*disclaimer - may be some gore involved*
2.21.08
6:00 - woke up eager to get ready to get to the hospital
6:45 - pretended like my water had broken, rushed to hospital (one exit down the freeway)
7:00 - arrive a Baylor Irving, Labor and Delivery, check in
7:30 - Dr. Dominique comes in and breaks my water for real, very strange feeling... find out there's meconium in water which means baby has had a bowel movement in utero, freaks me and shawn out a bit, but no big deal to everyone else
8:00 - contractions begin - not too bad, kinda like a period... nurse comes in and says, ok, we're going to begin pitocin
9:00 - 5:00 - time becomes foggy/irrelevant - pitocin makes the contractions worse, they give me Stadol - makes room spin, makes pain disappear and makes Shawn a god
Stadol wears off, torture nurse returns with more pitocin
contractions start to take my breath away - shawn no longer a god, in fact, becomes cops-watching-wife-neglecting-doofus with his hat on crooked
ask for epidural and cry alot because of pain and feeling of defeat, i look at shawn for a moment and see a tear streaming down his cheek - no longer a doofus but a sweet husband who just doesn't know what to do
anesthesiologist arrives and the horrendous experience of an epidural begins - the first time she stuck the needle in my spine and started "routing around" i could feel everything quite painfully but not as painful as the contractions in my right hip - strange sensation... she says, ok, i'm just going to find a different spot... puts bloody needle on bed beside me which makes shawn queasy - he has to leave room so he doesn't pass out... she does it again and it takes, tells me to lie down... about the time my blood pressure drops to like 70/40 and the baby's heart rate dropped to i don't know what and i start vomiting and feeling like i'm dying and begging someone to help me... they stabilize us and leave us be for a couple of hours... only complaint is that i'm numb from the neck down instead of the waist down.
at a couple of points, they check my cervix for progress... at 3 PM i had made it to a 5... they came back at 5 PM and i was still at a 5, my contractions had pretty much stopped... so Dr. Dominique was called and I was prepped for a c-section
5:30 - enter torturous anesthesiologist again - she gives me the drugs via IV and the nurse makes me drink some stuff that's supposed to keep me from vomiting... they wheel me out and through the halls to the OR... getting queasy, anesthesiologist asks if i get motion sickness alot - no - hmmm - we get into the OR and i start vomiting again - all the stuff that was supposed to keep me from vomiting - all over my cheek and shoulder... lovely
we make it into the room and i make an interesting observation - all of the people working on us are women, not a man in the room... i was very impressed that they could move me from bed to bed with no men... girl power! i digress... so they strap me to the table and all the sudden i can't swallow... FREAKS me out... the anesthesiologist is like, it's ok, you don't need to swallow and i'm like, i can't swallow, i can't swallow! over and over again and then start trying to get free from the table and she's like, ok, here's something to calm you down... thank you!
5:55 - so i just kind of drift in and out of consciencious until shawn comes in... they start cutting and before you know it
6:02 - we hear a baby crying and then we see her... shawn says "i feel like i'm dreaming" and all of the sudden we're parents of the most beautiful baby girl in the world... just like that. crazy how that is.
in case you forgot what she looked like then:
and here she is today:
this is one of those, you have to look at from far away....me trying to be artsy again
3 comments:
what an account! you are such a great writer suzanne! i will need you to calm me down before that happens to troy & me (years from now)... so happy for you & your family :)
I'm so sorry that the epidural experience was so awful - yuck!
It's fun to see how quickly they change, isn't it?
I am cracking up at your remembrance of Shawn from god to doofus to sweet husband. I can't believe Kairi is already two weeks old. Before you know it she will be two and a half telling you no and slapping you in the face. Oh the joys of motherhood! I wish the labor experience had been better for you but so glad Kairi is healthy and beautiful and has stolen her Mommy's heart.
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