Oh Baby!

As with all inductions, once you get to the hospital, it’s hurry up and wait. And wait and wait. The good part, was that while waiting, I was actually having regular contractions. This made me think that perhaps this would be a quick process.

Eventually the hospital mid-wife came in and we talked about our “options.” I expressed my desire to go without Pitocin. Period. She tried to tell me Pitocin isn’t as bad as people say. Bullshit. That’s what I say. And yes, I did just say bullshit. And no, I did not say that to her. I just politely said, “I don’t want Pitocin. What are my other options.” We settled on using something called a Cooks balloon (http://www.cookmedical.com/wh/features/crb_en_US/index_crb.html) which is a far more natural, chemical free way of induction. After that was put in place, Aaron and started walking, and walking and walking. I was on a monitor though and it kept losing reception so every now and then I had to go back to our room so they could get a good reading. While in the room, I would bounce on the ball. I was having contractions, nothing terribly painful or super regular, but contractions none-the-less. I decided I wanted to take a nap. The thing about the Cooks Balloon is that once you get to 6 centimeters, it will fall out. Well, after about a 30 minute nap, I had to go to the bathroom so I got up and what do you know? The silly thing fell out. Yay! I’m at 6 centimeters, it will be anytime…right?!?! No. Aaron and I kept walking and walking and I kept bouncing and bouncing, and I’m having contractions and they are getting painful. Did I mention painful. Yeah.

At some point the mid-wife I originally talked to went off duty and I was left with this Doctor who was lacking in ANY kind of bedside manner. I’m not even sure she liked babies, much less delivering them. Seriously. She was bad. I just remember during one of our walks I saw her all gowned up like a space alien. What did she think was going to come out of me?!?!

 

As the contractions progressed so did my intense back pain and there was nothing I could do to make it more comfortable. I bent over on the side of the bed I swayed. It hurt. I was also SO SO SO exhausted. All I wanted to do was sleep. I would have to say it was one of the most painful deliveries I have had.  The idea of having to get into the bed to push sounded so ridiculously painful that I asked the nurse if she thought it would be possible to deliver while standing on the side of the bed. After hearing from the space Doctor, the verdict was “no.” Really? You don’t think in your ridiculous get-up you could get in a position to help make the laboring momma more comfortable. What was I thinking?  By all means, lets , do what we can to make sure the Doctor is comfortable. Needless to say, when the time came, I climbed up on the bed and delivered a wonderful, though quiet baby. He was finally here!

Once he was born they let him lay on my chest and there are two things I remember, 1. He wasn’t crying and 2. His hands are REALLY blue.  They let us hold him for a short while and then had to take him up to the NICU. Aaron went with him, I had my mom with me.  The NICU nurse came back a short time later to give me a picture and tell me he was doing great. They had put in a temporary NG tube to start sucking the stomach gunk out and they were trying to get an IV in but he was a “hard stick.” They didn’t expect Children’s Hospital to come and get him until the morning.

After a couple hours they moved me to a “recovery room.” As soon as we got to that room and the nurse told me I could, Aaron, me and my mom went up to see Matthew. As I approached the NICU, a nurse (that recognized Aaron) said in a shocking voice, “Is this mom?!?!” Apparently she couldn’t believe I was WALKING to the NICU. Funny. Once in the NICU I got to hold our little guy and rock with him for a while. We were told it would probably be around 9:00am they would come and get him. Off to bed we all went. We were all so tired no one realized how terrible the beds were- Aaron and I shared the twin size bed. Cozy.