Mommyhood

Wow...it's been forever. But, here I am...attempting to get back into the blogging world. So, my last post was on May 17, 2009. That was a Sunday. In that post I discussed my doctors appointment the next day. Well, that doctors appointment turned into more than I bargained for! I went in and waited for an hour while my doctor was delivering a baby and then was taken to a room. When I was finally seen I told the doctor that I hadn't been feeling the baby move much at all over the past day. He said that it was probably nothing but that he would feel better if I went down for a non-stress test in the labor and delivery area. So, away I went. I fully expected to be strapped to a monitor for about a half an hour and then be sent on my way.

So, I get all hooked up and they turn on the TV for me. I sit there and watch some Price is Right (Am I the only one that misses Bob Barker??). After about 15 minutes, the nurse comes in and brings me some apple juice and graham crackers. She says that sugar will usually get the baby moving. And, well, it does. He moves a couple times...but then all hell breaks loose. I am watching the heart rate on the monitor and after I drank the apple juice, his heart rate plummets from in the 140's to the 70's. I've never seen a nurse run into the room so quickly (and still haven't). She waits while his heart rate returns to normal and then tells me she is going to call the doctor. A few minutes later, she is back telling me that the doctor wants some blood work run and that he wants me to have an ultrasound. So, the blood draw occurs, I give a urine sample (the second one of that day) and then I'm off to radiology.

Now, at this point, I'm still not concerned or worried. I figure that baby is fine...and I'm ready to have the kid anyway, so it's okay. Well, I go for the ultrasound...which is one where they watch him for a half an hour and look for movement and also for breathing motions. 15 minutes in they haven't seen either. Now, his heart rate is perfectly fine...but even with poking and prodding, he isn't budging. They finally see breathing motions about 20 minutes in. At 30 minutes, he still hasn't moved. Then the technician says "I'll be back in just a minute". She returns with another person and they start looking at something on the monitor. For a full five minutes they talk in hushed tones and I have a meltdown. They can't tell me what they are looking at they just tell me to ask the doctor. I start bawling. They get me back to the room that I was in for the non-stress test and I call my mom (she is much, much closer to the hospital than my husband who I am also in contact with). I ask mom to come to the hospital because I am freaking out.

My doctor arrives about 10 minutes later and tells me that he is slightly concerned because of the drop in heart rate and the fact that baby failed the ultrasound test (darnit Jack, you failed your first test!). He indicates that he would like to induce labor that day. Baby will be better off out of the uterus than he is in there. I agree. So, they get me into a room and get me all hooked up to an IV and to the monitors and at 4:45 that afternoon they insert the cervadil which will help my labor progress.

The whole labor story would be rather long...but here are the highlights. I get the cervadil and have to lay flat on my back for two hours. it's horrible. Laying on your back is normally no big deal...but when you are 85 months pregnant and haven't laid on your back for about 7 months, its torture. So, at 6:45 I am able to get up. At this point, things are fine. I'm not feeling anything. The plan was for the cervadil to be in for 12 hours and at 4:45 in the morning they would start potocin. Well, I apparently had other plans. At about 9:00 that night, my water broke. My family had just left for the night and it was just Ryan and I there.

At about 10:30, I was in pain...horrible pain. I called my mom and told her that my water had broken and that I was hurting. About an hour later she decided to come back to the hospital. At about 2AM, I decided to get an epidural. I was expecting this to be slightly unpleasant, but I was excited for the relief it would provide. Yeah...then the nurse anesthetist arrived. I don't think he knew what he was doing. He had to stick me with the giant needle five times before he finally got it. Each time he would comment about how he was scraping the bone with the needle. Really? Cuz I'm pretty sure I can feel that buddy. So, he gets the epidural in and I lay down, excited that I will be in less pain and feeling good soon. Um, not so much. My epidural didn't really work. I had what's called a partial block...where parts of your body react but others don't. Unfortunately the area that I really needed to be numb didn't get numb. So, I was miserable.

Long story short, they gave me a delightful narcotic at about 1PM that didn't take the pain away but that made me loopy (I apparently told my sister to go get the car and to get me out of there). At 2:50PM it was determined that I was ready to push. The nurse told my mom that she thought I would probably push for two hours. Well, I was determined to get that kid out of there. He was born at 3:45PM (he would have been born sooner but my doctor wasn't there...and I had to not push for about 10 minutes...sweet jesus that was ridiculous). He was a whopping 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 19 inches long. Not too shabby for being two weeks early. I was exhausted and all I wanted was a shower and some food.

So, that's the story of how Jack Ryan came into the world. It was HORRIBLE (and no, I have not forgotten the pain yet), but he was worth it. I mean, look at this face...