birth story
On Saturday, August 14, we had gone to the hospital, but were sent home. The contractions went away as the evening wore on.
On Sunday (my birthday) woke up early, about when David (my husband) did, and told him he should just go in to Bristol. I'd had a few contractions through the night, but nothing bad.
Then, at about 6:30, the first one hit. It was excrutiating. I found myself moaning to get through it. It was all pain in my lower back. David was wonderful - holding my hand and coaching me to relax and breathe. They were 5 minutes apart, and after 3 or so, I told David to call the doctor. She said to lie on my left side for half an hour, and if they were still there, to go in. I was shaking from pain.
We went to the hospital after exactly half an hour. I dragged myself up to labor and delivery and they got me in a room. I was pretty cranky, because they kept asking me check in questions - the same ones as yesterday and all I wanted was an end to the pain.
Dr. Oh didn't really realize how much pain I was in. I wasn't very dilated at all - she said she wanted me to walk around a little bit. Then a contraction hit and they saw that I meant business. So they hooked me up and checked me in. After one contraction, I wound up throwing up on the bed. I was really surprised by how soon they hurt and how strongly - all the stuff I had read indicated they would start slowly and build, but not for me.
I asked for something to take the edge off. The narcotic they gave me made me sleepy, but didn't really help the contraction pain. Still, I could rest between them. It was hard not to - I konked out as soon as the contraction passed. Apparently, I would sometimes fall asleep mid-contraction.
I dilated slowly and at about 3 cm they offered an epidural and I (eagerly) took them up on it. The narcotic was wearing off and the contractions were still extremely painful. Getting the epidural was a piece of cake. The only problem was that I was shaking uncontrollably. Still, the anesthesiologist got it in fine and I felt better almost immediately. That was at about 2:30 or so.
Soon after, I became a different person - I was awake and joking and was my normal self. What an amazing invention. Leslie, our nurse, said I even looked different.
Then it got weird. The PR person for the hospital came in to talk to me. Apparently, August 15, 2004 is the 100th anniversary of Ravinia (a local outdoor concert venue), and as a special promotion, all babies born on Sunday got a free lifetime membership to Ravinia. Sweet. They brought a conductor in to do a photo op with one of the babies, but they didn't have any yet - one mother was in the OR, one was pushing, and there was me. So they asked if I wanted to take some photos with him. I said sure.
At that point, a PR guy from Ravinia, the hospital PR woman, 3 photographers, a videographer, and the conductor all came into my room. They brought us a little carousel music box (it's quite lovely) and we chatted with the conductor while flashbulbs snapped like crazy. I don't know how they thought that was going to work with a newborn without the kid freaking out, but hey. My little guy was still safely esconced in my belly.
They stayed a little too long - I was tired, so I kind of helped to scoot them out. After all, I was still in labor. They looked at Schwartz's heart rate and saw that the reading was great when everyone was here. Probably from my adrenaline of having to be "on".
I took a snooze at that point, since I wanted to be rested up for the upcoming pushing. As I was sleeping, though, Schwartz's heart rate baseline was a little low. They gave me an oxygen mask, and made me roll on my side, and then flipped me over a little bit after that. Dr. Oh was still not pleased with his progress, especially since I was only dilated to about 6 or 7 centimeters, so we decided to do a C-Section.
At this point, David and I were handed off to separate groups like meat - I was prepped for surgery and David went to change into scrubs (he looked really cute in them). They wanted me to climb onto the table myself and I had to tell them that that was quite impossible. I couldn't feel or move my legs at all. So they got this neat roller thing and rolled me on it. They put my arms out to the sides on arm boards and strapped me down with velcro. I felt a bit like Jesus. Then David came in - I was apparently already open at that point. We waited for maybe 15 minutes and little Edward was born! The doctor commented, "that's a big baby". I couldn't see him at all, I just heard him cry. David went over to watch him and I just listened to hear him cry more. It was the most beautiful sound.
And now the story gets a little less fun. Just a little, though. Eddie's heart rate was really high, so they took him and David over to the NICU. I got to see him for a second, though, and kiss his little head.
I spent the next half hour in the OR while they stitched me up. I was shivering like crazy, and I asked the anesthesiologist, who was kind of looking over me, why. He said I was cold. I said I didn't feel cold, and he said that that was because the anesthetic kept me from feeling it. He gave me some Demorol to stop the shaking. It worked a little.
Then off to recovery, where they covered me in warm blankets. I finally heard back that Eddie's heart rate was fine, but then the pediatrician came by and said they wanted to take him to Children's Memorial to monitor him and do some more tests. Everything else was fine.
Eddie wound up staying at Children's for about a week and a half. We visited him every day for a few hours. We finally brought him home on August 25th, after getting instruction in administering medicine and Infant CPR.