The Rest of the Story

So, I left off with me just getting hooked up to all the monitors. My nurse, Laura (won't ever forget her name!), started me on the pitocin at 7:30 am at a very low level, and I started to feel contractions almost immediately. Okay, maybe within 2 minutes. They started out at about 4 minutes apart. This was when she realized that every time I had a contraction, Noah's heartrate dropped. So, I had to be switched from side to side every so often to relieve the tension. It didn't end up being a big problem. Then it turned out that my blood pressure was getting lower, so they had to stick me with something to fix it. How do you like that for being medically accurate? I could probably go look up exactly what they gave me, but I am comfy on the couch right now. :)

Probably around 10am, nurse Laura told me that Dr. Link would be making rounds and was planning on breaking my water. She suggested that I think about getting my epidural before he did that. Because I knew how much more intense labor got when my water broke with Cami, it didn't take me long to make THAT decision. The anesthesiologist gave me my epidural, and life was good. He had it flowing very low so that I could still feel the contractions, which I was really happy about. They also have this new thing (new to me at least) where they give you a button you can push to release more of the medicine if you feel like the pain is getting too intense. I liked being able to feel SOME pain, so that I was aware of what was going on. I did use the button a couple times though...

When I was given the pitocin, I was dialated to a tight 3. At 1:30, I was dialted to a tight 6. So it took 6 hours to dialate 3 centimeters. Based on this, we figured we had at least a few hours. Of course, things never go the way you plan...even when you're being induced. One hour later, I was at a comfortable 10 and was ready to push! The doctor was notified, and I was prepped for delivering a baby!

I pushed through about 4 or 5 contractions, and out he came at exactly 3:00 pm. I failed to mention before that one reason why I was slightly worried about being induced early was that I really wanted my baby to be at least 7 pounds, and yet I was measuring a week behind at the doctor's office. So, I was just hoping for that 7 pounder.

If you have been keeping up with my blog, you may have noticed that this kid definitely shattered my 7 pound target. I was in complete shock when they announced that he weighed a whopping 9 lbs, 2.7 oz! Holy Crud! I felt a huge feeling of relief knowing that he had packed on plenty of weight, and that losing 6 days of growth inside was probably a good thing for everyone...He was more than 2 pounds and more than 2 inches bigger than Cami was!

Anyway, back to me. As it turns out, I lost an abnormal amount of blood giving birth to my 9+ pounder. I had to be given a shot to help thicken my blood. Before I was even able to hold Noah, I threw up the very little amount of liquid that was in my stomach. I held him for a few seconds before I handed him back to Blair and to my Mom to hold. I was just not right. They talk about that moment as being the happiest moment in a person's life. It just wasn't for me. I was not myself. I felt terrible. Not in pain...just terrible.

I decided not to try to nurse him just yet, since I was feeling so bad. My nurse brought me some sprite to wash down the taste in my mouth from throwing up. About 20 minutes later, I threw up again. This time much more. The bowl tipped and the throw up ended up soaking my entire upper body. On the good side, at least it cooled me down, cause I was cooking. After another 20 minutes or so, I don't know, I totally made up that number cause I have no idea how long it was, but after a little while, I was taken up to recovery.

Noah was brought in to try to be fed. The nurse handed him to me, and I just lay there, looking at him. I felt really weird still. The nurse must have noticed, because she looked at me like "um...I don't think I should be letting you hold that baby..." She was right, though, because I still felt terrible. She politely asked if maybe I wanted to try in a little while, when I was feeling better. When she realized that he had just been born 3 hours earlier, she assured me that he would be fine for another hour or so and that she'd bring him back. I felt bad about sending him away, but I really wasn't me, and I just wasn't ready.

They brought dinner, and I ate the fruit cup that was with it. I felt decent, so I lifted the lid on the dinner. As soon as I smelled the cheese on the salad, I threw up again. Everything. Oh, and did I mention that I hadn't eaten since 10:30pm the night before? So I was running on empty. I did still have an IV in me, which was why I even had so much to throw up, but my body was just so taxed at this point. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I tried eating some crackers and peanut butter. That was really good. In fact, I'm sitting here snacking on crackers and peanut butter because the hospital made me addicted to them...:)

They brought in Noah, and I finally fed him. He did so so well, and I was so so relieved. I finally felt like I could love on him and relish in his perfection and let the euphoric emotions take over me. That moment was more like the moment they talk about.

Fast forward a bit to when my nurse finally unplugged the IV's and had given me some time and then helped me to the bathroom for the first time. My left leg was taking it's own sweet time to get feeling back, and so I was pretty much useless. She had to call in a second nurse to help me get there. I got there, and started feeling dizzy. I waited a few minutes, and felt a little better. Not for long, though. I looked down at the floor, and about blacked out. They rushed me back to my bed, and I barely made it there. Cold towels were put on my neck and head, and I fell asleep almost immediately.

It was probably an hour or so later that they tried taking me again. This time, things were going just fine. My left leg was almost all the way back, and I was able to put some weight on it. I wasn't dizzy at all. So I took care of my business in the bathroom, and suddenly started feeling dizzy again, so I called the nurses to take me back to bed. On the way there, I passed out. It is the weirdest feeling to be standing awake at one moment, and then wake up on your knees on the floor with nurses struggling to hold you up. Apparently my lips were blue because they kept commenting later about how much better my lips looked. They took my blood pressure and it was fine. They called my doctor (it was in the middle of the night) and he had them put my IV back in and take some blood tests to see if I needed a transfusion. My counts were fabulous, though, so I just ended up staying on the IV for a little while. Oh, and I was also given an anti-nausea shot in my butt. Lovely. I still have the bruise from that...

Anyway, the rest is history. Needless to say, I ended up recovering just fine. I guess I just needed a little longer to get more regulated. You could also blame it on any or all of the following: working myself ragged the day before-trying to go into labor, not eating or drinking anything after midnight the night before, losing a lot of blood, a reaction to the epidural, side effects of the blood thickeners, or really just giving birth in general.

And that's the story! Recovery is still a process, but we're home and doing well, and Noah is a SLEEPER! He has been sleeping so well, night and day, and is feeding well, and gaining weight well, and we just have been so blessed. The one issue we are dealing with is a really bad diaper rash. I had to get a perscription called in for it, and then had to take him to the doctor to look at it. His diapering process now involves wetting a washcloth, wiping him clean, blow drying his rash for 30 seconds or so, applying the cream, blow drying for another couple of minutes, and finally putting on a clean diaper. It's a pain, but it's the least I can do for my little mister. Oh, and I ate 3 brownies at once yesterday and about 4 hours later, Noah was pretty fussy. He didn't go to sleep for night until about 1:30am, which was unusual. So...I better lay off the brownies, or anything super chocolatey for that matter. I can handle that...

If you made it here, then congratulations! Thanks for reading!