I went to work on Thursday, like any other day. My bosses were gone, so I had pretty much assumed it was going to be a boring day. I was feeling... irritable. I chalked it up to not getting enough sleep the night before. Trenton had a bad dream and slept in our bed. It's very hard to sleep when you're nine months pregnant and there's a five year old squirmer in your bed. :)
Anyhow, late morning I started having contractions. Nothing new. I'd been having them for a month or so. And they weren't really "painful", they were "uncomfortable". And every time I had one, I felt blood rush to my face. So I quickly developed a headache and achy feeling in my back. I felt like I was getting sick. I must have had some rush of hormones, too, because I got slightly emotional. I left work fairly upset about something and near tears. Looking back, that was a mild over reaction for the reality of the situation. I thought I might be in labor, but I wasn't in the pain I remembered from Trenton's birth, so I didn't stress out.
Like I said, I left work, drove home, and got in a hot bath. MUCH better. I read a little and relaxed and my pain/discomfort was almost gone. Baby Durb, however, started moving like never before. He is an active baby. Has been since I've been able to feel him. Hard and constant. But this was different. While lying in the bath tub, he would kick and the water around me would SPLASH. Seeing ripples around my body with his jabs is normal for him. But splashing?! It was almost violent movement. But I just let myself be amused by it and moved on. Standing at the bathroom mirror, wrapped in a towel, it was time to stare at my pores. Everyone does that, right? Um, right? Uhhh, anyway, I'd just taken the bath to ease my discomfort. Not for any other reason, so I hadn't done anything by way of cleansing. I regretted that later.
While I was standing in our bathroom, my water broke. Not the dramatic scene always shown in movies. No, a tidal wave of water didn't flood the bathroom. In fact, I thought I was going insane and hadn't dried off well. Like I have some fat fold somewhere that had held that water in it, LOL. So I patted dry. Except I couldn't get dry. I sat down to pee and couldn't stop leaking. Then I realize that either my bladder is severely malfunctioning or my water has broken. Neither of which I thought I could ignore.
I called my doctor and left a message for the nurse. Then I called Julie. LOL. Then my doctors nurse called back and basically called me a nut for leaving a message and not demanding to talk to someone. ::Shrug:: God had apparently bestowed a borrowed calm upon me, because I was totally and completely unpaniced or stressed about the situation.
So my doctor tells me to go to the hospital. I THEN call my husband to tell him to pick up my son from school and then come home. Then, I do what anyone would do. I took a shower.
...
My water had broken and I hadn't washed my hair earlier. I don't think you're supposed to shower after your water has broken. But that seems less than important when you think that you're about to have lots of people stare at you and take your picture and your hair is dirty. Not acceptable. So I was drying my hair when my husband got home. He packed his bag, loaded the car, and ran around while I tried to find something to wear that wouldn't make it look like I'd wet myself if this crotch water thing became the thing of movies.
We showed up at the hospital and Scott dropped me off at the door. And, for the record, it DID look like I'd wet myself. ::Sigh:: I had to pull out the old skool tying a sweater around my "waist" casually as if I were going to wear it later. It was eighty something degrees. Lol. So I checked in and got myself a room while Trenton and Scott parked and meet me in Labor and Delivery.
Trenton was very, very sweet. They started an IV. I don't do needles really well. He saw my face and I think saw the blood that spilled a bit and was immediately upset. He kept telling me I'd be ok and to tell him where it hurt and he'd fix it. My hero. Geez, I couldn't love him any more. I swear that little boy is my one man army. He kept a watchful eye on me the whole time he was there.
We started pitocin and Nana, my mom, met us at the hospital to take care of Trenton. He had to go to school the next day and I really didn't want him to see me go through any painful contractions because of how concerned he was that I was in any pain.
They left and I got my epidural. I think I was dialated to a 3? Not much, but the doctor said I was doing well to be smiling and laughing while dialated that much and I didn't want to feel any real pain so I didn't wait.
After that, we just waited. And waited. And waited. We watched TV. I napped. Scott napped. We talked. I changed position. Scott sent out emails and notified the appropriate people. FINALLY, at two in the morning on Friday, I was ready. We'd been there since 5:30 Thursday night. Scott was asleep in the recliner and I pushed to dialate to 10 with the nurses for five or ten minutes before they woke Scott up, lol.
Once I pushed with my nurses and my cervix disappeared, it was a mad rush kinda ordeal. Scott knew what color his hair was before the doctor showed up. Baby Durb was just sitting there, on the threshold of life outside my body, and I was fighting every urge in my body not to push him out. It was painful to NOT push. Like trying to keep your eyes open when you sneeze. It was only five minutes or so that I had to wait, but holy crap, it felt like forever. THAT was the worst part. When she, my doctor, showed up and appeared between my legs, I just needed to be told once. I pushed and didn't even get through pushing before she told be to stop. Out he popped. I saw blue feet and heard crying and the world swam around me.
Blah, blah, blah, eventually, I was taken care of, baby was cleaned up and they handed him to me.
I was swept up in emotion. I thought it'd be different, this being my second, but I was instantly caught up in overwhelming love for this teeny, wide-eyed little person. I saw Scott in him instantly and the magic in that swelled in me and if I hadn't been so very tired, I would have cried.
Scott was adorable. Darting between being at my side and making sure I was ok and the table where they were cleaning and weighing our brand new son. He was so excited. If I hadn't loved him before that moment, I'd have fallen head over heels right there. He is going to be an incredible father. Some people were just meant to be parents. He's one of them.
Anyway, my youngest child spent the next hour or so, while we sat in recovery, starring at us. Wide-eyed and alert that little guy. It was so sureal and magical. Of course, I didn't see any of the gross stuff like Scott did, lol. Scott told me later that he thinks that something was wrong. The cord may have been wrapped around his neck. In retrospect, I DO remember them cutting the cord a bit before he came out. And there were literally 12 people on staff there, some from NICU, Pediatrics, my nurses, etc. And everyone kept using the term "variables", he thinks, to keep me oblivious to the situation, which totally worked. I was on oxygen lost in a world in my own mind.
But, it's a happy story. He's here. He's healthy. He's gorgeous.
And I have pictures. :)
So if you hadn't heard the name yet, please meet my youngest son...
Carter Michael Durbin
Born at 2:16 am on November 7th
7 lbs and 4 oz
21 in long
1 comment:
you just made me cry at work.
Post a Comment