Labor and all that jazz

Here I go again trying to get into blogging.
So I'm addicted to reading other blogs so I figured why not make my own right? I especially love reading the blogs of people who just had a baby or those that are pregnant. But any who this blog is titled "Labor and all that jazz" for a reason. This is a long post, feel free to skim.

So my story begins Thurs. Feb. 11th, 2010. I worked a full day and felt like crap all day. At 35 weeks pregnant I just figured that's what you get for working full time on your feet all day. So I went to bed that night preparing to go to work the next day and hope it ended soon so I could recover over the weekend. This is how Friday Feb. 12th went...

2 AM I woke up to pee, no biggie right I do that every night every few hours because of this bouncing baby. I peed, life is good, I return to bed. As soon as I hit the mattress I feel "POP" and "GUSH". O NO!? I proceed to go back to the bathroom. (At this time Clayton is thinking "Holy crap you just peed what are you doing?" He doesn't voice this tho, he continues to sleep on.) "Um, Clay. I think my water broke." I didn't see this but I can certainly visualize it. Clayton shot up, "What?!!!" The next few minutes is a blur. I was no where near ready for this. I had just packed the baby's bag that Wednesday but I had packed nothing for me. After all I still had at least two more weeks before I'm considered term. I hurry and throw stuff in my bag and we head to EIRMC in the dark. I'm so nervous I could vomit but I try and remain calm. I'm sure Clay feels the same.

We get to the ER, they load me into a wheel chair and rush me off to Labor and Delivery. Yep my water broke, somehow they think you just peed yourself. Nope I was sure that was not it. They poked me a few times and finally found the right vein for my IV, it was in my right hand, go figure. They send in some nurses from the NICU to prepare me for what lies ahead. They have a window in the delivery room that connects right to the NICU. So they can hand off the baby as quickly as possible. They told me that's what would happen and that most babies stay in the NICU at least until their due date. This whole time I'm thinking huh that's great that you guys are all telling me this but my baby is going to be fine I'm only 5 weeks early, not that big of deal. So I listen to them half heartedly and go on with my business of sitting and waiting for labor to happen. Anywho I being naive thought man labor is going to be a breeze. I thought for sure it would only be like 3-5 hrs long, at least that's what family history has displayed, and if it's only that long surely I can make it without an epidural right? HA! At 9:30am (that's 7 1/2 hours in) I am feeling the pain. I think to myself, well let's see how dilated I am, if I'm close I'll just tough it out. I am 3-4 cm dilated. Bring on the epidural! I have the most amazing nurse, Karen. She's so kind, nice, understanding. She was my 3rd nurse so far and she was mine til her shift was over at 7 pm. I was praying I would have this baby by then because she was amazing. So Karen brings in Walter, every laboring women's dream come true of a man, he's the one with the drugs. The epidural is amazing, I highly recommend. They numb you before they stick that huge needle in you, I did not know that, if only I had made it to a birthing class. :) Somewhere in this time I've been put on oxygen, those things are annoying, you can't hear anything over that pushed air. Around 2 pm this little girls heart beat drops way down. In a panic Karen throws me on my left side and jams a needle in my right arm, it had something that would help the baby. We got the heart beat back up but over the next hour she just keeps on dropping. The Dr. comes in and explains it's best to do a C-Section. At 13 hours in I'm so ready to have this baby out and so tired of staring at that monitor and having my heart drop everytime her heartbeat drops. Lucky me I'm already numb. They wheel me off to the operating room and start prepping my big belly. I laid on the table in tears, tears of fear and the unknown, wondering if my baby will be ok. Walter my anesthesiologist talks me through everything and answers my millions of questions. I convince him to tie my hands down because I am afraid that if I feel pain I will jerk them down. He reluctantly tied them loosely. He drew a stick figure of a person on the sheet in front of me to look at, it was a nice touch. They finally have me prepped and are ready to go. They bring Clayton in, he stays at my head and wipes away my tears. So much pressure it feels like someone is punching you in the gut over and over and over again. I became nauseous and started coughing like I was going to throw up. That made me nervous I was jiggling my tummy around while they use a sharp instrument to cut me open. Clay watched as they brought our little girl into the world. I heard a little cry, relief, she's breathing. They showed me over the curtain for half a milli second and then whisked her off to the NICU. My first thought was "Man that's a big head, are you sure she's a preemie?" They begin cleaning me up and sewing me closed while I wait for the stats of my little girl. K this pressure is worse, it's almost painful, but I get through it. Finally they have my stats, Walter writes them next to his stick figure 5 lbs. 14 oz, 19 in 3:37 pm. The tears start again. And I think hey that's how big I was, and I wasn't in the NICU. I can't imagine how big she would have gotten if she had cooked for 5 more weeks, oy vey. I lay in recovery sleeping, snoring and listening to all the different sounds. Poor Clayton must have been bored out of his mind, he was busy calling family tho. I remember getting one call tho. Clayton asked who it was. It was my Lamaze teacher, she was calling to confirm that we would be there for tomorrow's first class, indeed we would not. They finally took me to our room. And from there I got in a wheel chair to meet my little girl. Abdominal surgery is a pain, literally. You cannot bend, stand, walk, cough, sneeze, laugh, vomit. Nothing it all hurts. So getting me into a wheel chair took some time. I met her, she was in the incubator. She had all sorts of wires hooked to her and a c-pap on her nose. But such a cute little girl. I held her, I was exhausted but so happy to have her here.
So on another note the Olympics started that day. We don't have cable so it was nice to get to watch them. And I could not watch anything funny so the Olympics was good. We were watching Friends at one point and something made me laugh, I shot my head into my pillow in agony, it was a funny sight but no more funny shows!