestly thought all of our babies were destined to have chocolate brown eyes. he latched on really well as soon as i got a chance to feed him. man- i forgot how small babies start out. compared to big brother owen he's a dwarf!

so my second little boy entered the world and i can't wait to watch him grow. his big brother loves to kiss and hug and touch him.

oh yeah, on our way home from the hospital Finn started to cry, rather loudly. Owen was a little upset about this to say the least (I could not fit in back with both car seats) and started yelling "Don't do that to me!" so we had to listen to both of them crying/yelling for about 10 min on the way home. adam and i laughed and said "lord, what have we gotten ourselves into? And we want another one someday?" :)