Friday, March 21, 2008 (Devereaux's Due Date)
Morning-ish
After several false starts in past weeks (damn those Braxton-Hicks), I called my mother, whining that I thought the baby must be refusing to come out because the bassinet was not yet setup. Also whining because in order to setup said bassinet, I needed someone to help move my dresser across my bedroom. My mother finally gave in (we'd had this conversation before) and came over to do just that. After we got the dresser moved, I realized the bassinet was nearly the size of the crib and we might as well just put the crib together now. Right? Mom agreed, so we became Crib-Builders. Friday evening I went to be feeling accomplished, only a little disappointed that the act of crib building didn't encourage Baby Devereaux to make his debut.
Late Night/Early Next Morning
From about 4am on I kept waking up about every half hour. Never did I question this, I just figured I had to pee. A lot. The day HAD been my technical due date, after all.
Saturday, March 22, 2008 (Gestation: 40 weeks, 1 day)
9:30am I wake up with strong, intense pains in my abdomen. I briefly considered the thought that they might be contractions, then proceed to checking my email and such. Every other time I got excited for contractions, they vanished. I'm not falling for it this time. I look up as another one rips through my body to see that it's 9:57am. And then again at 10:03am. And then every 5 minutes after that. Holy cow, these are for real! It's only then that I realize that it was the contractions that were waking me up from 4:30am on.
I call my mother and calmly state these facts, while IMing my sister-in-law, Jenny. Everyone is agreeing with me, this is it. My mother comes over to see for herself. We call Jenny to come pick up my daughter. She will most likely be spending the weekend with them. I take a hot shower, which helps immensely with the pain, then finally call the Labor & Delivery department at the hospital. The very nice nurse I speak to asks me all the required questions without any urgency. I have a contraction on the phone with her and can barely catch my breath. She quickly asks me how long it takes to get to the hospital from my house, then tells me to just go there, it's time for the baby!
At Renown, they have issues with my pre-registration paperwork. It seems the doctor's office never sent over my name change information, as promised. After that's settled, they send me down for observation. It's right around noon at this point. The nurse there, after a couple of checks and very little progress, suggests walking and offers to discharge me temporarily. So I pace the halls for an hour and finally at about 3:30pm decide to go home where I can get back in the hot shower and eat before returning for the rest of my labor.
Mom and I leave for home, stopping at Arby's for lunch. We go home and pop in Titanic to watch while we are eating. My mom takes a nap and I hop in the shower for a little pain relief. I watch Titanic a little, take a second shower and then around 6:30pm I woke up my mom to return to the hospital. The contractions are definitely more severe at this point and have stayed about 5 minutes apart all day.
I return to Renown and get admitted, this time for good. We settle into my delivery room and meet my nurse for the night and the midwife on duty. It takes nearly an hour and three nurses to get my IV in place. Being Group B Strep Positive, I have to have a full course of antibiotics in my system before the baby is delivered. At this time, I requested IV painkillers as well. I remember them working fabulously when I delivered Taryn.
This time the IV drugs barely take the edge off my contractions, which are now every two to three minutes apart. I'm starting to lose it a little as they peak, they are so strong and I've been having them all day. After my allowed 3 hours of IV painkillers I'm fully effaced, but my dilation has ceased it's progression. I'm stuck dilated around 7, I believe. The midwife gives me a few things to try to get everything kickstarted back up. Nipple stimulation? Nope, no change. Switching from laying on my back to my side and back every fifteen minutes doesn't do the trick either. Finally, she starts throwing around the threat of Pitocin.
I desperately wanted to avoid being induced with Devereaux and was so grateful that labor started on it's own. I almost cried when my nurse brought in the Pitocin to go in my IV. I knew it would make my contractions worse. But we had to get this labor over with.
After only about 15 minutes on the Pitocin, a really intense contraction hit me. And it kept going, and going... After several minutes, the nurse started to seem worried. I started getting vulgar. My mom kept staring at the monitor, telling the nurses, "No, that's STILL the same contraction." I noticed a quick, quiet conversation between the nurses, then one pulled a syringe from my bedside drawer. I'm screaming, literally, "Make it STOP!" repeatedly at them, they are trying to calm me down and worriedly disconnecting the Pitocin drip. The nurse tries to tell me that the medication she's about to give me will counteract the Pitocin and stop the contraction. At that moment, thankfully, the contraction hit it's peak and started to become less severe. Only a minute later, another one starts. I beg them not to give me any more Pitocin. I also beg them to please have mercy and get me an epidural! The midwife comes in to tell me that as long as I have progress I won't need it, so "Let's see where we are, shall we?" Oh, lookie, progress! Yes!
The nurses promise me the epidural is ordered and the anesthesiologist will be here as soon as I finish one more bag of IV fluids. Every other contraction or so, I beg for my epidural. They continue to politely assure me I'll get it soon. And then, once it's in, sweet relief! That epidural saved my sanity. And now I know that the epidural I had when I gave birth to Taryn was a sham. A monitor is placed on the baby's scalp.
It's 6am or so and she tells me I am finally fully dilated! And that the pushing shall commence very soon. My mother runs outside to have a quick cigarette before we get underway with the exciting stuff. The nurses ask me for a test push to see if I have the right idea. They are pleasantly surprised and tell me I'm a "Great Pusher!" My mom returns and the baby is crowning before the midwife shows up. She's excited that I'm doing so well. I'm excited that the horrible pain is gone and that pushing is nothing like the catastrophic event it was when Taryn was born. The nurses and midwife are pleasant and encouraging. All is well!
Every contraction, I push dutifully. Finally, the baby's head stops retreating at the end of every push. The staff chat amongst themselves about the amount of hair on his head and his acrobatics inside the womb. He's managed to get himself spun completely around since the nurse put the monitor on his head. Then his head is out completely, with the cord wrapped around his neck. Everything starts to take on quite an urgent tone. The baby's shoulders are stuck. NICU sends a doctor to my room. It's 7am and shift change, so the day nurse, Erin, introduces herself. Everything is prepared for the baby.
At 7:06am, I finally feel that deflated feeling as Devereaux enters the world. He's whisked off to the side to see the NICU doctor; he's grey and not breathing. After several minutes my relief turns to worry and panic because "OHMIGOD my baby isn't crying! WHY is he not crying? Where is he? MAKE HIM CRY!" And then... A soft, pitiful bleat.
I smiled. That was my baby boy. He cries for real then. He's here, and he's okay.
I hold him for a moment. The nurses pass him around to guess how big he is. Everyone guesses right around 8 1/2 lbs. Devereaux has to go to the nursery for testing and all that stuff. I send my mom with him.
She returns with this:
Proof that he's a big boy. 9 lbs, 3 oz. 20 inches long. And with a full head of red hair!
Wait. What? Red hair??? First of all, Taryn was bald until after her first birthday. Where'd he get all that hair? And red? Seriously?
Yep. Seriously. He's adorable. :-D
