Kanadora 
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(4/10/03 1:55 pm)
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Birth Story & Pics - Finally! (Long!)
At about 10:30 PM my water broke - the little "trickle" that everyone worries they won't be able to identify. It got worse as time went on and I had my doctor paged. He advised to go to L&D and have it checked. I called hubby and told him to come home from work, but we had been to L&D twice so he wasn't real excited. I was already 4CMs dilated and 80% effaced due to bouts of early labor, but I wasn't sure if this was it. By the time we got to the hospital my pants were completely soaked (with amniotic fluid) and I knew we weren't going home without a baby this time!
When I told Kera (Big Sister) I thought my water had broke, she literally started jumping up and down, she couldn't wait to see her little sister. She grabbed her hospital bag and put on her shoes, she was ready to go! Although when we were there she was a bit disappointed she couldn't sit on my lap for the wheelchair ride, poor thing. Lucky for us they had cartoon network, so Kera didn't see anything she shouldn't have. In fact, we were only settled into our delivery room about 20 minutes before she was fast asleep!
I was the only patient at the time, so they gave me the biggest, nicest room and for that I was grateful. It may seem like a small, insignificant thing, but it's not. When you are that uncomfortable, the last thing you want is a small or dingy environment! By now Jonathan has that wild look in his eye, like it's starting to dawn on him we might be having a baby or something, so he makes a break for the car and calls his mommy on his cell. Apparently I'm not needle friendly, because they stuck me upwards of 6, 7 times before they found a spot for the IV to stay in. I got an oh-so-cute bottom-exposing gown to parade my 43 inch belly around in, and of course two very large and uncomfortable straps to monitor baby and I. My nurse was an absolute doll, so I was lucky there, too! She photocopied my largest contractions at my request to add to my baby book, and grabbed whatever free samples for me she could find.
By this time I'm starting to feel contractions, and they are very quickly becoming painful. I decide that doing it natural once was more than enough for any woman, and plead for the epideral. 20 minutes later the magician arrives, and I admit the most painful part was the numbing novocaine shot. (Which, surprisingly, was even less painful than the IV.) The whole "needle in my back" thing probably would have been creeping me out if I wasn't feeling so damn good. The medicine made me itch all over and I couldn't move my own legs without assistance, but in a way it was kinda neat. I could not believe that any woman chooses a natural birth. The pain is unbearable, I actually passed out at my first birth, and now my biggest pain was choosing which channel to watch until my baby was born. I would never recommend a natural birth to anyone, ever. It's just insane.
I labored for about 11 hours, all through the night. They encourage you to sleep, but an epideral is not THAT good.
I was exhausted by morning time, I could feel and see my muscles working all night, and it is a LOT of work and energy. Once I hit the 6 CM point my contractions stopped all together. I found it totally amusing, that it would have been another bout of false labor if my water hadn't broke! So they shot me some pitocin and I was good to go. (Which, by the way, is no more painful while you are medicated.) Around 7 or 8 AM the contractions started to get painful. Really painful! I had the nurse check my medicine but the dose had not changed at all. I found it amazing that a medicine strong enough to use for surgery was not strong enough to contain labor pains. That is how powerful and painful they are! And they were bad - I admit, I started to cry. I couldn't help it though, it was really painful. I started to ask the nurse to check and see how far along I was dilated, but she kept blowing me off. By the time she did check, her face went absolutely pale. The baby was already almost completely down the birth canal... ready or not, here she comes!
The nurse was frantic because the doctor was nowhere to be found. She kept paging and calling him but he was a temporary no show. (Turns out he decided to take another appointment - ugh!) I could actually feel her head move through me now, and was gripping the side rails for dear life. I faintly remember my hubby waking up and approaching the bed, but he just kinda stood there for awhile, dumbfounded. Then there was the ever famous - Ring of Fire - which I had no idea what that was until I felt it. It was a terrible, excruciating burn, but on the plus side I didn't have any major tears since I waited it out. The nurse is screaming at me to stop pushing, but I really wasn't! The contractions are pushing the baby out and there wasn't a damn thing any of us could do about it. She has her hands on the babies head as it is crowning, trying to keep her from coming out until the doctor arrived. My husband sees her head and loses it. I am still marveling at just how intense this pain is, and decide I cant take it anymore, give one good push, and we have our baby girl!
The nurse lays her immediately on my belly, and I am amazed that she is so clean! I watched every "birth story" tv program I could when pregnant, and they are always so bloody and messy. But this one was a pretty shade of purple gray, and still so very warm from being in my body - that fact threw me into another bout of tears. She was so beautiful - her ultrasound pictures made her look horrid, but she was a very pretty girl, with dark hair, brilliant blue eyes, and a perfectly shaped head. (The nurse said since I didn't have to push her head didn't have that dreaded "cone shape".)
She was 7 lbs., 9 oz., 19 1/2 inches long, with a 13 1/2 inch head. (Ouch!) She scored 8/9 on Apgar and had jaundice that we have almost beat. Her official birthday is March 24th, Monday, 9:14 AM. Happy Birthday, Brandy Renee!
Big Yawn!
~*~ Kera Lynne 10/03/97 ~*~
- ~*~ Brandy Renee EDD 03/30/03 ~*~ -
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