Look at this face and tell me it is not the cutest little thing you've ever seen? These are some of his very first pictures! Actually, I think it was a video and
Roob broke it down into still shots. I started writing this in the hospital, and I just had time to finish it up. I didn't want to forget how it all went down.
Labor Story: Got to hospital at 7:00am to be induced. I was a bit nervous. All was so surreal! My labor and delivery nurse was "Barbara," who was fantastic (and still to this moment my favorite nurse overall). She took a urine sample, put me in a gown, and started asking me a ton of typical medical questions. Then, she put the IV into my arm...just a couple inches or so above my hand. She had some trouble getting it in, but she only had to poke me once. Once it was in, I didn't even feel it. (
Yay!) Slowly she started the
pitocin drip, and increased it every half an hour until she achieved the maximum level. It took a couple hours or so until I really started feeling any contractions. They were getting pretty painful when I was dilated to about 4cm. I had to breathe through them, but I had at least a one minute break in between them--so it wasn't so bad. I was trying to determine when I wanted the epidural b/c the anesthesiologist had a couple of C-sections scheduled, which meant that he'd be "tied up" doing those. It came down to either I get it now, or I'd have to wait at least another hour. I was a little worried about how much worse the contractions could get in an hour, so I opted for the epidural about 4-5cm dilated. The guy who did it was from India, and hardly said a word! He came in, did his thing (which barely even hurt, by the way) and left the room. But after a good half an hour, I was still feeling pain on my right side (in my stomach and in my back). My legs and feet were still tingly, and I could move them easily. So Barbara called him back in to check on my epidural catheter. He adjusted the tube a bit, then left. We waited another 15 min. or so and I was still feeling some pain.
Hmm. Now I am thinking, "this is not good!" The poor guy came back into the room two more times and
up'd my dosage quite a bit each time. After about an hour, Barbara was like, "let me check your cervix again," because I was still quite uncomfortable. She started laughing and said, "Well, now I know why your epidural isn't working so well. You just dilated from a 5 to a 10 in less than an hour! It's time to push, girl!"
WHAAAT? We were all in shock! (I think the anesthesiologist was relieved since he was probably starting to doubt his skills--
heh heh).
It was about 2pm when she told me this and she called the midwife who came right over from the clinic. At this point, since I had fully dilated, all the epidural
meds kicked in and I was so completely numb and pain-free that I was in heaven. I couldn't feel or move my own legs! Such a strange feeling! It felt as if the lower half of my body didn't even belong to me. Anyways, I started pushing, which didn't hurt at all, but it sure was exhausting! I had to get on oxygen after a while b/c I was getting so light-headed. They even had us do some crazy "tug of war" technique where
Roob and I held on to opposite ends of a twisted towel, and he pulled while I pushed. Interesting. Anyways, I pushed for almost 2 hrs (went by quickly), but I could tell early on that Kathy (the midwife) was doubting that the baby was going to fit. The hard bony plates on his head were wedged on top of my bone, so only the soft part of his head was trying to come down. But, since the baby wasn't in distress and I was so determined to avoid a C-Section, she let me continue to try. Plus, she had to contact the doctor (Jed) to have him come give his opinion on if I needed a C-Section or not. They had a bit of difficulty getting a hold of him, but soon he came running in. He told me the baby was still so high up that the only possible way he MIGHT come out was with
forceps, but he thought that could get pretty ugly. He also thought a C-Section was the way to go. Well, needless to say I was totally disappointed, but surprisingly, I was pretty calm about the whole thing. Kathy said that it definitely wasn't due to a lack of effort on my part--she said that if the baby was any smaller he would've come flying out after the first few pushes! Ha! Next thing I know everyone is being handed masks, hats, and gowns and Jed (the doc) was really funny b/c he said that he was sweating running over to the hospital to come do my section, so he needed to go change into a new pair of scrubs! Ha!
The Delivery: They wheeled me into the sterile operating room right away. That was a bit scary. All of a sudden what seemed like a dream appeared to be a "real" hospital room with the scary over head lights, sterile equipment, and all. They had me put my arms straight out to the side on this little table thing, and they loosely strap your arms down (scary). I remember being worried about 2 things--#1 Please make sure I am numb and #2 Don't leave any sponges, threads, knives, or any other surgical equipment inside of me when ya sew me back up. I made sure Dr. Jed knew I was numb (which he did by pinching the heck out of me, which of course I felt nothing), and I told Barbara that her job was to count all the supplies and make sure they were all nice and neat back on the tray before they stapled me back up! (which ironically really was her job anyways). I started feeling a little bit of pressure on my stomach, but not much else for a little while. Then some other nurse said, "
ok you are going to feel a lot of pressure now." And wow, she wasn't kidding. It felt like someone was doing the Irish Jig on my stomach! It was strange b/c I wouldn't describe it as
painful, yet it really hurt--well, it hurt enough for me to make a few gasps and wish they'd hurry up! That happened one more time, and next thing ya know I hear a baby cry. Then I started to cry, too! But I couldn't see a darn thing! Well about this time I really couldn't tell you what was going on, b/c my Indian friend gave me some kind of narcotic drug through my epidural that relaxed me beyond the realm of relaxation. I was completely out of it, but I was conscious. I started making all this crazy joking small talk with the medical staff through slurred speech. At some point Reuben held the baby up for me, and my first thought was, "Whose kid is that???" He had this head of super dark curly fro hair! It was hysterical! Then
Roob whisked him away to the nursery where they bathed him and did who else knows what. I kept up my crazy chatter while they stitched me back up. I even asked Dr. Jed if he wouldn't mind doing a little liposuction?
Heh heh. I don't even know if they were listening to me or not? But I do remember Barbara coming over and letting me know she had counted all the supplies and they were all on the tray and not inside my body.
Yay! Thank goodness!
My next memory is being in the recovery triage room and some nurse was taking my vitals. I barely remember being handed the baby at some point in that room, but it is such a blur. I do remember trying to nurse him for the first time in there, and saying "oh wow this doesn't hurt at all!" (obviously due to mega narcotics I was on, b/c it sure did hurt later!).
Hospital Stay: I think the one thing no one tells you about when you stay in the hospital is how annoying the first couple of days are with 500 different nurses coming into your room in one hour intervals around the clock. Ugh. That got old really, really fast! My postpartum nurses weren't as good as Barbara, but a few were pretty nice. The best ones were never around long enough. They kept the epidural
catheder in me to feed me some antibiotics for a day or so...but that also made it hard to walk b/c I didn't have any use of my left leg until they removed it the next day. So I would try standing a couple of times that first night, but I couldn't really walk. They had me on
percocet and a really strong Motrin/
Ibuprofin pill. My pain from the C-section really wasn't all that bad (thanks, drugs), but I didn't like being hooked to so many wires. I still had the IV for a day and a half, and also the urinary
catheder (
blech), too. It was nice once they took all that off of me, b/c I was finally able to walk around and take a much needed shower!
(Hibbin is on the left, Jasey is on the right.) Hibbin is my brother Nathan's baby. He is about 4 weeks older than Jase. Cutie cousins, eh? Hibbin is MUCH bigger than Jase, but you can't tell due to the blanket around him.
Grandma Jenith took this picture, and I thought he looked so cute and small in his carseat.
Here's Grandma Jenith holding Hibbin, and there I am holding Jasey. I have never noticed how olive Jase's skin tone is, but in this picture you can really see it. And look how fair Hibbin is!
Another picture of little Jase in his Thanksgiving fleece overalls. He's sleeping!
