I find myself falling behind in my updates again, but it’s been quite an emotional ride around here for the past couple of weeks. For some weird reason, I just haven’t felt like calling, talking to people or writing about Lawrence’s birth until now. I guess it might be because seeing how tiny Lawrence is has made me see how big Archie is and how quickly the time went by. On Wednesday the 27th of August, Archie was as little as Lawrence to me. Then, when I came home from the hospital on Saturday night, I realized how big Archie had gotten and I hadn’t even realized it until that moment. I'm still a bit weepy at times, but am feeling more and more myself.
At 2am Thursday morning, August 28, my water broke. My first thought was, “Fantastic! Right on time!” as the 28th was my due date. I took a bath, fixed my hair, told Phillip, then went downstairs to call my doc and watch a movie. The Hudsucker Proxy. A good movie. My plan was to spend the vast majority of my labor at home and head to the hospital for delivery. That was the plan, anyway. I can't help it if my body didn't want to cooperate! So around 7:30 or so I told Mom I was in labor. Contractions were getting more consistent and a little more intense.
Phillip decided he needed to go to work to “quickly” tie up some loose ends there, since he was taking vacation directly after the birth. His half-hour turned into two or three hours. He is the very picture of organization. I spent most of the morning in the tub. I totally get why people do waterbirths. Being in the water was so much more comfortable.
We left for the hospital around 11 after Phillip finally got his act together and returned home. I think my Mom was getting a little nervous because she mentioned something more than once about driving me to the hospital herself if Phillip didn’t hurry up. Contractions were three minutes apart and the bumps in the road were most uncomfortable.
I don’t remember many details of the next several hours, just flashes of things…nurses trying to get the IV thing stuck but blowing all the veins, a movie on TV that Phillip said was good, but I can’t remember anything at all about it, lots of pain, being very thirsty, and laying in the tub. Getting out of the tub to do the fetal non-stress test every hour was just absolutely horrible, because it took so long to get up and dried off because of the contractions. My family kept talking about being cold, but I kept wondering how in the world they could be cold when it was so darned hot in there!
Archie was a bit worried at first because seeing me in that much pain was a bit scary to him. He and Phillip went out to get a bite to eat at some point and they talked about how Mamas experience lots of pain when babies come into the world and it was a normal thing and I would feel better after the baby came. We’ve talked about that numerous times before I went into labor, but I think the experience of it was a bit more than he expected. Archie seemed fine with everything after that. Fortunately, I had the foresight to go shopping the week before and pick up a couple of new things for him to play with at the hospital. So he got his new toys one at a time when things started getting boring. The little magnetic car I got him was the biggest hit (and still is!). Plus, I think he had more treats than ever before, because every time someone would leave to visit the cafeteria or vending machine, he would tag along.
At about 9pm Thursday evening, I had the nurse check and see how far dilated I was so I could hopefully see some light at the end of the tunnel. Sadly, I was only 6 centimeters. SIX???? After 19 hours in labor and only six centimeters dilated??? So I chickened out on the natural, drug-free child birth plan and opted for the epidural. If I was eight or nine centimeters or better, I would’ve stuck it out. But I couldn’t endure another potential four hours of intense pain every three or so minutes. My body was trembling uncontrollably and I had a really difficult getting my muscles to relax anymore. Getting the epidural was pure hell because you have to be perfectly still AND RELAX! while they stick the needle in your spine and for a little bit thereafter. Hard to do while trembling. Mom says that part was really hard to watch. Phillip, Morgan and Archie left the room during the epidural placement.
Ahhhh….the relief was just fantastic!!!! Finally I was able to put a coherent thought and sentence together for the first time since probably 2 in the afternoon! I think the relief was felt by everyone! I was able to smile and joke again and actually sort of enjoy myself! Weird, huh?
Part 2 coming tomorrow.
At 2am Thursday morning, August 28, my water broke. My first thought was, “Fantastic! Right on time!” as the 28th was my due date. I took a bath, fixed my hair, told Phillip, then went downstairs to call my doc and watch a movie. The Hudsucker Proxy. A good movie. My plan was to spend the vast majority of my labor at home and head to the hospital for delivery. That was the plan, anyway. I can't help it if my body didn't want to cooperate! So around 7:30 or so I told Mom I was in labor. Contractions were getting more consistent and a little more intense.
Phillip decided he needed to go to work to “quickly” tie up some loose ends there, since he was taking vacation directly after the birth. His half-hour turned into two or three hours. He is the very picture of organization. I spent most of the morning in the tub. I totally get why people do waterbirths. Being in the water was so much more comfortable.
We left for the hospital around 11 after Phillip finally got his act together and returned home. I think my Mom was getting a little nervous because she mentioned something more than once about driving me to the hospital herself if Phillip didn’t hurry up. Contractions were three minutes apart and the bumps in the road were most uncomfortable.
I don’t remember many details of the next several hours, just flashes of things…nurses trying to get the IV thing stuck but blowing all the veins, a movie on TV that Phillip said was good, but I can’t remember anything at all about it, lots of pain, being very thirsty, and laying in the tub. Getting out of the tub to do the fetal non-stress test every hour was just absolutely horrible, because it took so long to get up and dried off because of the contractions. My family kept talking about being cold, but I kept wondering how in the world they could be cold when it was so darned hot in there!
Archie was a bit worried at first because seeing me in that much pain was a bit scary to him. He and Phillip went out to get a bite to eat at some point and they talked about how Mamas experience lots of pain when babies come into the world and it was a normal thing and I would feel better after the baby came. We’ve talked about that numerous times before I went into labor, but I think the experience of it was a bit more than he expected. Archie seemed fine with everything after that. Fortunately, I had the foresight to go shopping the week before and pick up a couple of new things for him to play with at the hospital. So he got his new toys one at a time when things started getting boring. The little magnetic car I got him was the biggest hit (and still is!). Plus, I think he had more treats than ever before, because every time someone would leave to visit the cafeteria or vending machine, he would tag along.
At about 9pm Thursday evening, I had the nurse check and see how far dilated I was so I could hopefully see some light at the end of the tunnel. Sadly, I was only 6 centimeters. SIX???? After 19 hours in labor and only six centimeters dilated??? So I chickened out on the natural, drug-free child birth plan and opted for the epidural. If I was eight or nine centimeters or better, I would’ve stuck it out. But I couldn’t endure another potential four hours of intense pain every three or so minutes. My body was trembling uncontrollably and I had a really difficult getting my muscles to relax anymore. Getting the epidural was pure hell because you have to be perfectly still AND RELAX! while they stick the needle in your spine and for a little bit thereafter. Hard to do while trembling. Mom says that part was really hard to watch. Phillip, Morgan and Archie left the room during the epidural placement.
Ahhhh….the relief was just fantastic!!!! Finally I was able to put a coherent thought and sentence together for the first time since probably 2 in the afternoon! I think the relief was felt by everyone! I was able to smile and joke again and actually sort of enjoy myself! Weird, huh?
Part 2 coming tomorrow.
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