Thursday, February 2, 2012

I Blinked

I made the mistake of blinking and now E is already a week old! In fact, he's already back to his birth weight (and probably more since that was two days ago - before his massive eating spree).

So, before I forget the story myself, here is The Business of Being Born: The E Edition.

It all started Monday, the 23rd - sort of. I just started to feel like things might actually be getting closer and I told Ben I didn't think our little guy would be waiting until after his big test. Turns out I was right.

Tuesday night: About 8pm 

Me: "Huh. I think I'm having another contraction"
Ben: "They are pretty close together. Maybe you should start timing them."

So I used my phone app and started timing. Turns out they were about 5 minutes apart and the following conversation took place.

Me: "I guess they're pretty close together. When do you think we should call the hospital? It's not like they hurt too bad. Just a little pain in my lower back."
Ben: "I think you should call and just find out what they think"
Me: "Yeah. But what do I say? I've never called a hospital before!" 
Ben: ... proceeded to give me a nice example of what to tell the nurses. 

So I called. I told them my contractions were about 5 minutes apart (even though some of them were closer to 2 or 3 minutes apart but still not very painful). They asked, on a scale from 1 to 10, what my pain was. I figured it was probably a 2, which was nothing compared to the 8 I'd been at the week before because of my stupid upper rib/muscle stretching pain. 

They were nice and told me to call back when the pain got closer to a 5. So I hung up and resumed business as usual.

The problem: I have two types of pain. 1-2 and 7-8. I don't know how to discern anything between those two.  It either hurts a little or it hurts a lot.

Tuesday night: About 9pm

I decided to take a bath because baths are awesome and I was bored. 

About 9:30 or 10pm 

I got out of the bath and the pain with contractions got worse. Technically, I could still talk through them so I figured I still had a long ways to go before I'd be calling the hospital back.

11:15 rolled around

Ben was obviously more in-tune with what was happening so he decided he'd go to bed and instructed me to wake him up when it was time to go to the hospital. 

That's when I decided to blog because ... what else would I have done? Every two-ish minutes I'd have to cringe and wait somewhere between 30 and 60 seconds but ... it wasn't that bad. Or so I thought. 

12:15 am

Ben woke up and asked  how I was doing. I decided I might as well go to bed  because I was tired and I was sure this would pass because E was going to wait until Saturday to be born so Ben could study and take his test worry free. E had other plans. The contractions kept going so Ben started timing them again because he felt the situation was a bit more urgent then I was admitting. 

1:00 am

Ben called the hospital for me because I REALLY did not feel like talking through my contractions (maybe that should have been a sign). So they told us we could come in if we wanted but they thought it sounded like we still had plenty of time.

1:30 am

The car ride and walk from the parking lot to the 6th floor Labor and Delivery unit was AWFUL. Somehow the pain went up ten-fold in the few minutes it took to get there and my entire body was trembling with shivers. Before we found out how far along we were I told the nurse they better not send me home because I did not want to walk back down to the car. 

A short time later: 

Luckily, when they came in and checked me out I was 7cm dilated so there would be no returning home and we got set up in a room and they sent in the anesthesiologist to get me set up with my epidural - which, after having contractions every minute, was like heaven in a small hollow needle. 

Very shortly after the epidural took effect and I was getting situated, the room was flooded with about 20 medical personnel. I heard someone saying something about my blood pressure remaining stable and someone else was talking about breaking my water so they could put a heart rate monitor on the baby's head while someone else was telling me to lay on one side and then the other, over and over again.

The amazing part is that everyone in the room was so calm that while I probably should have been worried, I wasn't. Someone else would occasionally tell me the baby was fine and I would think, "Well yeah. Why wouldn't he be." Then the anesthesiologist put some nitro-glycerin under my tongue just in case and I got a shot in my arm of ... something that started with a T. Maybe Ben remembers?

Then as quickly as they all came in, they were gone.

I was never worried because I thought something must have been wrong with me but I felt fine so whatever it was would pass. It wasn't until the room was cleared and things had settled down that we found out what had happened.

It turns out I have a super uterus that was contracting every minute and wasn't giving E a break. They likened it to dunking someone under water; but in this hypothetical, E wasn't getting a chance to actually breathe. Because of this, he was very stressed and his heart rate had dropped dramatically.
The shot they gave me stopped my contractions and E was able to get a break while my body slowly restarted.

After that we had an hour or an hour and a half before things got back under way.

At around 5:15am

I realized what a great epidural I had. I could move my legs just fine and I was definitely starting to feel like it was time to push but still couldn't feel the actual contractions (YAY!). I was told I was fully dilated and we could get down to business whenever I was ready. So the doctor, resident and nurse suited up in what looked like hazmat gear - face shields and all -  since my water still hadn't broken and we got to work.

5:57am

I was ready for them to help push that baby back up into my stomach so we could go home and try this all again another day when I was feeling a bit more prepared for the pain that accompanies child birth.

6:01am

Baby Newman aka E Scott Newman joined our family weighing 6 lbs 14 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long.


Ben and I were instantly smitten and we haven't been able to quit staring at him since. Oh and his hair:


And this was taken just after his bath:


And then he got to know his Dad and Mom who had been waiting months to meet him:




Yeah. I'm definitely in love. ... Even if he does keep me up all night.

4 comments:

Mrs. Mike said...

Oh, Brooke, he is so sweet. I loved reading your story and you had me laughing in several places - heaven in a small, hollow needle! The last picture of you and Ethan is so beautiful that It made me cry.

An Ordinary Mom said...

I love birth stories, and this was awesome :) !! So glad your little Ethan has joined your family! Congrats!!

Jess and Richard said...

Don't blink again or else he will be four months. He is so beautiful, glad you are enjoying motherhood!

Samantha said...

This is so sweet! Those pictures. That hair! What a great head of hair! But I must say I'm jealous. How come some people have perfect epidurals?! And I am not one of those people?