Saturday, April 18, 2009

What an Entrance

So I published my last post, walked out the door, and went to the hopsital! No time for good blogging, there was barely time to get any details up, and of course stop at the grocery store for 2 gallons of milk!!

We got to the hospital and eventually got checked in Tuesday night. They checked my vitals, told me the induction would start at 4 am, and said good night. So I went to sleep and Hubby came home to get some decent sleep in a real bed. Don't worry, he was back at 4 am!!

By about 5 am, they had my IV started and the pitocin going. Having needed pitocin for Trevor's delivery, and remembering that, I wasn't thrilled about it, but there weren't a lot of choices! Not much happened for quite a while, and the Dr and nurses kept upping the amount of pitocin I was getting. Slowly, I started feeling contractions, but nothing intense enough or regular enough to make much progress. So, they kept upping the pitocin!

By about 9 am, I was starting to get to some decent contractions, but still not regular enough. I spent some time sitting in the rocking chair, and on the birthing ball to try and move things along. They broke my water, put me on an internal contraction monitor (to get a real feel for how intense they were) and upped the pitocin (do you sense a theme?). That really helped things, and by about 10:30 things were getting good. They checked me and I was dialated to 3 cm and fully effaced. The Dr kept coming in, upping the pitocin, and joking with me, "I thought you had fast labors!". I tried to point out that I'd had one of each (Trevor 17 hours, Blake 5) but he just wanted to joke with me that I was delaying his trip out of town!! I got to the point, that when he came in the room, I would try to hide the pitocin machine so he couldnt' up the dose anymore!!!

Much like when I was in labor with Blake, things suddenly moved right along. All of a sudden the contractions were fierce, regular and definetly having an effect. There was no more joking around or sitting up. It was also about this time, I could hear another patient down the hall having her baby and SCREAMING though it... not a good thing to hear!! Around noon, the nurse came in, I begged her to check me, and what do you know, I was dialeted about 9 cm.... just like that! She called the midwife to have her come over (the office is next door, whew!), and they started prepping.

I think there were about 2 contractions where I wanted to push but they said no since the midwife wasn't there. By the 3rd one, she was there and they let me push (THANK GOD!). 2 pushes and there she was!!! They put her straight on my tummy, cleaned her off, and let me hold her.... for the next 2 hours! It was so awesome!! They cleaned her, checked her out, declared her fine, and left the 3 of us alone for a while. Then they came back and cleaned up the room, etc etc. I LOVE the effect of a midwife, where we were allowed to just be a family and enjoy our new baby, and not get caught up in the "medical" part of it all.... very different than my memories of T & B arriving.

Eventually, they took her and cleaned her (fully) weighed and measured her and did all the 'necessary' things (foot prints, eye cream, etc.). After all that, hubby came home to tell the boys and give me some time to rest, and for me to get moved to Recovery. Well, I never got moved. Turns out there were 12 births the day before (Tuesday) and recovery was full. In fact, if I hadn't come in Tuesday night, I wouldn't have gotten a delivery room Wednesday and would have been turned away (as I heard others were). So I stayed in my room on the labor side which was perfectly fine (once they brought a real comfortable bed, that wasn't a labor bed!). I ended up staying in that room more than 24 hours, and only spent about 3 hours in "Recovery" before coming home.

Later Wednesday night, hubby brought T & B to meet their sister. Apparently, when hubby got home Trevor had asked about her name and was VERY upset (for about 15 minutes) about her middle name. We were debating 2 choices right up until we saw her, and Trevor was voting for the other option (Daisy). However, he was thrilled to meet her, regardless of the middle name issue. He was excited, and climbing up on the bed to see her better and dying to hold her. She was still naked (just a diaper) and lying right on my chest (skin to skin) to help her stay warm and to bond.... so he didn't get to hold her. Blake on the other hand, was very shy. He clung to Daddy for a while, stayed backed against the wall, kind of hid himself in the corner, and really wouldn't talk to me. I don't think I even got a kiss or hug from him the whole visit. They stayed for a little while and then went home for bed.

Thursday, after school, they all came to visit again, and this time Blake was much more excited and social. He climbed up on the bed looked at Izzy, and gave me lots of hugs and kisses. I think it helped that I was out of bed, dressed in real clothes, and that Izzy was dressed and seperate from me. Trevor finally got to hold her, and he was IN HEAVEN!!! He just adores her, and can't get enough of her.... he might kill her with love and hugs and kisses!!! It's too cute to watch. Blake is getting more and more interested and at least doesn't hate her!!!

Thursday after dinner, I came home. I had the option to stay til Friday morning or come home, but it got to be TOO quiet in my private room. As nice as a break is, I'm very used to our crazy busy house with two preschoolers, and having that much time to myself (and given the emotions of a post-partum female) I coudln't handle it. So they came and got me.... Trevor leading the way, trying to carry the infant seat, and super excited to have his sister home!

So here, we are.... just the 5 of us.

2 comments:

Bridget Di Luzio said...

What a beautiful entrance! Congrats to the family and hugs all around!

Melonie said...

Congratulations! Welcome to the Tax Day Baby Club:)