1 Week

One week ago...

Ah, labor. It was hard, but not has horrible as I thought it would be. Ha! I was scheduled for induction Tuesday (June 30) at 7AM and I had to go into the hospital the day before for blood work. When I was leaving after the blood work, the nurse told me to call in the morning to make sure they had room for me. !!! I guess that between the already busy summer months and nine months after the power went out for weeks during hurricane Ike, June is turning out to be a busy month in Labor and Delivery.

I called first thing when I woke up Tuesday morning at 5AM and called right away. We planned to leave the house at 6:15 and were packing the car at 6 when I got a call from the hospital. The nurse said they just had an emergency arrive and I would need to call back at 8AM to see if they had room then. I hung up the phone, sat down on the couch and started crying. I was so ready for this! What if it didn't happen soon? This baby was only going to get bigger! I told Travis and my mom what they had said and we settled for watching some TV to take our minds off the looming possibility.

At 6:40AM I got another call back from the hospital. The nurse said to come in! We immediately jumped in the car, in hopes that if we were standing at the check in desk they would be less likely to turn me away. I was 41 weeks pregnant for gosh sakes! As soon as we walked in the doors, a nurse showed me to my delivery room. Lucky number 13! I was in a gown, hooked up to a Pitocin drip at 8:40AM and ready to wait.

It took about 12 hours for me to finally start feeling discomfort with my contractions. Family was in and out all day, so that helped keep us busy. Because of my hypoglycemia, they eventually put me on a dextrose drip to manage my blood sugar. The evening is where I start to get a little fuzzy. Everyone left in the evening so I could focus on the contractions. After about an hour, I decided to ask the nurse if I could start some sort of pain control. Unfortunately I was not dilated enough to get an epidural, so they gave me an IV drug called Stadol to hold me over and let me rest. IT WAS HORRIBLE. I never want that stuff again. I guess it did give me the ability to sleep. But waking up every couple of minutes to a contraction did not make for the most restful of sleep.

A little over an hour later (which felt like a lifetime in my drug-induced state), I asked if they could check me again. I wanted that epidural dammit! Thankfully, I was ready. Once I got that, I slept for several more hours. The Stadol was still in my system and I could finally sleep through the contractions.

Shortly after 2 in the morning, I was dilated enough to start pushing. They waited a little while for the doctor to get there and for the baby to drop a little more, but eventually I couldn't wait anymore. I started pushing at about 3. It was the toughest thing I have probably done to this point in my life. I had the epidural, but they only gave me enough medicine to take the edge off. I still felt every contraction and had use of my legs. By 5 I was exhausted and asking them to get the forceps because I didn't know how much longer I could go on. They gave me an oxygen mask so I could catch my breath easier between contractions.

At 6:07AM, Aiden was born! It was awesome. I was exhausted and ready to sleep immediately, but wanted to see my son first. I attempted to feed him, but he wasn't very interested. The doctor said he was probably worn out from the long labor (What?! He was worn out?!) and it turned out he had his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice the whole time. Poor little guy! Because of that, Travis was unable to cut the cord. That made me sad, but the experience was still awesome for the both of us.

Family came in to say hi and they left us to rest. I attempted to feed Aiden once more before they took him to the nursery for his check up. He fed whole-heartily that time. They brought me breakfast, I pigged out and then Travis and I passed out. We didn't wake up until the baby nurse brought Aiden back at lunch time.

That afternoon they had a recovery room open up. I got lucky and got a single suite, which meant no sharing space! The rest of my stay at the hospital was nice. Everyone was so great to me there. They fed me in bed, brought the baby to me when he needed to be fed and we visited with friends and family.

My only hiccup was getting bit by a fire ant three times in my hospital bed. Don't ask me how that happened. I have no idea. I didn't actually see the ant, but I know how my body reacts to fire ant bites. Because I didn't have enough discomfort already. I felt like I had run a marathon - half on my legs, half on my arms. I'm still sore, but I think it's different now. I'm constantly having to correct my posture because I stoop over to do everything with Aiden: changing diapers, feeding, picking him up, burping him. I'm getting better about it though.

I feel pretty good considering what my body has gone through. It is amazing what the human body can do. I didn't know how to grow a baby, but my body did. I didn't know how to push out a baby, but my body did. It's just amazing. I'm happy to say I have ankles again!! And to date, I have lost 28 pounds (out of 41). I'm pretty sure that's at least 10 pounds in each foot! ;)

Well, off to care for the little one!