Picture it... August 31, 2011. My 39 week appointment. I looked something like this:
I had been sent to the hospital three other times for high blood pressure, but came home babyless as my pressure would go down after sitting on the monitor for a couple hours (what is more relaxing than laying around listening your baby's heartbeat?). This time, however, my OBGYN promised induction. So that night - it was a Wednesday - Andrew and I headed to the hospital for the last night it would just be him and I.
Now we may get into TMI territory here, but stay with me. We got registered and settled in our room, and soon after I was given medication to soften my cervix. Let me tell you that at that point, I had absolutely NO progress as far as being ready to deliver. No dilation, no nothing, but my blood pressure was out of control so it was time to have a baby. Then we waited. And waited. And then we waited some more. The hospital's television system leaves much to be desired, but it's difficult to be too bored with the impending birth. I started getting contractions shortly after, but they really weren't that bad - just uncomfortable. Now, I know what you're thinking... "contractions... not that bad... what the WHA...???". More on that later.
After a couple doses of the cervix-softener, they decided I was having too many contractions to have another dose. They didn't want things to go too quickly - the plan at that point was to have my OB break my water manually at 8AM or so when he got in, start me on Pitocen, and push out a baby later that day.
My body had other plans.
My water broke on its own at 6 AM, and sure enough, Andrew was the only one who had gotten any sleep, despite the very uncomfortable hide-away bed couch thing he was given. I got as cleaned up as possible, and then it was officially GAME TIME. The REAL contractions started and I was promptly in Hell. You really do forget how the pain feels (at least I did), but I remember wanting to climb out of my body and physically tried to do so throughout the morning. It only got worse when I was put on Pitocen to get things really moving - I was still barely dilated and the head wasn't engaged.
For whatever reason that I seriously regret, I didn't get the epidural right away. I never had anything against epidurals and knew I would eventually get one, but I thought I would just wait it out for a while and see how things went down. So, instead they put me on Stadol. The thing about Stadol is that it never really helped the pain - it just made me so loopy that I forgot what was going on and who I was for that matter. I took a daydream-ridden drunk bath (with bubbles "just for fun!" my nurse said). When it finally wore off enough for me to figure out what the hell was happening to me, I told the nurse I was ready for the big guns. BRING ON THE EPIDURAL!!!
And then an angel came down from Heaven in the form of an anesthesiologist. He was very sweet... he explained everything to me in extreme detail and assured me that it was no big deal that a ginormous needle was going into my back and OH MY GOD JUST GIVE IT TO ME ALREADY!!!! The best part is they give you a button that you can press to give you an extra "boost" when you need it. Unfortunately something wasn't quite right and I could still feel the contractions slightly on my left side, which wasn't terrible at the time, but I was terrified about what it would feel when it was Time to Push. Even more unfortunately, I never dilated past 6cm or so (you have to get to 10). They gave me until 9pm, and then it was decided that I would be getting a C-section. Truth be told, I was not that disappointed. I would even go as far as to say I was relieved to not have to push a watermelon out of my hoo-hah. I'll spare you the details of the C-section since I haven't spared a whole lot so far, but I will say that Andrew was amazing, the surgeons were amazing, and the spinal that I got was extra amazing.
Penny Lu was born September 1st, 10pm, 8 lbs 5 oz. She came out healthy and perfect and SCREAMING bloody murder, but it was a comforting sound at the time.
I haven't slept much since, but you know what?
Totally worth it.
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