A moment of labor...

I promised a post on the whole birth event once I was in a little less pain, so here goes. I know that as I was waiting for the whole birthing process, I kept reading accounts of birth from other bloggers, wondering exactly what my experience might be. I figured I would throw my day of labor into the mix for those who are still waiting (or who hope to be waiting soon...).

Tuesday, May 17

3:30 a.m.- I woke to the sensation of water dripping between my legs and figured that I was, once again, sweating like a pig in bed. I threw off the covers and decided that since I was awake, I would go ahead and empty my bladder. As I went to sit up- GOOSH! Part of me was convinced that it was my water breaking and part of me thought I had just lost all bladder control. Luckily, I was sleeping in the guest room where I had, just the week before, made the bed using a shower curtain liner as the bottom layer. This gave me a moment to ponder my situation before needing to jump up and go to the bathroom. I highly recommend adding this to your bedding ensemble as you reach your due date.

4:00 a.m.- As it was a clean break, I decided to go ahead and get a shower and dry my hair before heading off to the hospital. Woke the hubby, who later admitted that he thought it was actually 7:30 a.m. and that I was playing a joke on him before heading off to work. No, I don't joke at this hour...

5:30 a.m.- Talked to my doctor's office who told me to get a shower, eat something, and then head off to the hospital. At this point I was not yet having contractions. However, the fluid would still gush occasionally, so I meandered around the house with a towel between my legs. It was a lovely scene. I also called my parents to let them know that they needed to care for the furry kid as we were heading off to meet their grandkid.

6:15 a.m.- At the hospital sitting in triage. I was 2cm dilated, 90% effaced, and they confirmed that my water broke (gee, thanks, I hadn't noticed). I waited around here until about 9:30 a.m.- and still no contractions.

9:45 a.m.- I finally got to a Labor and Delivery room. May I just interject to tell you how much I absolutely love my hospital? The L&D room is also the recovery room, so essentially you stay there for the whole process and get transferred to postpartum about two hours after delivery. The last thing I would want to be doing while laboring is changing rooms. They provide a CD player for music, TV if you want, a couch for the partner to nap, and they have all of the baby checking doo-dads in the room for during and after. Unless there is a problem, no one has to leave the room at all. It's great.

10:00 a.m...ok, back to the story. I was given pitocin to get the contractions rolling. I was told that they would not really be noticable for about two hours.

11:00 a.m.- I am definitely contracting. Each one is worse than the last. I may be reconsidering that epidural (I had hoped to avoid it). Dilated to 3cm.

12:00 p.m.- I adamantly requested the epidural. Contractions are coming fast and furious at this point. Dilated to 4 cm.

1:00 p.m.- The ansesthesiologist comes in to do the epiduiral. It hurts like a bitch. The pain is not gone. I am not happy. I ask if it should be working right away and he says to wait 10 mins as I might be one of those people who feels it on a delay...sounds like BS to me, but I am willing to give 10 mins for pain relief. Dilated to 5.5 cm. My parents arrived shortly after the epidural to visit.

2:00 p.m.- I have spent the last hour groaning like a crazy person to get through the contractions and begging the nurse to get someone back in there to give me another epidural, dammit. He finally comes back and I didn't feel the needle going in at all. I stopped feeling my legs...and the contractions. Finally. Thankfully. Of course, I also had no bladder control and peed all over the bed. But I didn't care in the least. Dilated to 6.5 cm.

2:30 p.m.- My parents decide to leave and my mom says that she will be back for the delivery. I made her promise that if I say anything rude in there that she will not hold it against me. "What happens in the delivery room stays in the delivery room." We decide that I will most likely deliver around 5:30 given the current conditions.

2:45 p.m. - Dilated to 9 cm. Doctor says that we will start pushing around 3:15. Call mom in a panic telling her to get back to the hospital NOW.

3:15 p.m. - The nurse tells me that we will start pushing to get the baby's head formed into the birth canal. We commence with push #1 and she freaks out because she can see the baby's full head of hair already. I'm not crowning, but he is definitely making an appearance. She begins to scramble around to get everything together and to page the doctor.

3:30 p.m. - The doctor arrives and is surprised at how quickly things are progressing.

3:40 p.m. - My mom returns to the hospital.

3:57 p.m. - The doctor starts to do an episiotomy.

3:57:30 p.m. - One push later, Gabriel comes flying out. He went from not quite crowned to shoulders in one push. Everyone in the room jumped because it was so sudden.

3:58 p.m. - One gentle push and the rest of him came out. I looked in the mirror and said "it's a boy!"

So, all in all, I was only in labor for six hours. Not too shabby. The worst part of it all was that Gabe arrived so quickly that I ended up with fourth-degree lacerations of the perineum. For those without intimate knowledge of perineal tearing, that's the worst type and means that I tore all the way through to the rectum. TMI? The healing process has been better than I expected, but not entirely pleasant. I will have to post something else on that whole scenario.

Gabriel latched on like a champ about 30 minutes after the birth and he's been feedling ever since. Yea!!!