Figuring out where to start this is hard.
After my OB told me was was ready to give birth, I started walking a lot trying to bring on labor, like people say really works... it doesn't. After 2 weeks, I hadn't progressed any farther and I stopped the extra walks.
Sunday, April 6th, I woke up really sore. I thought it was weird because I hadn't been on an extra walk in almost a week. I drove out to Scappoose for dinner at Aunt T's house, thinking that another thing people say brings on labor is driving far from the hospital. During the day my thighs got more and more sore and we all decided I was going to go into labor soon. We even made jokes of it happening on the way back into town. (Sore thighs are the beginning of back labor, if you didn't know, I didn't)
Of course, I got home and nothing happened. Sad and not wanting to go to work in the morning, I went to bed (about midnight). No sooner than I fell asleep, I had to go to the bathroom really bad. I jumped up and was halfway across the room when I noticed my underwear was wet and thought, that's weird, I need to check the bed when I'm done. I made it to the bathroom and just as I sat down, my water broke. (It probably broke in bed, but ran fast enough). But, I was stuck on the toilet because whenever I started to stand up, more came out.
I thought that I would labor at home until I needed to go to the hospital. However, they like you to deliver in under 24 hours after your water breaks because of possibilities of infection. Contractions didn't start until two hours after the water broke. The hospital wanted me to call them back at 6:30 to see where I was. That was silly because they would have had me come in whether I was contracting or not. They did let me eat a little before I checked in (yogurt).
I checked in around 8 and was in triage for a few hours. They didn't believe me that I was having contractions because the monitors weren't picking them up. And they weren't sure that my water broke because the ultrasound machine showed a lot of water. I was sure I was having contractions and that my water broke.
Once they admitted me, I got the "good" nurses who believed me that I was having contractions and that my water broke (it didn't help that I was leaking all over the place). Grandma Thanua, Aunt Sharon and and La Rae showed up minutes after got to our room and they totally distracted me while I got my iv. Then mom showed up.
They decided against the pitocin because I was having contractions and it would be best if I didn't have to have the pitocin.
What happened the rest of the day kind of runs all together. I know I took a shower and I walked all over the place until I couldn't stand it and got the epidural. They started the pitocin then. I don't know when that happened. I remember taking a nap right after the epidural and then knitting a bit. We watched little people big world and jon and kate + 8.
At some point later it was announced that there was just a tiny bit of cervics left and they decided to "help" it a little. That hurt.
Some point later they decided I could start pushing. I had just had a bit more medicine put in my epidural so I really couldn't feel the pushing for awhile. But I pushed for 2.5 hours. The birthing classes told us that the average for new moms is 2-4 hours of pushing. Most people I have talked to didn't push for very long, and definitely not even close to 2 hours.
Oh. they had me convinced I was pushing out a 9 pound baby. When she finally came out and they put her on my stomach, she was this slimy little thing. No way was she 9 lbs. but I didn't say anything until they weighed her (6lbs 13.5 oz). When she was coming out, the doctor made a surprised sound and said something along the lines of "well, hello there! you're facing the wrong way!" She came out sunnyside up, which is one reason they thought she was bigger than she was.
Then they delivered the placenta, no biggy. But wait, there was more! I had a bunch of blood clots up there that they also had to get rid of. I swear that hurt more than the actual deliver.
Sabrina was born at 12:50. They listed my labor lasting 25 hours. I also had a fever and because I'm allergic to penicillin, they gave me some strong ass antibiotics that ate my veins. They were going to have to give me a 3rd iv, but my bloodwork came back good and I didn't have to have any more meds.
We had to stay an extra day because of my fever. When they took Sabrina to the nursery to do her exam, they decided her jaundice was bad enough to need the phototherapy. She only needed 24 hours of it, so we didn't leave the hospital until Friday the 11th. The phototherapy was hard. She had to stay under the lights for 3 hours at a time, then I got to feed her, pump and Richard gave her a bottle of either pumped milk or formula. Then she had to go back under the lights. The special care nursery rooms are only really set up for one person to stay with the baby, but Richard wasn't going to leave us so we made do.
I wish I hadn't been sick during my maternity leave, I hardly feel I've had the full time off. I wish I could have another month off. But I can't. I go back to work on July 1st. The good news is that we got Sabrina a spot at the daycare that Evan and Alivia (and Keylie for the summer). Man, childcare is expensive!
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