More about the birth of Green Pea.
May. 22nd, 2009 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladydraceFor those interested in more details about how we finally became parents, this is the longer version.
Those who followed on twitter (and partly here) are probably aware that my water broke on friday afternoon. After 3 days of trekking backwards and forwards between home and hospital twice a day, in hopes of getting the contractions started on their own, the hospital finally decided to start things off when we showed up monday morning. It was a wonderful surprise, because we were led to believe that we would be sent home again and maybe keep up the trekking for 3 more days(!!!).
But monday a very nice midwife sat us down and said "We're not letting you go home again, until you have a baby." Best news we'd had in days! So we prepared for birth, feeling anxious but totally giddy. But, oh Lord all the needlework! I felt like a real pincushion in the end! Because of my weight, they wanted a spinal catheter inserted before even starting off contractions, so they wouldn't have to do that in the middle of everything, in case things got tricky and they'd need to put me under really fast. I can honestly say that it was a most painful experience. Ow ow ow... But damn, am I glad we did it before contractions! The people having this done along with other pains have my deepest sympathies.
Apart from that, I got 2 IVs in the same hand, because they couldn't seem to find a vein in the other one, despite numerous attempts. My hand is still blue in several places.
Anyway, the drip finally came in and they got me dressed in the fashionable hospital outfit and I got an enema(!). Yeikes. Just... yeikes...
About 2 hours after the drip was started, I felt my first contraction. Steadily getting stronger, I was pretty confident that things were going well. And they were. Apart from the fact that my uterus was simply not cooporating. I never really dilated the way I was supposed to, but we kept hoping for a long time. After 6 hours of huffing and puffing, I finally accepted their constantly repeated offer of pain medication. Not that I desperately wanted a completely non-medicated birth, but I wanted to see how far I could go. And judging by the nurses constantly asking if I wanted drugs and my poor hubby's rapidly greying hair, I can only assume I took it quite far enough. At one point, as I was coming down from a really kicking contraction, he said in an almost hushed voice: "And they say you're the 'weaker sex'..." Maybe it's just some sort of feminine pride, but that made me feel good.
The contractions themselves weren't really painful in the sense of "stubbed toe" pain. More of a very hard pressure in places hard to define. But then the contractions moved around to the back, and THAT was pain. The contractions at least gave me a break every now and then. The back pain was constant and stabbing, and the main reason I finally decided to accept the epidural. Everybody seemed a lot happier as soon as I could lie back and relax for a bit.
The doctors gave the contractions 2 more hours to work and then just before midnight, they decided it was time to prepare for a c-section. I never dilated more than a cm (about a third of an inch) and my uterus never fully retracted either. So no baby was going to come out that way. It was explained to us calmly, and there was no rush or stress about it, since the baby was doing just fine on all counts. During the early contractions, I'd had an electrode inserted onto the baby's head (not as gruesome as it sounds, really), and it told us that the heart rate never reached stressed levels. Which is quite amazing, considering he'd been stuck in my pelvis for days with only minimal fluid around him.
Since it was a non-emergency c-section, hubby was allowed to be present, but he decided not to. And that was perfectly fine with me. I knew I'd be woozy and unfocused anyway, so it made no difference to me. And it turns out that it was true what most people told me. That during birth, you simply don't have room to feel the anxiety or depression, so that really wasn't much of a problem. There was way too much going on to have time to stop and think for even a second. So though his support was appreciated, I wouldn't force him to be in the room when they cut me open.
The c-section itself was a freaky experience. So many gadgets and gizmos and weird sensations, that I think I'll need a few more posts just to describe it all. Suffice to say that the cut felt like a wet piece of yarn being pulled across my belly, and that when the baby was pulled out, it almost felt like someone was trying to turn my skin inside out. I felt the weirdest sucking sensation, and immediately there was a loud, healthy cry. And from that moment I remember absolutely nothing more about the operation. They showed me the Pea in a quick glimpse (from the bum view... but who cares, he was mine and perfect!) and then quickly swept him away for a quick examination and some heating blankets. I got to see him again as they were patching me up. And honestly, I cannot remember anything else but that little being. I couldn't move a muscle, but I could smell him. I thought he would smell like blood or something, but even then, covered in goo, he smelled like 'baby'. That soft, sweet smell unique to babies. And I cried. And I smiled. And those blue eyes opened and looked at me, making me even more weepy. Wow. It's just such a big thing to experience.
In the ICU we were met by daddy, who was properly awed by the whole thing. He hardly knew where to turn to first. To wife or child. In the end, he chose child, which was fine by me. I was just woozy and pleasantly buzzed. While I was being checked over, hubby got to do the honors of putting on Green Pea's first clothes. I think he was about to vomit from nerves, but he managed beautifully and finally this little bundle of joy was put into my arms. And there he stayed until the next morning.
Sadly, hubby wasn't allowed to stay, so he had to go home (very reluctantly) after the most amazingly stressful, yet glorious day of our lives. Needless to say, he didn't sleep well. I did. Oh boy, did I sleep. And so did Green Pea. So much so that I got a bit worried in the end. But that's for another time. I'll cut the tale here, and tell more in the morning.
Green Pea is currently sleeping, so I think I'll do the same. Goodnight to you all!
Those who followed on twitter (and partly here) are probably aware that my water broke on friday afternoon. After 3 days of trekking backwards and forwards between home and hospital twice a day, in hopes of getting the contractions started on their own, the hospital finally decided to start things off when we showed up monday morning. It was a wonderful surprise, because we were led to believe that we would be sent home again and maybe keep up the trekking for 3 more days(!!!).
But monday a very nice midwife sat us down and said "We're not letting you go home again, until you have a baby." Best news we'd had in days! So we prepared for birth, feeling anxious but totally giddy. But, oh Lord all the needlework! I felt like a real pincushion in the end! Because of my weight, they wanted a spinal catheter inserted before even starting off contractions, so they wouldn't have to do that in the middle of everything, in case things got tricky and they'd need to put me under really fast. I can honestly say that it was a most painful experience. Ow ow ow... But damn, am I glad we did it before contractions! The people having this done along with other pains have my deepest sympathies.
Apart from that, I got 2 IVs in the same hand, because they couldn't seem to find a vein in the other one, despite numerous attempts. My hand is still blue in several places.
Anyway, the drip finally came in and they got me dressed in the fashionable hospital outfit and I got an enema(!). Yeikes. Just... yeikes...
About 2 hours after the drip was started, I felt my first contraction. Steadily getting stronger, I was pretty confident that things were going well. And they were. Apart from the fact that my uterus was simply not cooporating. I never really dilated the way I was supposed to, but we kept hoping for a long time. After 6 hours of huffing and puffing, I finally accepted their constantly repeated offer of pain medication. Not that I desperately wanted a completely non-medicated birth, but I wanted to see how far I could go. And judging by the nurses constantly asking if I wanted drugs and my poor hubby's rapidly greying hair, I can only assume I took it quite far enough. At one point, as I was coming down from a really kicking contraction, he said in an almost hushed voice: "And they say you're the 'weaker sex'..." Maybe it's just some sort of feminine pride, but that made me feel good.
The contractions themselves weren't really painful in the sense of "stubbed toe" pain. More of a very hard pressure in places hard to define. But then the contractions moved around to the back, and THAT was pain. The contractions at least gave me a break every now and then. The back pain was constant and stabbing, and the main reason I finally decided to accept the epidural. Everybody seemed a lot happier as soon as I could lie back and relax for a bit.
The doctors gave the contractions 2 more hours to work and then just before midnight, they decided it was time to prepare for a c-section. I never dilated more than a cm (about a third of an inch) and my uterus never fully retracted either. So no baby was going to come out that way. It was explained to us calmly, and there was no rush or stress about it, since the baby was doing just fine on all counts. During the early contractions, I'd had an electrode inserted onto the baby's head (not as gruesome as it sounds, really), and it told us that the heart rate never reached stressed levels. Which is quite amazing, considering he'd been stuck in my pelvis for days with only minimal fluid around him.
Since it was a non-emergency c-section, hubby was allowed to be present, but he decided not to. And that was perfectly fine with me. I knew I'd be woozy and unfocused anyway, so it made no difference to me. And it turns out that it was true what most people told me. That during birth, you simply don't have room to feel the anxiety or depression, so that really wasn't much of a problem. There was way too much going on to have time to stop and think for even a second. So though his support was appreciated, I wouldn't force him to be in the room when they cut me open.
The c-section itself was a freaky experience. So many gadgets and gizmos and weird sensations, that I think I'll need a few more posts just to describe it all. Suffice to say that the cut felt like a wet piece of yarn being pulled across my belly, and that when the baby was pulled out, it almost felt like someone was trying to turn my skin inside out. I felt the weirdest sucking sensation, and immediately there was a loud, healthy cry. And from that moment I remember absolutely nothing more about the operation. They showed me the Pea in a quick glimpse (from the bum view... but who cares, he was mine and perfect!) and then quickly swept him away for a quick examination and some heating blankets. I got to see him again as they were patching me up. And honestly, I cannot remember anything else but that little being. I couldn't move a muscle, but I could smell him. I thought he would smell like blood or something, but even then, covered in goo, he smelled like 'baby'. That soft, sweet smell unique to babies. And I cried. And I smiled. And those blue eyes opened and looked at me, making me even more weepy. Wow. It's just such a big thing to experience.
In the ICU we were met by daddy, who was properly awed by the whole thing. He hardly knew where to turn to first. To wife or child. In the end, he chose child, which was fine by me. I was just woozy and pleasantly buzzed. While I was being checked over, hubby got to do the honors of putting on Green Pea's first clothes. I think he was about to vomit from nerves, but he managed beautifully and finally this little bundle of joy was put into my arms. And there he stayed until the next morning.
Sadly, hubby wasn't allowed to stay, so he had to go home (very reluctantly) after the most amazingly stressful, yet glorious day of our lives. Needless to say, he didn't sleep well. I did. Oh boy, did I sleep. And so did Green Pea. So much so that I got a bit worried in the end. But that's for another time. I'll cut the tale here, and tell more in the morning.
Green Pea is currently sleeping, so I think I'll do the same. Goodnight to you all!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 11:02 pm (UTC)"And they say you're the 'weaker sex'. " Awwww! Your husband is awesome.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 11:14 pm (UTC)Your Pea is probably glad he came out the easy way. Baby Sparky arrived after 3 days of drugs and she had a long bruise all across her forehead. Hubby said, "It looks she was banged into a door." Yeah.
Have a big pile of virtual good wishes and hugs and helping hands!
no subject
Date: 2009-05-23 07:12 am (UTC)Green Pea does have 3 red stripes on his forehead from being in the pelvis for days, but it'll fade mostly. Right now it looks like some three-fingered alien made a hand print right above his nose. Hee hee.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-23 07:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 11:54 pm (UTC)My first son, Ron was born after 28 1/2 hr. of hard back labor. When they finally showed me my son, for some reason I could not hear or do not remember hearing him cry but I could see him cry. At that point they could have showed me an elephant, I did not care. I was very skinny in those days and he weighted 8 lb 1 oz. And his brother, David, was born 2 years later weighing 7 lb. 2 oz.
What is even more amazing is that we would ever want to do all this again.
Of course, you don't have to think about that now.
Sleep, Ahavia
no subject
Date: 2009-05-23 07:15 am (UTC)And you're right. It is amazing growing people inside you. Which is probably the exact reason we actually want to do this again. Which I will. Without a doubt. :o)
no subject
Date: 2009-05-26 02:13 pm (UTC)Yeah, this is how always feels... nothing else matters, that strange hulk growing in your belly has become finally in a little person, who cares about anything else!!!