Labor and Delivery

I wanted to give a brief reflection on my experience in the hospital! We were admitted to the hospital on Sunday to be induced. They gave me cervidil (sp?) over night and then began the pitocin at 6 AM. We slept very little...the bed was super uncomfortable and Kurt got to sleep in a hospital-grade recliner! Our admitting nurse was very pleasant and helpful. We then had 2 other nurses through the night shift who were not my favorite to say the least! Luckily God answered our prayer to have a kind nurse during the labor and deliver. Her name was Colleen. She was a Christian and was very sweet, supportive and kind. I couldn't have asked for anyone better. She said she felt like God placed her with the people who He felt needed her. Sure enough she got placed with us! The pitocin confines you to your room since they have to monitor your BP. The contractions worsened pretty quickly, the doctor broke my water and things were on their way. I was determined to have a natural delivery (with no epidural)...God had other plans! I was contracting hard...trying all different positions to somehow avoid the epidural. I became nauseous and began vomitting! Yuck! At 10 AM I was only a few cm dilated. I knew I could stand the pain for another hour or so but not another 5+. At 10:30 I gave into the epidural! Kurt can tell you about his experience watching from behind as they placed a large needle in my back. All I can remember is "Blow out the candles" which is what the nurse kept telling me as I contracted during the procedure! So after I had the epidural, you would think things would be dandy...however the vomitting continued every time I would change positions, which was about every 1/2 hour! My legs felt cold and tingly and I couldn't event pick my foot up off the bed. What a strange feeling to have someone have to move your body for you! Labor continued all day and occassionally I had an extra bit of pain meds in my epidural. I guess what they gave me wasn't enough. At around 7 pm I pushed a little to practice. Then around 9 pm I began pushing for real. Kurt was an excellent coach and stayed strong and encouraging the whole time. For about 45 minutes all you could see was a small patch of hair, then the nurse said it was time to call the doctor. What?! How could that be? I wasn't seeing much change through all that pushing! Kurt was shocked too! The doctor came in, did some things I won't blog about...and then out popped the head! Kurt was shocked again! The doctor delivered the baby and he was placed on my chest, which was a moment I had been dreaming of forever. He was pretty blue and not crying. Apparently he had the cord wrapped around his neck twice. He was taken to the warmer and cleaned up. He pinked up but didn't cry! He just layed there looking over at me with his big blue eyes as if he wished he were still inside. Kurt brought him over to me to hold and this was absolutely amazing. I couldn't believe he was out. The doctor sang happy birthday to Jack and said "I cry every time". After I was all cleaned up and Kurt and I spent some time with the baby alone, my family came in and held him, which was after midnight! My dad said something to me such as "What a gift from God". I wish I could remember exactly what it was. It was so very sweet and melted my heart. Marleigh did such a good job holding him! We were taken up to the postpartum room and thought we were going to go to bed. First my bed would not adjust electronically so Kurt had to transfer me to the other bed since my legs were still numb! Once we got settled, we only slept maybe 2 hours and then starting at 3:30 or 4 AM people started coming (baby nurse, my nurse, techs, cord blood rep, birth certificate lady, picture lady, insurance lady, etc etc.). Needless to say, we were very tired by the time we went home on Wednesday morning. We were blessed though to have more visitors including several of my coworkers and friends from church. Mom and dad were a tremendous help in welcoming us home and making the transition as easy as possible. Everything didn't go as I had imagined it from when I was a little girl, but it is my story and one that I will think of often! If you want to hear the gushy details, give me a call and I will fill in the blanks for you! ;) Some of its too much to put on a blog!