At 7:23, on October 4th, 2012, I was in the process of being released from the hospital. I woke up at 3am having contractions. Since I'd never been in labor before, I had no idea that the small contractions I was feeling were not anywhere close to the type of contractions I needed to push labor along. So around 5:30 we went to the hospital, only to be told, it isn't time, and to be sent on our way.
At this time last year I was disappointed and anxious. I was ready for my baby girl to be here in my arms. But, yet again, we were sent home, being told, it's not yet time. When we left the hospital, Michael and I went to Ihop for brunch. We enjoyed our food and discussed how our lives would be changed by this time tomorrow (I was scheduled to be induced at 7:15am on Friday, the 5th). I talked about how exhausted I was, Michael said he would help finish cleaning the house, and told me that he wasn't going to go back in to work that day. The waitress asked me how far along I was, because obviously I was pregnant enough for it to be ok to ask. 9 months, I told her, my due date is tomorrow. Oh wow! She exclaimed, and when she went back to the kitchen area, we could hear snippets where she told her colleagues how far along I was. Hey, a pregnant lady's got to eat, right?! ;)
After brunch we went home. Exhausted and still having contractions, I laid in bed with my heating pad on my back and rested for a good chunk of the day. My Knight in Shining Armour worked on cleaning the house so it was perfect when we came home with our new baby. That night, Sis came over to help me with my hair. You see, I knew we'd be taking pictures right after Avery was born, and I didn't want to look like I'd been hit by a train, so I asked Sis to come over and straighten it for me. Around 9pm and started, and so did the more intense contractions. By 10 she was done, and I'd made it through my first hour of active labor. She said to let her know if we went to the hospital that night, but it didn't take me 10 minutes after she left to decide it was time to go. This time it hurt. This time I knew it was real. It was time to go.
We got to the hospital and checked in. The contractions continued to get worse. For an hour we waited to make sure that my labor was progressing. When they finally admitted me, it was time for lab work. Because my platelets were dropping, we needed to know my levels to make sure I could have the epidural. So while the lab worked on my tests, everyone got the epidural ready, so that when we knew, we would be ready to go. Another hour of painful contractions went by. Finally, we had the lab results and they began my epidural. The people are right when they say that the shot to numb you hurts worse than the epidural. It burned, but soon the pain began to lessen. Lessen, but not go away, because the epidural was only numbing half of my body. I let them know this by picking up one leg and waving it around, saying, this side isn't numb. So they did another epidural. I now had 2 cathedures running into my spine to numb my pain. Finally I got comfortable, and when they asked if I felt that contraction, I said, what contraction?? Things were working properly. I was comfortably numb, and now we wait... Which was fine with my, because by this time it was somewhere between 2 and 3 in the morning. It was a long day, the day before Avery was born, but the payoff would be entirely worth it. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment