If you have been around me at any time in the last month or so, you have probably heard me talk about how sure I was that the baby would come early (December 20th was my target date) and how I was so very, very ready to be done being pregnant at my advanced maternal age. In preparation for an early arrival, I got all the boys' Christmas shopping done and wrapped and attempted to get Christmas cards out the door early. At which point, I figured he would actually be on time/late just because. In any case, I didn't worry overly much about such details as the hospital bag and gluten free snacks for the hospital as we still had time and live only 5 minutes from the hospital. Jason eventually asked me to stop talking about the baby coming early as it was giving him some anxiety since he didn't have sub plans ready for before Christmas break as I was actually due in January.
Ha ha!
So as I stood in the kitchen in the morning of the 15th making pancakes and wondering whether I was experiencing multiple events of pregnancy-induced peeing in my pants or if my water broke, I knew he would be so excited to get my phone call at work. Of course, Jason is always excited to get my calls at work. I can count on one hand the times that I have called him at work in the 8 years he has taught at this high school. Generally those calls involve small emergencies: car dying while I am on the road, toddler Ben locking me out of the house without my keys, and me going into labor. Who wouldn't look forward to hearing from their wife with that kind of track record?
So I called to give him a heads up and he found another teacher to take his class and headed home. I also called Mom (she was planning on being at the hospital) and Dad (he was planning on being at the house when the boys got home from school). I also let them all know that I was going to be completely humiliated if I made it to the hospital pregnant with baby #4 and was informed that I was just suffering for a complete lack of bladder control. At some point, the boys started listening in on my conversations while they ate breakfast and caught on to the fact that the baby was probably coming soon. They were so excited and announced that they were going to share the news with all their friends and teachers.
We finally sauntered into L&D and, although it was very obvious at this point, had a medical professional pronounce my water broken. However, that same professional also declared me dilated to only 1 cm and not contracting at all. Boo. I mean, she was a nice lady and proved a wonderful nurse and advocate, but she was not my favorite person in the world at this point. Then the OB made his first appearance and started saying the P word.
Pitocin.
I don't like the pitocin word. I wanted to do this birth sans meds, and pitocin is, in my opinion, the arch-enemy of natural childbirth. Despite the OB declaring that pitocin contractions were no different than natural contractions, I opted to wait a while since I figured that was a bunch of baloney. He then proceeded to get huffy with me and made the nurse note in her file that I had declined pitocin against his recommendation. Oh well. So Jason and I spent a while wandering the halls hoping the walking would get things started. Then, when the monitors were having a hard time tracking the baby's heart rate (something that makes people nervous), I spent some time on the birthing ball. I did eventually start having contractions and made it 4 cm after about 10 hours.
My nurse was marvelous through all of this and was very supportive of my plans have an unmedicated birth. But, after 10 hours with the baby's heart rate not ever being in a great place and my contractions becoming very sporadic (sometimes only every 15 minutes or so), even she was recommending pitocin. So, I gave in.
And this is where it gets exciting.
I didn't want pitocin without an epidural because I have heard from multiple people that pitocin contractions are of the devil and I was exhausted. So, they brought in the very nice anesthesiologist and his big needle. Actually, I have never seen the epi needle and the process of having one put in has never bothered me. However, I did warn everyone that I don't do well with anesthesia and that the last time I had an epi, they had to give me oxygen because my blood pressure dropped.
I did warn them.
The epi started to kick in and the pain relief was fantastic. I did, however, start throwing up. Not uncommon during labor. Then I got light-headed. So, they opened up my IV and gave me a bolus of fluids to help bolster my blood pressure. Then I said to the nurse, "I think I am going to black out." And then I did.
Wanna know how to get a lot of attention in L&D? Pass out. Jason said the room filled up pretty quickly at that point. My blood pressure dropped to 80/50 and everyone got moving.
From what I have been told, they turned off the epidural, shoved epinephrine in my IV, rolled me onto my side and put me on oxygen. Luckily, I came to and the baby's heart rate normalized shortly thereafter. And I made the marvelous progress of being dilated to 7cm. The doc, who was much nicer at this point, said he'd be back in 20 minutes because he figured that I would be good to go. Depending on who you asked, either the vomiting or the "relaxation" of the epidural (which I had not found to be very relaxing up to this time), caused me to dilate 3 cm in 45 minutes. Either way, he was right, and the grand finale was underway shortly.
We never got around to the pitocin.
I don't do pregnancy well and I don't do labor well. But I am a rock star at getting these kids out. Three pushes later and Isaac was in the room making a bit of a fuss about his rude introduction to the world. Our hospital does immediate skin-to-skin, so Isaac and got to snuggle right away. As soon as the medical staff did their thing and got their gear cleaned up, they left the three of us alone for a good while.
Isaac was born at almost 9pm, so we called over to the house to tell Dad and the boys the news. However, we decided that a visit from the big brothers would have to wait until the next morning. Jason got up bright and early (who am I kidding, we barely slept) to head over to the house to get the boys ready for school and bring them by the hospital. They were delighted by the newest addition and each wanted to hold him multiple times. Isaac slept through the introductions (I can't blame him, that would be rather overwhelming).
We were finally released from the hospital Wednesday morning. I was relieved to be back at home, but after two relatively quiet days in the hospital I did feel rather overstimulated when the boys got home from school that afternoon. They were so excited to have us be home as well. Luckily, they still had a few days of school that week so Isaac got a little bit of a break from their "love" during his first week.
Wednesday night, Dad and Diane and Grandpa came over to meet Isaac. I love this picture of Isaac and Grandpa - 93 age gap right here.
Welcome baby Isaac! You are in for quite an adventure in this crazy house!
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