Saturday, October 12, 2013
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Labor Story
Okay, so this is for Theresa. It may contain graphic details. Reader discretion advised.
On Sunday morning I started having cramps. I thought to myself, "great, another side affect of pregnancy". They were not so bad as to keep us from our plans, mass at 7:30, home to rest, shopping and then off to the in-laws for Grace's 12 birthday party.
We got home, had dinner and were finishing up an episode of Babylon 5 at about 7 pm when I realized the cramps were getting very regular. I took out my phone and starting timing them. They were 3-4 minutes apart. We called my doctor's office and packed our bags and got to the hospital about 8 pm.
They put us in a triage room. Duck Dynasty was on the TV so we watched that as we waited... and waited... and waited. Someone came in to verify my information as if I had not preregistered on-line and confirmed the information over the phone. And we waited and waited and waited some more.
Finally someone came in to check and see if my water had broken (it had not) and to verify that I was in labor (I was). I was at 4 cm. By this point those "cramps" were getting very painful. I was starting to really consider an epidural. By 10 pm when we finally got moved to Labor and Delivery we had asked for an epidural because I was screaming/crying though the contractions.
I got the epidural at about 10:30 or 11 and it was heaven! I was now at 5 cm.
Stephen tried to set up the DVD player but could not get it to work. We found an episode of The Big Bang Theory on and pretty soon Stephen was asleep. At midnight I turned off the TV.
The nurse came in every hour or so to turn me to my other side, check progress or do other procedures, but I sleep pretty soundly from 1 until 3:15 when the nurse and some doctor I had never met came in. He broke my water and after that I started feeling the contractions again. I still rested but could not quite sleep. I was at 8 cm at that time.
At 4 am I was back down to 7 cm (without the bag of waters pushing, you can go backwards), so the nurse elevated one leg and by 5 am I was at 9 1/2 cm.
The nurse explained how I was to push and since my contractions were so close together she did not make me push on each one, but once we made some progress she called the doctor. It was a very weird sensation feeling his head coming out.
I will admit that I got frustrated with the pushing. Every time they said "You're doing great" I felt I was not pushing as hard as I could, and every time they said "push harder", I was already pushing with all my might. Also, the nurse was counting to 10 for each push, but sometimes she did not start counting until after I had been pushing for a few seconds.
The doctor got there and he was born. Apparently I had a lot of amniotic fluid.
But the thing is, Seph did not cry.
I know, he takes after his mother.
I wasn't too worried until they called in the NICU people. Very quickly there were four or five people gathered around the warming bed in the corner. They kept saying "he's pink" so he must have taken a breathe but he did not cry at first. When he finally cried it sounded more like a kitten crying than a baby.
Stephen stayed by my side during this as I delivered the placenta. According to the doctor the umbilical cord was very long.
That's about it. I'm sure I'm forgetting something...
On Sunday morning I started having cramps. I thought to myself, "great, another side affect of pregnancy". They were not so bad as to keep us from our plans, mass at 7:30, home to rest, shopping and then off to the in-laws for Grace's 12 birthday party.
We got home, had dinner and were finishing up an episode of Babylon 5 at about 7 pm when I realized the cramps were getting very regular. I took out my phone and starting timing them. They were 3-4 minutes apart. We called my doctor's office and packed our bags and got to the hospital about 8 pm.
They put us in a triage room. Duck Dynasty was on the TV so we watched that as we waited... and waited... and waited. Someone came in to verify my information as if I had not preregistered on-line and confirmed the information over the phone. And we waited and waited and waited some more.
Finally someone came in to check and see if my water had broken (it had not) and to verify that I was in labor (I was). I was at 4 cm. By this point those "cramps" were getting very painful. I was starting to really consider an epidural. By 10 pm when we finally got moved to Labor and Delivery we had asked for an epidural because I was screaming/crying though the contractions.
I got the epidural at about 10:30 or 11 and it was heaven! I was now at 5 cm.
Stephen tried to set up the DVD player but could not get it to work. We found an episode of The Big Bang Theory on and pretty soon Stephen was asleep. At midnight I turned off the TV.
The nurse came in every hour or so to turn me to my other side, check progress or do other procedures, but I sleep pretty soundly from 1 until 3:15 when the nurse and some doctor I had never met came in. He broke my water and after that I started feeling the contractions again. I still rested but could not quite sleep. I was at 8 cm at that time.
At 4 am I was back down to 7 cm (without the bag of waters pushing, you can go backwards), so the nurse elevated one leg and by 5 am I was at 9 1/2 cm.
The nurse explained how I was to push and since my contractions were so close together she did not make me push on each one, but once we made some progress she called the doctor. It was a very weird sensation feeling his head coming out.
I will admit that I got frustrated with the pushing. Every time they said "You're doing great" I felt I was not pushing as hard as I could, and every time they said "push harder", I was already pushing with all my might. Also, the nurse was counting to 10 for each push, but sometimes she did not start counting until after I had been pushing for a few seconds.
The doctor got there and he was born. Apparently I had a lot of amniotic fluid.
But the thing is, Seph did not cry.
I know, he takes after his mother.
I wasn't too worried until they called in the NICU people. Very quickly there were four or five people gathered around the warming bed in the corner. They kept saying "he's pink" so he must have taken a breathe but he did not cry at first. When he finally cried it sounded more like a kitten crying than a baby.
Stephen stayed by my side during this as I delivered the placenta. According to the doctor the umbilical cord was very long.
That's about it. I'm sure I'm forgetting something...
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Grrrrrr!
So I downloaded the free Blogger ap and I understand why it only has 2 1/2 stars out of 5. How do you read posts on it? That is what I really want to do. The only thing I can figure out how to do on it is post to my own blog. Helpful but not what I will do the most.
Grrrrr.
And, I am wondering where Stephen is. He was supposed to get off work at 8 and he is still not home and has not called to let me know he is on his way home, which he usually does. If he got extra hours that is good, but he really needs to get to bed soon because we have to be at his parents' tonight at 6 which means leaving our place around 5:15, 5:20 and he will need to wake up about 4:45 or so to be ready so if he does not get home soon he will not get 6 hours of sleep and will be cranky.
Joy.
I really wish the ap for my phone let me check posts because I rarely use our desktop computer, even since it was moved to the bedroom.
Especially since then.
When it was in the office you had to make the choice to shut yourself away from the rest of the household to get on the computer and it was always too hot or too cold in there since we kept the vents closed. But at least I could be on the computer while Stephen was sleeping.
Now, I cannot be on the desktop when he is sleeping. And if he is awake and home I want to spend what time I can with him, so we are generally in the kitchen or living room. So the only time I ever want to get on the computer is when he is at work... and that is when I usually sleep.
I've pretty much given the ipad over to Stephen for his games so that leaves my phone as the only device I generally use at home.
Which is perfectly fine. I can check facebook, beat cousin Bert at words with friends (yes, I am currently in the lead but he will shortly make an 8 letter word over a triple word score and my measly 60 point lead will vanish), play Tiny Tower (the game I am currently addicted too), read the Bible, and call/text people on the phone.
Now it is 10 and still no word from Stephen. Sigh.
Guess I will go ahead and post this and restock my Tiny Tower.
Grrrrr.
And, I am wondering where Stephen is. He was supposed to get off work at 8 and he is still not home and has not called to let me know he is on his way home, which he usually does. If he got extra hours that is good, but he really needs to get to bed soon because we have to be at his parents' tonight at 6 which means leaving our place around 5:15, 5:20 and he will need to wake up about 4:45 or so to be ready so if he does not get home soon he will not get 6 hours of sleep and will be cranky.
Joy.
I really wish the ap for my phone let me check posts because I rarely use our desktop computer, even since it was moved to the bedroom.
Especially since then.
When it was in the office you had to make the choice to shut yourself away from the rest of the household to get on the computer and it was always too hot or too cold in there since we kept the vents closed. But at least I could be on the computer while Stephen was sleeping.
Now, I cannot be on the desktop when he is sleeping. And if he is awake and home I want to spend what time I can with him, so we are generally in the kitchen or living room. So the only time I ever want to get on the computer is when he is at work... and that is when I usually sleep.
I've pretty much given the ipad over to Stephen for his games so that leaves my phone as the only device I generally use at home.
Which is perfectly fine. I can check facebook, beat cousin Bert at words with friends (yes, I am currently in the lead but he will shortly make an 8 letter word over a triple word score and my measly 60 point lead will vanish), play Tiny Tower (the game I am currently addicted too), read the Bible, and call/text people on the phone.
Now it is 10 and still no word from Stephen. Sigh.
Guess I will go ahead and post this and restock my Tiny Tower.
Happy 4th... sort of
We had a very nice, non-traditional 4th of July. Stayed up late on July 3rd playing games with our friends the Murrays, rented a couple of red box movies on the way home. Since I did not have to work on the 4th I matched my schedule to Stephen's so we got home and "napped" for 3 hours and then got up and watched Oz the Great and Powerful and Stephen made sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast. We went to sleep around 10 (when the parade was blocking our street) and I woke up 3 hours later and got dressed and went shopping with Becky. Got home and we had BLTs for dinner, watched Grown Ups (totally not worth the 1.30 to rent) and napped before Stephen left for work and I fell asleep to the sounds of fireworks.
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