The whole story

Ok, I said I'd write about L&D, and people kept asking how it went, so I'll tell you exactly how it went.

Friday morning Doug and I got to the hospital just after 7 and got settled in.  Rita (my midwife) came in and checked me and said I was at about 1cm and 60% effaced.  So she gave me a dose of Cervidil (to ripen my cervix) at about 7:45.  After an hour, I was able to get up and walk around, which I did a lot of.  Contractions started at about 9, but were still really mild (e.i., I barely noticed them if I wasn't paying attention).   I walked around a lot (oh, how utterly boring--round and round the loop of the delivery ward) and even managed to catch about a half an hour's sleep while it was still mild.

Around noon, the nurse came back to check my progress (by now the contractions were fairly consistent and noticeable, though not really painful) and I was at about a 3.  Woohoo!! thinks I.  So much farther along than I had been at that point in the day with the first two.  Just after that, Mom came in with the kids to see hello and see how things were going.  Keilana was still buzzed about Yaya being here and was in a very, very good mood.  Dylan insisted on getting up to sit on my lap (of course), so we decided it'd be better to go for a walk.  We walked around the waiting area a bit and Dylan was rather annoyed that I wouldn't leave in the elevator with him.  He kept grabbing my hand, dragging me that direction and saying, "Momma, go!"  When I explained that I was staying but if he went with Yaya she would buy him chicken nuggets, he threw his hands up in the air, shouted, "yay! [something I couldn't understand]" and took Mom's hand and left with her.

Rita said she'd come back in a bit to break my water and hopefully speed things along.  I walked and walked some more, still bored out of my mind (I hate waiting around the hospital--can you tell).  At about 2, the nurse checked me again, and I was at about 4cm.  She called Rita, who told her we'd wait on breaking my water since my body seemed to be progressing well on its own.

My mom, in the meantime, was carting my kids around Visalia, exploring all their favorite places: McDonald's, Costco, Target, etc.  We called to update her, and after a bit more exploring she left the kids with Katy and came back to the hospital around 4.  At that point Doug left to get something to eat (and I was so grateful.  He was getting hungry and he's no picnic when his blood sugar drops--he's a lot like Grandma Barnes that way.  I really wanted him well fed once the hard part started).   The nurse came back at about 5, and I was still at 4 cm (though my contractions had gotten a lot stronger), so she called Rita, who said she'd come and break my water.  She got there at about 6, and I was so glad that she did.  As soon as she did, my very next contraction was stronger and more painful.  Hooray.  My mom laughed at me because when the nurse came in to check (before my water broke) she asked how the contractions were and I said, "Not bad.  I'm still talking right through them."  To which my mom responded, "You sound so disappointed!"  Having been around for both my previous deliveries, she knows how much I hate just sitting around waiting and wanted to get the show on the road.

(Disclaimer: If you are squeamish about large needles in highly sensitive areas like the spine, skip this paragraph).

Anyway, I had decided before I came in that I would bite the bullet and get an epidural after all, so after she broke my water, I asked if they would get the anesthiesiologist, assuming from that point on things would move fairly quickly.  It took about a half an hour for him to get there (he was with another patient), which wasn't a big deal, since I was only somewhere between 4 and 5 cm and still had lots of pain tolerance and patience to spare.  Once he got there, I did that curl up in a ball thing that is oh-so-pleasant when you're having contractions.  But it took him more than A HALF AN HOUR to get the stupid thing in.  He was having trouble getting in the space. I would feel a sharp, shooting pain down the right side of my spine, then down the left.  Then when he thought he'd finally got in, he put in a test dose to make sure.  I immediately got extremely dizzy and lightheaded and the nurse and doctor's voices became quite echo-y.  The nurse gave me oxygen right away, while the doctor took the stupid thing out and started over.  The next day, my back was by far sorer than any other part of my body.  I still have some pretty bruises and lots of little pin pricks all over.  I almost said, "Forget it!  I'll just deal"  but I sat there hunched over with my oxygen mask on repeating the mantra, "Its not as bad as transition labor."  (Is anything, really?)

Finally, he got the epidural in and it started to take the edge of the contractions, and Mom and Doug came back (they got sent out of the room while he did it--I almost asked the nurse to go get one of them for me;) ).   The  contractions got less noticeable until I could barely feel them.  With Dylan I had the intrathecal and had such a pleasant experience just sitting up and talking to Mom and Doug until he arrived, that I think I was expecting the same thing.   But instead I was very tired (hadn't realized until this point that I was so tired) and a little sick to my stomach.  I had the epidural going, and was on an antibiotic as well, so I think that it was just the medication unsettling my stomach.

Oh yeah, I was on an antibiotic because at some point in the day, the tubing became disconnected from the needle on my IV line (before I was hooked up to anything), but I have no idea how long it was like that.   So for some undetermined length of time, I hadn't an open vein pretty much exposed to the outside world.  And one hecka nasty bruise where the needle was.  So they had to put a new line in--right in my wrist in my right hand.  How annoying is that?

Anyway, back to labor.  So every time I get a contraction, I'm still getting a horrible pain on my right side, from the front of my pelvis through to my lower back, despite the crippling epidural.  I'd had a lot of back labor all day, so I was a bit concerned she might be sunny-side-up.  The nurse checked and said I was at about 8 cm, 9 during contractions, but that the baby was face-up still.  She must've saw the look on my face because in a very reassuring tone she immediately said, "Don't worry, she's still got plenty of room to turn on her own."  Which she did! It was about 20 minutes later that Rita came in and I pushed a half a dozen times or so and she was here.  Despite her big size, her head was only about 36cm (just a tiny smidge above average) and she was number 3, so she came out nice and easy with no tears or anything.  

Right after I delivered, I started having some fairly major bleeding and my uterus just kind of shut down.  They had me on a pitocin drip and were working like crazy to figure out what happened.  Fortunately, they just laid the baby on my tummy the whole time and got me a blanket, so the whole time I was only half aware of what they were doing and really focused on the baby and relaxed, so it went pretty smoothly.  At first she thought I might have an internal laceration, but as it turns out my uterus just went a little nuts.  Thank goodness for hospital births! It was no big deal in the long run, but boy could it have been if I'd been at home!!

Kylie was already responding to my voice in the delivery room.  Once they finally did take her away to get her cleaned off and weighed and measured and all that (after about 30 minutes or so of just hanging out with me:) ), they had her on the warmer and when I would talk, she'd stop moving and listen.

She was mellow right away.  She gave us a good healthy cry once they got her all suctioned out, but then was pretty calm and quiet while Doug, Mom and I took turns holding her.  When she was on the warmer, she moved her little arms and legs a bit, but no outrageous kicking like her brother and sister, hardly any crying at all.

She's been a very, very easy baby.  On Sunday and Monday, Mom and I went out and carted her all around Visalia and it was pretty easy.  She nurses well, and sleeps SO well.  The last three nights, she's literally slept all night.  She sleeps well if I'm holding her, but usually sleeps just as well if I'm not.  When she's awake and alert, she is calm--she rarely cries, and usually only if she's hungry or trying to work out a bubble, but really not much even then.  She stays calm and content even when her brother and sister are both happily shrieking in her face--which they do pretty much any time she's awake.  If I'm holding her, great.  If I'm not, that's usually ok, too.  She's a good baby, and we're happy to have her!