Labor and Delivery details

This is going to be more detail than you wanted, but this also happens to be one of my journals, so feel free to skip over this boring stuff.

Tuesday evening (the 24th) when I was 39 weeks exactly, I started having regular contractions. I noticed that they kept coming and started timing at 7:21 pm. When they'd been coming every 6 min. for an hour I called the nurse. She told me to wait until the contractions were strong enough I couldn't talk through them to come in. I think shortly after that my water broke, but I wasn't sure. (9:30 pm) We went to bed 'cause I figured that we'd need any rest we could get that night. James managed an hour I think. At about ten I was sure my water had broken and the contractions were strong enough I was pretty sure I was in labor. Hooray! (10:30pm) We packed up Dean and all the stuff. We dropped him off at the Blacks and headed to the hospital. He didn't seem concerned about any of that.

(11:00 pm) We got to the hospital. I was dialated to a 4 and 50% effaced. (12-1 ish) We got settled into a room and here comes the worst part: my IV. So I have really tricky veins. They are small and they move around under my skin when you try to poke them. I always warn them and suggest that I'm not a job for a beginner, but they always try anyway. My nurse tried twice. She did worse than usual because she "blew" two veins. She went right through them and there were bubbles of blood and swelling were she did. After two tries, she gets the expert nurse in who manages to get me hooked up. (that's the typical rate -- they try twice then have someone else come in.) I've got some big dark bruises in those spots. My contractions weren't comfortable, but they weren't too bad either. The Dr. decided I needed some Pitocin to make my contractions stronger. I was dialted 4-5 cm and 70% effaced. I requested to get my Epidural before the Pitocin. (May 25 2:00 am) I got my epidural. Way easier and less painful than the IV. My blood pressure dropped right after the epidural and they gave me something that put it back in the right range. Okay, start Pitocin. they start with a small dose and gradually increase it. My contractions got too strong too fast and Jane's heart rate dropped. She bounced right back when they turned off the Pitocin (thank goodness). (4 am ish) The turned off the Pitocin and gave us both a break for a while. Not that I needed one. Epidurals are great that way. They restarted the Pitocin and increased my dose more slowly. (5:30 am) This time it went just right and I was dialated 8 cm 100% effaced. Jane was at a -2. (6 am) They called Dr. Bruce to come in. I think pretty soon after that I was 10 cm. (7 am) Dr. Bruce got there and I was ready to go. Jane was already +2. Pushing Jane out was easy. The doctor gave me a little episiotomy. She said "you have great skin" -- I guess meaning it stretches well? (7:21 am) Jane enters a new phase of life. Then the doctors commented something about a good/healthy umbilical cord. Who knew they weren't always great? My placenta came out so fast I didn't notice. Plus-- I was holding Jane. I was surprised by her dark hair. They stitched me up fast and checked out Jane. I didn't hear what her APGAR was but the nurse doing it said a couple times "I love her color. She's so pink!" So I think it was good. 7 lbs 7 oz, 19 1/4 in she was heavier than we'd estimated from the ultrasound earlier that day at the doctor's office. I was pretty sure pretty quick that she wasn't the Alice I had imagined. She seemed more like a Jane. We gave her a bottle and were shocked because she just latched right on and sucked with some gusto. She ate a bunch too. (Dean was quite the opposite.) (10:30 am) We went to our post baby room and started resting. I didn't swell much at all and I didn't have a sore tail bone like I did with Dean. I had some menstrual like cramping as my uterus shrunk, but not too bad. I still get that intermittently. I've also had a back ache. I don't know if it is from the epidural or what. I felt like walking around a lot in the afternoon on the 25th. That night I gave Jane to the nursery at 7 and slept until 6:30 the next morning. All in all it was as good as anyone can hope for.
They let me leave with Jane the next day. It was a special request but we were both doing great.








You can also see videos of Dean meeting Jane on his blog. (soon to be their blog)