Let's recap shall we?
May 2011:
September 2011:
It's a BOY! I had 2 ultrasounds. One at my first appointment and one at 21 weeks. I didn't need to have anymore since my pregnancy was going swimmingly.I always knew I was going to need to know the baby's gender. That's just me. Yes, I get the appeal of the "greatest last surprise", but for me..."surprise you're pregnant!" was surprise enough. Plus, I'm a planner...I like to know what's ahead in the road to life... (more on this later) so, I needed to know.
The ultrasound tech managed to get one 2 second glimpse of his boy parts before he became camera shy and hid himself from her. I didn't even get to see where she was indicating his boy parts were! And knowing that sometimes the ultrasound can be wrong, I still held out the frivolous hope that there was a possibility of error. But deep down, I already knew it was a boy.
Now, the pregnancy symptoms:
Um...none? As I said a minute ago, the pregnancy was going swimmingly. I did lose weight the first trimester, about 10 lbs. And I didn't gain it back until I was 7 months along. Overall I gained 24 lbs, the bulk of which was in Nov-Dec. The worst of my "morning sickness" was in the first trimester where I'd get nauseous if I had an empty stomach and I'd get nauseous if I was too full. But I never had to spend time bowing down to the porcelain god. So, I learned to balance a certain level of fullness during the day and I was just fine.
The only food aversion I had was cilantro, which I never liked anyway, but it was much worse. The only food cravings I had were for sweets. Bananas and avocados were big. And the sensitivity to smell only happened a few times with people who already wore excessive amounts of eau de skunky.
The last few weeks starting around week 30 I had random sciatica pain that ran all the way up my back. I guess baby decided he wanted to sit/kick/punch my spine.
Holidays 2011:
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| 33 Weeks - Thanksgiving |
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| 37 weeks - Christmas Eve |
December 29, 2011:
6 am - Husband wakes up to go to work.
7 am - Husband returns due to delay in train schedule
7:15 am - I realize I have a pretty severe pain that isn't seeming to go away in my pelvis area
7:30 am - Decide to call the hospital (my OB's office doesn't open til 8am and I wasn't going to sit around and wait for them to call me back). The nurse says to come in for monitoring.
8 am - Get to the hospital, and get hooked up to the monitors. Find out that I must have pulled a muscle, and it won't go away until after the baby is born. Starts dreading delivery with such pain. Also find out I'm having contractions, but irregular ones that are bursts that last a couple seconds within a couple minutes. Had no clue, couldn't feel anything.
9 am - Blood tests are run for possible trauma, but nurse says it's highly unlikely with my symptoms
9 am - 12pm - Waiting for the tests and the Dr to come check on me. The nurse checks to see if I'm dilated at all, is unsure and says we'll wait for the Dr.
12 pm - (minus one giant contraction which I felt radiating through my back and cried through the pain...still not feeling the other contractions) Dr comes in to check on me. Turns out I'm 3-4cm dilated. "You're in labor!" she says. In my mind I'm going..."say what?!" Husband and I realize we still need a name. Agree on one in 5 mins.
1 pm - Checked in to the delivery ward, moved to fancy room. Dr suggests walking around to help move things along.
1-5 pm - Lapped the delivery ward multiple times...nothing. Rocked myself on the pregnancy ball...nothing. Spent most of the time just hanging out watching TV. Dr decides she's going to break my water.
7 pm - I decide I've had enough waiting and can feel the contractions more so I request le epidural. Easy peasy. I don't know why I was letting the rumors of the pain and the giant needle scare me. Honestly - you don't see the giant needle. You don't have to look at it. And, other than the initial anesthetic shot, there wasn't pain IMO. Probably because I've felt far worse while being totally conscious. (Ever got a chest tube put in? Not pleasant)
8 pm - Dr returns and breaks my water. "That's a LOT of fluid!" she says. "Good, it's clear." she says. "Here we go..." I think.
8:30 pm - Pitocin drip begins.
9:30 pm - HOLY INTENSE CONTRACTIONS BATMAN!! Bring it on. The next couple hours are kind of a blur. I just know I was starting to really feel the contractions, and even though I didn't feel the pain because of the epidural, I still felt the cramping. And I was totally ready to get him out. This progressed for a while until about...10:30...then I start to lose track of time.
The nurses check me and I'm 8-9cm dilated. "dear lord can I push yet?!" They start bringing in people and equipment and things are happening but I really don't notice or care that I'm spread eagle and everyone can see my goods.
December 30, 2011:
12 am - 9ish cm dilated. Just a little bit more, but they decided to massage that last bit to stretch it out. And so it begins...and I lose track of time completely. Somewhere, after what feels like a long, long time... I start feeling like I'm too weak for pushing. I know I cried somewhere in there.
1:03 am - Baby is born. One thing I did not expect at all (probably because I never took or watched a birthing class) was they handed me the baby as his feet were still coming out and I know I could FEEL that I pulled him out the rest of the way. Which was intense to say the least. First thing I thought about was how he wasn't really slimy. Instead just covered in this thick white mucus like goop. Interesting. Husband cut the umbilical cord and they whisked him away to be wiped down and his stats taken.
Was I done? Oh no...the Dr still had to reach in and pull out the placenta and all the goop that was in there. And then get stitched up because of a small tear, completely normal.
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| Clayton Rey |
In an effort to not make this any longer than it already is, I'll recap of the past couple months in my next post. LOL.
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