A Baby Story

Or should I say my baby's story. So here's what happened...about two weeks ago (from August 2nd, sorry I started this post awhile ago but never posted it)I started having some weird pains, menstrual-like pains and I wasn't sure what they meant. When I checked the book, the "What to Expect When Expecting Book" and it said that they were signs of pre-labor, which I thought was a pretty good thing, BUT then it said that they could last hours, days, weeks, blah blah blah. I had these pains lightly on and off all weekend. I talked to my sister Sarah and she said she had similar pains right when she was in labor. So I asked her how do I know when I'm in labor if I'm in pain already, how do I know when these contractions are telling me I'm in labor. She said when I can't talk and I can barely breathe. Well on Tuesday (July 21) I started having pains so bad, menstrual like pains for two hours every 3 to 4 minutes. I couldn't talk and I could barely breathe. Luckily Stephen had just gotten home from work, so he took me to the hospital. They hooked me up and sure enough I was having contractions (which I had doubted because the pain was menstrual like pain and was like the way I'd heard contractions described, which is basically like my Braxton Hicks). Anyways they hooked me up to check my contractions and then they checked my cervix. They said I was only dilated to a two, so they told me that if it changed within the hour I could stay, but if not I had to go home because I was three weeks early and therefore they couldn't induce me even if I was having extremely painful contractions. So we waited an hour and nothing happened. I was still having extremely painful contractions so they gave me Morphine and sent me home saying that the contractions should go away with the morphine. I asked "What if they don't because I actually am in labor? Can I come back?" She said I had to wait for two hours of having contractions 2-3 minutes apart then I could come back, or if there was bleeding or my water broke. Within 15 minutes of getting the morphine I was out like a light. They had slightly subsided and then around 10:00 am Wednesday they came back and worse then before. I waited for two hours of extreme pain, again. At 12 Stephen called during his lunch break to check on me. I told him to come home and take me to the hospital again. So we went with basically a repeat of the night before, but this time when we went in I was dilated to a 3, but no change within an hour. They sent me home after an hour with more morphine. I was in sooooo much pain. The trouble with morphine is that it only lasts about 4 hours. (Oh hears a funny thing. On Friday my OBGYN told me I had 90% effacement. On Tuesday the RN at the hospital told me I had 80% effacement, and the RN on Wednesday (a different RN) told me I had 70% effacement. Amazing.) Again, I was told I could come back only if there was bleeding or my water broke. The morphine wore off and the pain was excruciating. So I took a hot bath and Stephen rented the movie "Bedtime Stories" to try and distract me from the pain. After watching it for about 30 minutes at 10:00 p.m. my water broke, and boy did it. Who knew so much water could come out. Some people aren't sure if there water just broke, but there was no doubt in my mind. I was happy because this meant we could go back to the hospital and stay. This meant I could finally, after 24+ hours of contractions get an epidural. So we went to the hospital, they checked to make sure my water really had broke. After waiting about two hours I got a wonderful epidural and life was good again, momentarily. Then the RN, while she was checking me on the inside said "huh." So I said is that a bad "huh" what does "huh" mean. She said that she felt something on his head. So she got a second RN to get another opinion. Another nurse came in and the confirmed that they were feeling the baby's head. He was presenting head first. They called my doctor she came right away and confirmed the same thing. So that was why I wasn't dilating, I WAS in actually labor but his head hadn't dropped because he was stuck because he was presenting head first. Without hesitation she said I would need to have an emergency C-section. Waiting would just increase a risk for us, especially for the baby of causing brain damage or worse. So we called our parents to let them know, asked them to pray for us, and we said a prayer as well. I was scared. But everything worked out okay. The anesthesiologist had to up my dosage after learning I was going to have a C-section. I didn't really feel anything, I felt tugging, but the actual surgery was pretty painless. It was AFTER the drugs wore off that the excruciating pain started to kick in. James was born at 1:55 a.m. July 23rd 2009. He was 19 days early, but for almost 3 weeks early he was a pretty good size. He weighed 6 pounds 14 ounces and was 19 inches long. Everything was done around 2:15 a.m. Everything took about 4 hours, fairly quick. It was so hard to move around for several days. My stomach muscles hurt so bad. I couldn't even get up to get him to feed him. But, things are better.

Now, baby James is a chunk. He is almost 8 weeks and has almost doubled his weight already. He weighs about 12 pounds. I'm hoping to be able to start walking daily so I can lose some of this weight. So that's the delivery story. I have another story regarding my fun experience (ha ha) with breastfeeding, but I'll save that for another day. That's all folks.