enjoying this blog thing. It's a good outlet for the crazy array of thought in my head. Be prepared for this to be the
LONGEST POST YOU WILL EVER READ. Tonight I am feeling rather feisty. I place the blame on the nasty superbowl food mixed with the crazy kids and the intense husband. So let's talk about chicks, man.
Ahhh, Ella. Isn't she fabulous? Being pregnant with her was complete and utter
misery from start to finish. Pain, pain, fatigue, horrible nausea, more pain. I had very few days that I didn't cry.
I had really irrational fears towards the end of my pregnancy that something horrible would go wrong. Well it didn't. And like any crazy mother, I still worry, worry, worry about my kids. But Ella's birth was something kind of amazing. It was like a little gift to me. Also a little gift to me- modern medicine- and now I will explain why.
Through motherhood, you really find the you give up control. Period. With Ethan, I wanted badly to have him without any pain medication. That went out the window at about 28 weeks. From that point on, he was breech. I was really angry when I had to cave in and have a
C-section. His birth was "scheduled."
With Ella I was bound and determined to go VBAC, whatever it took. I kept thinking about how amazing Jackson's birth was and how I craved to experience the intensity of giving birth the way you are "supposed to" (let's not use the V word today, okay?). That is, until she flipped at 26 weeks and also stay breech from that point on. Apparently I have uncooperative anatomy. Maybe it is due to that alien I had implanted in my abdomen a few years ago. It must still be taking up a lot of room. I was disappointed but still kept hoping she was flip. Well she decided to be feisty and never did. But, she (and my doctor, the $%#hole) gave me, well- a little of both worlds, which was kind of exciting to me. Here's how things played out:
MY DUE DATE: Monday, November 8th
**I want to start this out by saying that because my baby was breech, my doctor never thought it was important to check and see if I was dilated. Dummy. Also, if this part bores you, just skip to October 27th. That's when the real fun happens.
October 19th- Clean my carpets on my hands and knees. Complete and utter exhaustion, but the urge to do it was so intense that I could not resist.
October 20th- Decided to drive to IKEA on a whim. We needed a dresser before the baby came. My legs swelled up so bad just from driving them there that it was really painful to walk the rest of the day.
October 21th- Swelling in my feet is so bad that not only can I not wear shoes, but there is only 1 pair of flip flops that don't hurt my feet. Showing off my fatty feet to everyone. Doctor's appointment, baby is still breech. At this point, she's not turning and with me having a previous c-section it would be dangerous for me and the baby to try and get her to turn. We tentatively plan on November 1st for the c-section. I really wanted to have her in October because I LOVE LOVE LOVE Halloween. Oh well, better luck next time because I don't get to choose. C-sections are not allowed to be scheduled earlier than 39 weeks.
October 22nd-4:00 PM start getting a dull pain on my left side. The pain got worse and worse until it was so intense that I couldn't sleep. I was up all night. It wasn't rhythmic though so I just hung out in my room in pain. About 6:00 AM, the pain went away and didn't come back. I was sort of disappointed.
October 24th- Lost what I thought was my mucus plug (just writing the word mucus makes me wanna barf). Let's just say there was a lot of stuff going on 'downstairs'. Researched online and found that you could still wait for WEEKS for your baby to come after you lose it.
October 25th- I clean my house spotless. I do everyone's laundry.
October 26th- I do ALL the kids Christmas shopping. All of it. No joke. I find this part really crazy. I started going nuts at the end.
7:00 PM Carnival and Jack's school. I went to the bathroom before we left, while we there, and right when we got home. We were only there for an hour.
10:00 PM- As we were going to bed I told Kyle I felt like I should call my doctor in the morning because I felt like my amniotic fluid was leaking. I was trying to play it cool but I didn't sleep much. I know, and my body knows that things are starting to roll.
October 27th- 4:00 AM - Wake up to pee. The pillow between my legs is soaked. It is not pee. It's pink and it smells like amniotic fluid, because it is. It's like Jackson revisited (my water also broke with Jackson). At this point I know my water has broken so I start getting ready to go to the hospital. Not having contractions so I don't wake anyone up.
5:30 AM- An "oh no" moment. I run to the bathroom and a giant gush of amniotic fluid soaks me and my favorite sweat pants. Crap. And then the contractions start. Knowing that I am having a c-section I shouldn't wait much longer to head up to the hospital. I wake up Kyle and the kids.
6:30- We drop of the kids at fabulous Mandy Driggs house and head to the hospital. The contractions are not super bad but happen every time I get up and move around. It's starting to worry me a bit.
7:30- We get to the hospital and get all checked in. I am dilated to a 3. The nurse has been trying to get ahold of my doctor for about 45 minutes. She finally gets him and explains the situation. For some reason, still unknown to me, we cannot do the c-section until 1:30 PM. Yes, that's right. He and the hospital intend to make me wait 6 hours for him to show up so he can cut me open and rip my baby out. The nurse say she hopes they can "squeeze me in" and that it will be earlier. The doctor makes is seem as though the hospital is making us wait because there is a 7:30, 10:00 and 12:00 c-section scheduled. From this point on, it's a he said she said game.
10:00 AM- Still waiting for doctor. No drugs, no food, no fluid, no leaving my evil hospital prison bed except to pee. And that's not to mention the fact that I didn't eat the night before because I knew something was up. Your not supposed to eat or drink for 12 hours before a C-section.
11:00 AM- Still waiting. My surgery nurse comes in. She is evil and very unsympathetic. My contractions are now 4 minutes apart. At this point, the nursing staff really just starts ignoring us. They don't come in for a couple hours and don't really seem to care. They are under the impression I am just chillin'.
12:00PM- Kyle takes a break to go get some lunch. He is going as crazy as I am. He's only gone a little while but my labor really picks up in intensity while he is gone. He comes back and starts timing the contractions. He's trying to help me to relax during them and I am trying. I am mostly just angry because I know that I can't have the baby. I KNOW that I have to have a c-section. I start to worry about my labor picking up and that they are not taking it seriously.
12:30 PM- contractions 3 minutes apart and pretty intense, yet the nurse tells my doctor I am laboring comfortably. I hope she burns.
1:15 PM- Nurse is hanging out in my room waiting to take me to the operating room. She finally sees my actual contractions instead of reading them on the monitor at the nurse's station. She actually seems a bit worried. She realizes the monitor is not reading them correctly. She decides to wait to do anything about it. The doctor should be there any minute to get prepped for surgery so no worries, right?Contractions are now 2 minutes apart.
1:30- No doctor yet. She calls him. NO answer
1:45- Still no doctor. She calls him. He has just left (which means at least 15 more minutes for him to drive there, park his car, and get up to labor and delivery). Contraction are still at 2 minutes and I am ready to murder people. What kind of doctor makes you wait for 6 hours and then is late???????? REALLY???? I am literally beside myself. At this point, normal women would start pushing. I can't. I risk the baby's life because of her position and she has now pulled her feet up so her bum is first.
2:00- They decide to take me to the operating room. The nurse asks if I want her to check and see what I am dilated to. ARE YOU KIDDING? WHY? So I can know that I am dilated to a 10 but still having a c-section ? No thanks, I would prefer to go have a c-section right now please. The damn doctor finally shows up as they are bringing me a wheelchair to get me to the operating room. I can read the fear on the nurse faces now. They are worried. They realize we are close and getting ourselves into a sticky situation. I wanted to punch the nurse for bringing me a wheelchair. I just spent 7 hours in a hospital bed swelling up like a balloon, I am pretty freaking sure I can walk myself down the hall. See my doctor in the hall, he looks embarrassed. He should be. He didn't take the situation seriously and he now sees how intense the labor is. I had a contraction as we left the room We walk what was probably 50 feet to the operating room and I had another contraction. I am really angry but at this point I am not sure if it is the doctor's fault we waited so long or if it was the hospital making us wait for the other c-sections to go first.
2:05- Anesthesiologist starts prepping me. He's having a hard time because my contractions are so close. I'm having a MAJOR one as they lay me down. He ask me where I can feel it and I reply that it's ALL low. He says we better get the show on the road, and fast.
2:10- DRUGS. I am exhausted. This is the point with Ethan that I started making jokes and being crazy because of the drugs. Kyle threatened me that I better not make jokes this time. He doesn't have to worry. I'm so tired that all I can do is lay there and shut my eyes.
2:20- Ella is here! She is amazing. She SCREAMS right away. One problem. Here bum, it was on it's way out. How do I know? The doctor cut her right above her bum as he did my incision. Don't worry, it was completely superficial, but that just tells you that she was trying to make her way out and little bums are not meant to come first. This is the reason I am thankful for modern medicine.
2:30- Sewing me up. The doctor starts talking to the nurse. She tells him that my labor was really just fine until about the last 30 minutes. She turns to me and says "right?" I just say
"Let's not talk about it, let's just call it good." She shuts up real quick.
2:40- Doctor still cleaning up. Starts talking with the nurse and other doctor about malpractice insurance. Didn't think the conversation was applicable until later, when I found out that it was his fault that we waited so long. Needless to say, not my doctor anymore.
3:00- Waiting in triage. I have to stay there for 1 hour. I am all alone. Just me and the nurse. Tick, tock, tick, tock. How long I ask her? It's 3:10. 5o more minutes of waiting and doing nothing. I want my baby. Now.
3:15- I hear Kyle coming down the hall. I can still remember the feeling of hearing his voice and I can tell he is pushing the baby bassinet. A wave of relief comes over me to hear him. I almost can't breathe out of excitement and joy. I don't have to sit there alone anymore. It makes sitting there for 45 more minutes actually bearable with him and Ella there. I finally feel like I can let go and enjoy these amazing moments. Ella is hungry, she is rooting all around and she is so perfect. She is already making me giggle and she is all mine. I want to cuddle her so bad that it hurts. The feeling in the room is hard to explain, like heaven is right there with us and nothing in the world matters but these moments. 7 pounds 4 ounces, and almost 2 weeks early. GO ELLA! We are in a fog of happiness.
From there is was feeding babies and not sleeping. I was mad at the hospital and doctor for some time after she was born- mostly because they did not seem to make the safety of my baby their priority.
In complete honesty, I look back at my labor and am glad I got to go through all of it. Having kiddles is exciting and scary and amazing and life changing. Ellla's birth was like a little gift to me, to get to experience a little (well actually most) of the birth I wanted so badly.
She is so amazing and such a blessing to our family. I just love her chubby, feisty, gassy, spit-up covered little body. Sometimes I still can't believe she is here and how lucky I am.
THE END
