Delivery

**Includes baby delivery details, so beware! You've been warned...

So yeah, I'm still alive... Barely...

It's been two weeks since delivery and I figured it was time to write about it. Frankly this is the first time I've had to actually sit and type. So my last entry was saying that the doctor had agreed to induce me, which she did that next day, Friday. Here's how my day went:

Bo and I ended up staying in Tucson on Thursday night, his company had given him a free stay at a hotel, so we took advantage since we had to be at the hospital early the next morning. We had an enjoyable evening on Thursday, dinner with no kids, ice cream at the mall and then a dip in the hot tub... okay, I only got to stick my legs in but it was still nice. I would love to say that I had a great night sleep before I went to the hospital to deliver, but I didn't. I would've slept better if I'd've slept on the floor!

Woke up Friday morning, 5:30 am!, we got dressed and went to breakfast. The doctor had instructed me to eat before going to the hospital since I wouldn't be fed until after delivery. There was an IHOP down the street from the hospital so we picked to have the international house of pancakes, because hey, they have great pancakes! After a nervous breakfast for me, we were at the hospital by 7:15, we weren't actually supposed to be there until 8:00, but I couldn't wait any longer.

After lots of paperwork, showing ID, and waiting they finally got us to our room. With the help of 2 nurses they got me all hooked up, fetal monitoring and needles, lots of needles. They started pitocin at about 8:30 and after checking I was still only dilated to a 2. So I guess all that walking we did on Thursday night didn't help. Dang. Good exercise I guess.

Then started the waiting. And waiting. For the most part it was a really "relaxed" day. My nurses were great, I had 2 nurses that were my full time nurses and then 2 more that came into help a few times. The pitocin started contractions, but nothing strong. They kept telling me to let them know if I wanted some IV pain relievers or an epidural, but the contractions really weren't that bad. And then more waiting. My doctor finally came in at 11:30 to see me for the first time. We talked a bit and she checked me and said I hadn't really changed any after 3 hours on the pitocin so she decided she'd "help" me along by breaking my water. Let me tell you, OUCH! I didn't have to have that done with my first, and it's not really a friendly thing to have done. And had I not been watching birth shows the past weeks on Discovery Health and TLC I might've been worried about having it done. But I watched it and knew what to expect. She checked after she broke my water and found me to be dilated to a 3. Then more waiting.

Bo and I had brought a couple things to keep ourselves entertained, one thing was Phase 10 Dice. We played that 3 or 4 times through out the day, after the last time I gave up on playing because Bo kept beating me; and I don't deal with losing well especially when I'm in labor! Our first nurse got a kick out of us, between our playing games and constant jokes, I'm sure she stayed very entertained for her whole shift.

Skip ahead a couple hours, our nurse got off at 7:00pm(11 hours after starting the inducing process) after being with us her whole shift, and our new nurse checked me then and found me to be dilated to a 5. Could I have dilated any slower! The contractions were there, but nothing I couldn't deal with and breathe through. They started my pitocin at an 8 when I started that morning and they upped it every hour or so. By 6:00pm, after over 9 hours on it, they had me up to a 30. The new nurse came on at 7:00 and commented to me about getting pain relievers, which I still didn't feel like I needed. Bo kept saying "are you sure you don't want to get an epidural?" which I was totally planning on getting, but I didn't really need it yet. The nurse was surprised at my refusal of drugs and said "Most people would be screaming in pain with their pitocin at a 30." They didn't really want to give me more than that for pitocin so they left it there, and I endured it at a 30 for over 3 hours!

Bo and I had made bets early in the day about when I'd deliver. Bo had guess 2:30 pm and I have guessed 4:52 pm. I laughed at Bo as we passed by 2:3o, but then had to hang my head as we passed 5:00pm.

After 3 hours of the pitocin being at 30 my doctor came in and checked me and commented that my contractions, which were just mid grade bearable contractions, were slowing. They were figuring that my uterus was tired so they were going to start the pitocin back at 8 and work it back up. At this point I was very tired so I opted to get the epidural just so I might get a little sleep before the big event. And WoW! I had forgotten that epidurals don't come without a bit of pain. Pain because they poke you with a huge needle in your back, but also because they want you to bend in half when you have this huge basketball in your lap. I got a compliment from my nurse that I was really flexible for a pregnant woman, she didn't have to help hold me down for the anesthesiologist which she normally has to do.

Drugs. Sweet drugs. I know that a lot of people are for the whole natural delivery, and yeah, go them for being able to endure that, but I'm just one of those people who doesn't mind anything that helps take the edge off the pain. And really, I tried to go as long as I could without it, but after 13 hours on pitocin and no pain relief, I was tired and wanted to try and sleep a little bit. I got the epidural at 9:30 and slept on and off for about 3 hours. It was wonderful!

Bo was such a champ through everything. He went the whole day without eating, and never really left my side. He slept on and off throughout the day, but I kept trying to get him to go and find some lunch/dinner but he refused to leave me. What a sweetie. He spent some time on the Internet updating facebook with how life was going. He also rubbed my feet and back when I needed it and ran and got me ice chips when a wanted, aren't those ice chips awesome?! Anyway, Bo was so great, I think I'll keep him!

They came to check me at 12:30am and found me dilated to a 7-8. By this time, I felt the epidural starting to wear off. My contractions were still just mid-grade (I could see them on the monitor). I was surprised at them because with my first labor I was IN PAIN!! I had total back labor with my first, and it was so incredibly painful. This labor, was just cramps in my stomach and they weren't extremely painful, but enough to wear me out.

At this point, something happened and my IV got pulled out, so I had to get another one. OUCH! My first nurse used lidocaine to numb the area for the first IV, the second (who wasn't my actual nurse, just a helper since my nurse was assisting in a C-section), didn't. Wow. My regular nurse called her the mean nurse, I guess she is notorious for not numbing. Great, why didn't they warn me!

Since I was starting to feel pain from my epidural wearing off I started to feel pressure, not painful, just pressure. It was a weird feeling. At 1:00 the nurse checked me and said "Well, it looks like you could push and have this baby out in 2 pushes, lets call your doctor." She came back a few minutes later after calling my doctor and commented that my doctor was 30 minutes away, so to just relax and hopefully the doctor would make it in time. Great. Wait? More?? Okay...

Since I had gotten a "nap", I was feeling really good. Even right before pushing both Bo and I were cracking jokes. I think we had our nurse... stumped? Surprised? I don't know, but I don't think she knew what to think about us even after being with us for 7 hours. The doctor finally got there and got suited up and we were ready. It was so... relaxed. My first delivery was stressful, I felt like the nurse and doctor were yelling at me and I was tired and frustrated. This was all on my schedule. The doctor told me to push whenever I felt ready. I think I pushed about 4 times, about 8 minutes worth of pushing total, and he was out! Such a different experience from my first birth, that one was over an hour of hard pushing. It was kind of funny because after his head was out he basically jumped out, literally. The doctor caught him on his way out, I think he caught her by surprise. I'm just glad she was ready and caught him.

And then he was here! 1:52am, 18 hours of labor. Yea, it was over! Well kind of. She still had to stitch me up. I had a nurse comment later that I had a second degree laceration so it took a few minutes, maybe 10, to stitch me up. In the mean time, the baby was being check out by the nurse. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 18 ¾ inches long. He weighed more than my first baby by 4 oz., but was more than 2 inches shorter than my first.

So there is my delivery story, mostly for posterity sake, but maybe some of you care! :) I'm just glad it's over. And I'm still trying to figure out what I learned from the experience, like, do I really like being induced? Are epidurals worth it? (that's a no-brainer, yes they are, but I did have a bruise on my back the size of a softball the next day from where I got the epidural...) Why don't I dilate faster?! And do I really want to do this again...? It's a good thing that time heals all wounds, literally and figuratively.