So Labor and Delivery... well this was taken the day we went to the hospital to get induced. The funny thing is if you look at the time stamp on this photo, it was taken at 5:17 p.m. Well guess what, we were supposed to be at the hospital at 5:30 p.m. for check-in and we live at least 20 minutes away from the hospital. So you do the math...I am surprised Mama T is so calm in this picture.
Luckily, we had already checked-in which I highly recommend to anyone who is pregnant at this point in time. Thanks mom for the advice to do that!!! So anyway... we got to the hospital late and settled in. I figured what the heck our little guy decided to be late so why couldn't we. His due date was October 29 and he was still chillin' on November 3 when this photo was taken.
And let me just tell you all the things we packed in preparation and nearly 90 percent of it stayed right where we packed it. We are a bunch of geeks so we had our Nintendo DS, our I-POD with a specially created playlist for delivery, snacks, puzzle books and probably the kitchen sink was in there somewhere.
But, I have to say that my most favorite songs on the I-POD playlist were "Push It" by Salt n Peppa, "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas and "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns and Roses. I think there was some Bob Marley on there too... We hit all the genres except for classical and trust me the Country was pretty slim pickins too.
Well needless to say... none of it was ever listened to because labor and delivery is not like you see it on TV at all and there certainly are not a million and one people in your room as you deliver either. I mean I guess there could be if you wanted family and friends, but Mama T and I wanted it just to be us. So anyway, where was I?
Sorry to be jumping around with this post, I am just remembering bits and pieces as I write this. The most funny thing is the week before they scheduled me to induce, I had a false alarm... those darn braxton hicks contractions... well anyway we had a dry run which was GREAT! We timed the contractions and called the doctor and she told us to head to the hospital. We arrived and they hooked us up to the monitors and started... well monitoring our lil guy and me. One of the most hilariuos parts about our dry run was that we had nothing... I mean nothing packed and the other hiliarious part was watching Mama T's face fade to white as another woman in a room nearby screamed her head off during delivery. I thought she was going to slink down in her chair all the way to the floor! She was also able to watch the monitors of all the other women in labor and delivery and see how intense their contractions were based on the screams she heard. She finally looked at me and said... are you going to scream like that? I said I don't know I have never done this before. Well a few hours later they sent us home and told us it was a false alarm, so we headed home to wait it out another week.
When the day finally did arrive for us to go was when this picture was taken as I said previously. Doesn't my head look really tiny and my body really big? Ha ha ha So to recap... we got to the hospital late, we pulled nothing out of our entertainment bag and my last meal for over 24 hours was Wendy's of all things! That is not for the lack of Moma T trying... she said you can have anything you want and all I could think of was Wendy's, because it was right next to the hospital practically. I had an order of their chicken nuggets, which I don't think I have ever eaten before that night and haven't since, some french fries and a vanilla frosty.
They started the inducement by putting me on cervidil pretty much right when we arrived at the hospital and a couple of hours later Moma T went and got the Wendy's. My problem was that I had totally effaced, but had not dialated at all. So she arrived back with the food, which I promptly ate and actually didn't eat it all. I am so glad I saved those chicken nuggets because it was a mere hour later that I would go on a food binge so much so that I began chocking on whatever I would stuff in my mouth.
The nurse thought it would be a great idea to give me an AMBIEN... boy was that a mistake! Instead of making me sleepy it made me extremly hungry and prone to chocking on whatever I was eating and trying to get up and go to the rest room was a laugh riot. I will never take one of those again, you can trust me on that!!!
So the next morning they woke us up bright and early with the doctor coming in and deciding to go ahead and start the pitocin. She said one way or another you are having this baby today. We were so excited because it was a historic day... ELECTION DAY!!! So we watched some soap operas and met and chatted with our nurses who had changed out shifts throughout the day. Luckily our nurses were on 12 hour +shifts which was great because they got to monitor your progress much better. Around luchtime the doctor came in and broke my water and you would think let the fireworks begin... well nothing happened except for the contractions started rolling in with more regularity and intensity. This continued throughout the afternoon until I asked for half of a pain pill from the nurse and then shortly after that at around 4 p.m. I asked for the epidural. He came in and did a superb job at inserting the catheter. I just remember being asked to sit up and put the bottoms of my feet on a chair and hug Moma T. It was very nice to be close to her like that...
The most interesting thing is that they gave me the ability to increase the doasge by hitting a button and I never once used that. I forgot about it to be honest... I just focused on my breathing and pushing when the time came. As the day continued the nurse kept checking me and at one point I told her I just felt different when she checked me, she was amazed at how quickly I had dialated I went from 0 to 8 centimeters in a matter of hours. She was so excited for us and told us it wouldn't be long... but then the doctor came in and told us we would have to wait several more hours and if nothing happened then we would have to look at a C-section, which we wanted to avoid if we could.
So we informed the nurse about this when she came back into the room and she was like... What!?, no way you are going to start pushing now... it was around 6 p.m. It was go time... time to see if Moma T was going to pass out... time to see if I would be a screamer... time to see who the next president of the United States would be... time to meet our historic lil guy!
He arrived at 8:10 p.m. after Pennslyvania went blue... he knew it was safe for his arrival and knowing that a Bush name would never be written in his baby book. His arrival wasn't without a few complications though, much like Obama's I guess. He was stuck under my pelvic bone so the pushing was intense for two solid hours... good thing I was a somewhat conditioned soccer player back in the day, he ingested merconium and had som difficulty breathing when he arrived. Oh and to make matters worse we figured out why there wasn't much water when they initally broke it... it all came out with him. Sorry Moma T about your tennis shoes.
When he was finally out and after Moma T cut the cord, he was placed on my chest for about 30 seconds, if that and then whisked off to the nursery to see if they could get him breathing and stabilized. Moma T was with him the entire time while the nurse and doctor tended to me finishing up. Moma T would come in and show me pictures and tell me about his progress. She did an awesome job at not worrying me even though I am sure she was scared out of her mind over our lil guy's health and well being.
She came back long enough to help the nurses get me to our new room and settled in. She continued to go to the nursery to check on our son... and she would bring me pictures and tell me what he was doing. I still had no idea of the severity of the situation. I finally got to hold him around 2 a.m. when they wanted me to try and breastfeed him. He was so beautiful and perfect in every way... I cannot say I had much emotion then, but I have tears in my eyes now as I recount the experience. It was pretty awesome... one of the best days of my life for sure!
