At 7:30am, the next morning, I rolled over in bed and felt a gush of warm water. I leapt off the mattress (as leaping as one can be at 37 weeks pregnant), convinced I had just peed the bed. But then there was more gushing. My water had broke. My brain immediately went to blender mode.. Who would take care of Charlie Ann while we were at the hospital? My house is not clean! The baby's room is not finished! My mom isn't here! But Jarod's birthday is today! I'm only 37 weeks?!! I am not mentally ready to birth a baby today! My hospital bag isn't even packed!
The next two hours were a blur. Neighbors and friends from church were called to care for Charlie Ann, the kitchen and downstairs were frantically cleaned, the dog was fed, pajamas and a toothbrush were thrown into an overnight bag, and a newborn set of baby boy clothes were picked out. Our sweet neighbor showed up at 9:30am; we kissed Charlie Ann good bye and headed to the hospital.
We called our families on the way there. My mom started crying at the news. Clearly her brain was in blender mode as well.
At the hospital, I was feeling great. As in, no-contractions-great. Also, as in barely-effaced-and-barely-dilated-great. So we waited for my body to kick into gear. Jarod and I ate breakfast, had coffee and visited about our week. But nothing else was happening.
By lunch, they offered to let me go home until evening or I could take a few doses of misoprostol to try to induce labor. I chose to take the miso and stay at the hospital. However, Jarod went home and relieved our babysitters for the afternoon. Meanwhile, I immediately accepted my aunt's offer to drive up from Pennsylvania and stay with Charlie Ann all weekend. I definitely rested easier.
At 12:45pm, I took the miso, moved out of triage and into a labor and delivery room. While I waited for contractions to start, I switched between watching the snow fall outside and the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was rather strange and quiet to sit at the hospital alone.
By 3pm, the contractions were fairly steady. I wasn't going to need any further doses of miso. By 4pm, I mentioned the word "epidural", and my observant nurse started the fluids. At 4:30pm, I called Jarod and said he should get back to the hospital. By 5pm, I was more than ready for the epidural. I was having "camelback contractions"(basically no rest between contractions -they come right on top of each other). Time dragged on while I waited for the epidural. A little before 6pm, the injection was made and the cold sensation ran down my spine. The anesthesiologist worked a long time to make sure I was fully numb.. I was not wanting to have a repeat of Charlie Ann's half failed epidural. By 6:30pm, I was melted into heavenly jelly. I napped until 9:30pm, when my nurse woke me up to inform me I was fully effaced, fully dilated and ready to push. What?! Who wakes up to push out a baby?! I pushed through two contractions, and his head crowned. They paged the doctor, and kept paging the doctor. I tried to hold in his head and wait, but he was slowly sliding out (passive descent, they said-- code for "awesome"). They paged the doctor again. He was coming, ready or not. Some lady came in, and they gave me the green light to finish. At 10:29pm, on Jarod's birthday, we met our son, Tripp David.
They laid him on my belly and toweled him off. He didn't cry much. He just looked around, so peaceful and calm.
Happy Birthday, Jarod. Happy Birthday, Tripp.
1 comment:
Wow, what a whirlwind! I loved reading your delivery experience with Tripp! Interestingly, we have a lot of similarities in our stories. :) So happy he's here!
Post a Comment