Sunday, April 26, 2009

AND TRISTAN MAKES THREE

I want to apologize for not updating like I had hoped to during the labor/delivery process.  Now that I'm home and able to have a few moments to myself, I thought I'd share my experience of bringing Tristan into the world.  (^_^)  Time is somewhat of a blur, so it's hard to really give an accurate account - but I'll give it a shot!  Some of it is kinda blunt - so if I offend you, I'm sorry.  ha ha

Monday, April 20th, was my induction day.  We arrived at the hospital around 7:30 am.  I was put into a room and given my very sexy hospital gown.  Before too long it was time to give me my IV.  I've had to have blood drawn before for a few blood pressure tests, and there was a young man that attempted to do this and FAILED miserably.  Well, guess who walked in to give me my IV...  yep, it was him.  Of course his attempt was UNSUCCESSFUL and that sent me into a small panic.  Ya know, hot flashes - sweats - nausea.. all the fun stuff that comes along with being afraid of needles.  ha ha :)  Thankfully my wonderful nurse came to my rescue and the IV was administered very easily in my other hand - my right hand - the one I write with - the one I eat with - not to mention the one I wipe myself with when I use the restroom.  

Shortly after I arrived they started to induce my labor.  First with a pill inserted into the cervix, then 4 hours later with Pitocin.  I arrived at the hospital dilated to 1cm and about 50% effaced - not much but it's a lot better than nothing!  The pill seemed to work fairly quickly giving me steady contractions.  After the 4 hours was up, I hadn't progressed so they started the pitocin.  It didn't start out bad, but then they upped the dose what seemed like every 30 minutes to an hour, so before too long I was starting to feel the pain.   

It seemed like I had to pee every 45 minutes.. and not just a trickle - a serious amount of pee! If you've never tried it - the next time you go to the restroom try and wipe yourself with your "other" hand and see if you have any trouble.  ha ha.  I was so scared of messing up my IV that I didn't hardly use my right hand at all.  I'm sure I looked pretty silly... 

Well, to make a long story short - almost 24 hours later I'm still laying in bed, in pain, making no progress.  The contractions got harder and closer together.  They only lasted probably 20 - 25 seconds, but that was the longest 20 - 25 seconds of my life.  All I could do was take big breaths so I could keep oxygen in my body.  If you don't do that, your uterus just gets harder (from lack of oxygen) and it hurts a lot worse.  I know I was getting testy - I was exhausted physically and tired of hurting and not getting anywhere.  Shelby was such a trooper - letting me squeeze his hand with every contraction.  I'm sure that went on for a few hours.  He never complained.  I had a hard time keeping Tristan on the monitor, so they had to use the internal monitors, which meant they broke my water.  None of that was painful - so no worries about that if you ever need to have that done.  The internal monitors are just inconvenient because then you can't get out of bed, and that means peeing in a bedpan, and that means having someone else wipe your butt.  Fun stuff, huh?  Trust me - at that point you DON'T CARE!!

FINALLY my nurse gave me some Demerol and before I knew it I WAS OUT! Time really became a blur to me after that because I was pretty drugged for a while. I can barely remember being changed into the actual delivery room.  Probably around 10:00 or 11:00 on Tuesday morning my contractions had really picked up.  I wasn't focused or relaxed, so they hurt a lot more.  Bad enough to where I couldn't talk - just try and breathe.  They checked me and I was only dilated to 3 and about 75 % effaced (After OVER 24 hours later!!).   They don't give epidurals until you're 4cm.  One of the Dr's that was taking care of me said to me "Ya know, you're definitely going to have a baby, there is no turning back now, I'm gonna go talk to the anesthesiologist and see if we can get you that epidural - OK?"  At that moment he looked like a knight in shining armor - I was sooooo thankful! 

At around noon I was given my epidural.  At that time I was able to sleep and relax.  I still felt contractions and they were uncomfortable, but it was so much better than before :)  The epidural didn't hurt - it didn't feel good - but it didn't hurt.  They numb your back before they actually stick in the big scary needle.  They came in to check me a few hours later and the look on my Dr's face was so awesome :)  He was like "Wow!".. ha ha.  I was finally dilated to 8cm and fully effaced! He told me he could almost get it to the full 10.  I was so relieved!  Probably an hour later he came back and checked me again, and had me do a few practice pushes.  The practice pushes must have been good because he was like "OK, let's get everything ready".   They prepped everything and told me what to do and expect.  I looked at the clock when I started pushing "for real" and it was 5:15 pm.  Tristan was born at 5:26! 

All the way up until his delivery I was kind of in a daze.  I knew why I was there, but it never actually sunk in until I saw him and then I thought to myself "Oh yeah, I'm having a baby!"  

It's so neat being a mom.  It is still hard to believe at times. 

3 comments:

  1. Aw, Miranda! Congrats on being a trooper and having Tristan! It's so exciting. From reading this, I somewhat don't feel scared now to have a baby. Look at you, you hero!!

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  2. Yay Miranda! I'm so happy for you guys! :) And Tristan is so precious! :)

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  3. First, love your layout! And we wish you were closer too! Do you guys have any plans to come in? I'm sure it's a bit harder now with the baby. Homecoming is October 3 this year. I'm sure all of us will be getting together several times that weekend - and the weather should be really comfortable! I think we're all dying to get our hands on that precious baby! :)

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