I slept really well that night. What a great thing that Benadryl-like pill was. I felt better than I had in about 5 weeks. RM left early, like usual, to get to work. He told me later he didn't even kiss me for fear of waking me up. He was used to me being up when he got up at 3:30 am. I did get up at 6 am and send THE Princess off to school with Grammy. I was still kind of drowsy so I went back to bed and slept for another 2 hours.
I was so sad to NOT have anymore of those drugs. Not that I am about taking things when I am pregnant. I didn't touch even 1 cup of coffee or a Tylenol while I was pregnant with THE Princess and KOTJ. I was desperate here people. A couple more days went by and I went back to NOT sleeping. The joy.
It didn't help that about every 30 minutes RM would ask me if it "was time yet?" He was genuinely concerned and my Braxton Hicks contractions were strong and constant, but NO it was NOT TIME YET. Bless his heart, he meant well. He was concerned but boy, was it annoying.
A week after the due date passed and Doctor Eva told me (this was a Friday) that she would be on call all weekend and if nothing happened over the weekend then we would meet Monday morning for an ultrasound and talk about induction. I was not happy about that prospect. I had pitocin with THE Princess and it wasn't pretty. I didn't want to repeat that if I didn't have to. She checked me again and big surprise, no change.
That afternoon I was much more uncomfortable. I realized that I was either peeing a little bit every time I got up to move around or my water had broken. I called Doctor Eva's nurse to see what she thought. She talked with Doctor Eva and they told me to go to triage and be checked. I was skeptical but I thought I would go with it. I called RM at work and told him I was going to the hospital but I didn't really think it was time. I asked him not to call my sister, who was to be in the delivery room with me, in case it was a false alarm. Grammy kept THE Princess.
Well, guess what? It was pee! Dang it. The baby was laying directly on my bladder and every time I shifted to move around it got pushed and squeezed. Doctor Eva called and told me to come back in the morning, the baby needed to come out, it was ready and I was past ready. I went home disappointed, I had hoped that she would have mercy on my soul and start to induce me that evening. I know, I just said it wasn't what I wanted. But, I had decided that what I really wanted, more than anything, was to have this baby OUT of me!!!
RM met me at home with THE Princess. We had a late snack and went to bed. I woke up at midnight and had some suspicions that it was "time." But, RM and THE Princess were sleeping soundly and I worried that it might be another false alarm. At 3 am I woke and on the way to the potty my water broke. For realz. I got on my computer and sent a few emails to a couple friends and to my online students. I wanted to give them the heads up that I would be offline for at least a week.
I woke up RM at 3:30 am and told him. He didn't want to stay at home so we called Grammy and took THE Princess to her house. We headed off to the hospital. When we got there, we saw the triage nurse outside and she joked that she wasn't expecting me until a little later. I told her my water had definitely broken and she took me immediately up the staff elevator right to a labor and delivery room. I got to skip triage, this time I got the fast track.
Things started to happen a little quicker then. I got the saline IV, RM called my sister, we did all the paperwork. I was hooked to monitors. The baby looked great and contractions were coming every 3 minutes or so. I could still talk through them alright. RM took pictures of everything. He put pictures of THE Princess and me on the outside of the bassinet for the baby to see.
My sister arrived around 7 am. She was thrilled to be there. She talked to the nurses and discussed some "nurse" stuff. I was now having to breathe deeply to keep my composure during contractions. Between contractions, RM and my sister encouraged me. RM tried to help me relax when the contractions started to become more intense. Tried is the operative word. By 11:30 am I would see the line on the monitor start to rise, indicating the beginning of a contraction, and all I could think was, "Oh crap! Not another one." (I had an epidural with THE Princess).
This was intense. I would just cling to the railing on the bed. Breathe, remember to breathe, RM and my sister would say. I would breathe and ask, "Is it going down, when will it go down?" (Meaning, when will the line on the monitor start to descend, indicating the end of the contraction.) Then something horrible and wonderful happened.
The on-call anesthesiologist came in and told me he was going into a C-section and wouldn't be available for at least an hour. If I wanted the epidural, I could get it now or I would have to wait.
This is seriously, what went down.
RM: You can do without it. You're doing great!
Me: Ummm, maybe...
Sister: He's right, you are doing great! You don't need it. Plus, an hour is nothing. If you want it in an hour, you can get it then. But, you won't need it.
Me: Ummm, okay, I don't need it.
Doctor leaves. I am not kidding, but 20 minutes later I was screaming, "Has it been an hour yet? I NEED HIM BACK HERE. I NEED HELP HERE. THIS IS FREAKING KILLING ME! I THINK MY INSIDES ARE BEING RIPPED OUT!"
Transition. Now I know why they call it transition. You transition from being relatively sane to completely insane with mind bending pain. The nurse wanted to check things out, I told her it wasn't a good idea. The mere thought of someone touching me seemed to hurt.
Doctor Eva came in and asked why I didn't get the epi. I couldn't answer. Why didn't I? I am a complete idiot, that's why. She insisted on checking me and told me I was 9+. It was almost time to push. Well, fantastic, I though, something is gonna happen to make this freaking horrible pain worth it.
An hour later, I asked if the good drug doctor was available. My sister went to ask and told me that he had to stay in the C-section longer. My only hope. Gone. I was surviving on the hope that he would come and put me out of my misery. Soon.
No such luck.
I started to tell RM that I refused to have a boy. I was having a girl. I know what to do with girl. This hurt so bad, I didn't want a boy. RM was smart, he just nodded and agreed with me. (I didn't really mean it, it was the pain talking.)
At 2 pm I got the urge to push. RM ran for a nurse. I started pushing and pushed for a long time. KOTJ was stuck under my pelvic bone. (THE Princess had the same problem. Doctor Eva says it's because I have a tilted uterus. Umm, okay, I'll go with that.) I pushed for a long time. Two hours later, I was still pushing. Doctor Eva reached in after KOTJ and helped him make his way out.
Doctor Eva started telling me that I had a blond haired baby. I started to argue, of course I didn't. Even though I am blond and so is THE Princess, I knew this baby would have it's daddy's dark features and olive skin. The nurses came to look. They assured me that the baby had blond hair.
Two pushes after being physically unstuck by Doctor Eva, out came our little King Of The Jungle, a boy! 8 pounds 13 ounces, 21 1/2 inches long and just as beautiful as his sister had been. He had a little trouble getting his bearings and needed to be suctioned out. I was freaking out, since THE Princess had problems when she was born and ended up being in the NICU for a week. Doctor Eva assured me that this was not serious.
I got to nurse him and he latched on right away. Wow.
He was just perfect. He had my coloring, fair with lots of blond hair and blue eyes, but his face was (and still is) the spitting image of his daddy. One of our best days ever.(There is more to this story, and that will come friends. Look for it next week. More drama, more craziness, more more more. I am not sure why my life is this way, it just is, I swear.)
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