It wasn't the most horrible experience in the world, though maybe I should consider it so. It certainly was unique and harrowing. At this point in my story it's about 11 pm (pacific) January 2nd. I was due to have him on the 26th or 28th, and on the 3rd I was to be induced that evening.
At this point in our story I'd just arrived at the emergency room with Jason and our friend Logan. I gingerly sat myself in a wheelchair and held our bags on my lap, grimacing with the contractions. Now that I know what labor contractions are like, braxton hicks are like a tickle.
Anyway, Jason pushed me all the way to the 12th floor, and this time they didn't send me to triage. I don't know how they knew the difference between this and the 3 times I'd been in before but somehow they did. I remember I was unhappy because I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to sleep much that night, and I was hungry. I had two snickers with me that Jason had grabbed for me. I wanted to eat one but I was in too much pain when I first got there. They came in and checked my vitals, I don't remember what they were at, but the nurse was not alarmed. They put the monitor on me, (there are two, one for the baby's heartbeat and one for your contractions.
They keep a blood pressure cuff on you and it checks you every 15 minutes or something. I was having such pain when they were putting it on me, (the monitors) I asked if I could have an epidural. The pain had worsened.
The nurses are nicer than the doctors. The nurse at that time said "I'm so sorry, if you can make it for just one hour without any pain meds we'll get you that epidural, okay?" Because they wanted to check my contractions. I concentrated as best I could to ignore it, and I lasted 45 minutes. By that point I was wild-eyed and I pressed the button, because they were so bad I couldn't make them go away.
Note.. I rarely complain about pain. I will mention having a migraine so people know if I'm cranky, but I don't whine. This pain was so bad I was holding Jason's forearms and staring into his eyes saying in a panicked breath over and over "HOW LONG? HOW LONG?".
I'm still not sure what I was asking that about.
They came in and gave me the epidural. I sat at the edge of the bed and stared at Jason, trying my best to hold still. The pain didn't entirely go away but I could ignore it again. They then said we could sleep, so they laid down and so did I. I managed to sleep for a couple of hours, only getting up when the nurse came in to check my temperature. At 7 the new doctor came in and checked my cervix. I had started at 3 centimeters the night before, I was up to 4. They went away again for a little while, around 11 I started having more pain and the epidural didn't help as much anymore.
Then around then they said my cervix was dilated to 9 centimeters. Came back, 9 and almost completely effaced. Came back again.. TIME TO GO. I was not excited about it, or scared. I just wanted the pain to be gone, for this crap to be DONE.
Oh, insert... I forgot about this part. I hope for your sake your doctors are more intelligent than mine. Mine reached in and felt Aedric's hair.. and tried to pop "the water sac". They thought that my amniotic sac hadn't popped, when apparently it had. They tried popping it with every contraction. When he came out, he had blood all over his head, and scratches in one spot from where they tried popping HIM like he was the frigging amniotic sac. I was really upset with that. They ignored it and pretended it didn't happen. Poor kid.
Also, according to Jason part of the reason they wanted me to start pushing was i had blood in the catheter bag. MY catheter didn't hurt. idk if yours will.
Logan left the room, Jason sat on my left.
No matter what they tell you, for me at least birth was an entirely solitary venture. I didn't scream at Jason, or tell him we were never having sex again. I had tunnel vision, I swear. I pushed when they told me to push the first few times then figured out the rhythm. I am not sure how much later, maybe half an hour? they said that he was crowning. And so to push. Hard.
Well, what I didn't know at the time was apparently his blood pressure dropped during this phase, and they started really getitng on me about pushing.
I went into tunnel vision mode. I was looking, but not seeing. I pushed, and I pushed HARD. I started to feel his head coming out. As soon as I felt that, they got really excited and started pressuring me to push harder. It annoyed me a bit, but I did. I pushed with everything I had, twice. The first time I felt his head come out, the second time I felt the most awkward feeling ever... It felt like something big and lumpy falling out of me. Apparently it was the baby and the placenta.
I blacked out completely.. Just.. gone. I vaguely remember being on the phone with my dad telling him he was a grandpa. Not sure what I sounded like on the phone. I remember Jason trying to hand me the baby, he was gray. I blacked out for basically 3 hours with intermitten moments of wakefulness. I woke up to them talking about my tear and sewing me up. Out again. Around 4 they started telling me they were going to be taking me up to mother and chidren unit.
Oh, right after I gave birth I tried to eat a snickers. I had puked once, all water, about an hour before. This time I puked up the snickers and water.
Around 4 they gave me a ginger ale, a cup of juice, and water and crackers. I was determined to hold SOMETHING down, and I managed to. A little bit of each liquid and 4 types of crackers.
Now, note, according to everyone my lips were WHITE. literally. When I got upstairs, the lady asked me if I was hungry, I said yes. She got me a turkey sandwich, it was really dry. Took me a long time to choke it down.
Ok I think I went a little past childbirth, so I'll take a break. If people want to know about the rest of my hospital stay (bitch nurse, transfusion, lol.. the joys of having a stage 3 tear..) let me know.
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