Labor Day

Labor was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and I'm not just talking about her actually arriving. We showed up at the hospital at 8:00 Sunday morning. Originally my doctor was gonna start me on the stuff that softens your cervix but when the nurse checked me that morning, my babies head was much lower; after she informed the doctor, they started me right on Pitocin. After about 2 hours the contractions were a couple minutes apart and a little uncomfortable but I didn't need the drugs put in my IV yet.

I was making slow progress, each time the nurse checked, up until 3:30 pm I was a "one but getting thinner". The nurse flipped me on to my side to see if that would help and I guess it did cause I would rate the pain of those contractions at at least an 8, and I took her up on an offer for IV drugs; at which point I was floating in the clouds. At 3:30 I insisted she check me again cause there had to be a reason for the pain. Yeah,well, I was still a one but so thin she accidently broke my water. By then the drugs wore off a lot and the contractions were excruciating and every minute. Trent was trying to help me by reading the ultrasounds and telling me when they had peaked. He was reading the wrong line, saying, "It's going down, this isn't even a bad one!" and I was like, "Oh this hurts so bad, it's getting worse, NO, it has not peaked, I KNOW because I can FEEL it!!" It was kinda funny later.

She said I had to put up with the pain for an hour then she would check me again and if I was at a 3-4 I could get the epidural. An hour later, she stretched me to a 3 so I could get it!

I was surprised to still be in a lot of pain! They say it's just pressure, but pressure hurts! Also, I had to go over to my right side and get on oxygen cause she wasn't doing well, with the contractions coming so close together her heart rate was dropping. Which also meant I could feel everything on my left side. They gave me a shot of something to slow down the contractions. My nurse later told me, once the baby was doing better, that she was really scared for a while there. When she came on the shift and saw our charts, she thought, "Please don't be my patient!"

At 6:30 or 7 I was checked again and although she was lower, I was only a 4. At 8:00 I told them to check me, the pain was different and I knew I had made progress. Sure enough, I was a 9! and her head was RIGHT THERE! at a Plus 2! WITHOUT pushing! The nurse called the doctor and we started practice pushes, we did 2 or 3 sets and she said to stop, she and Trent could both see the head. It took my doctor over a half hour to get there cause she was on call at another hospital and I was getting a little impatient. I seriously just wanted to push! She got there about 9:30 and Isla was out at 9:53. Well, that's what they said, but I think it was 9:48.



It just didn't seem real when she came out and was put on my stomach. Trent started video taping at that point and I think the look on my face was probably confusion, it was so crazy what had just happened, that I had pushed that out. I have told Trent a few times through out the pregnancy that I was most excited to feel that special love that you only have for your own child and I know that when they put her on my stomach I was waiting for that feeling to begin.

2 or 3 days later I wanted to do it all over again. I craved doing it all over again, and I still would if I could (and I'm assuming I probably will). My mom described it best, she said the next couple days is like Christmas morning, the anticipation gone.

I feel very strongly about epidurals now. I can't say that had I not gotten it, I wouldn't have savored the experience and look back at it wanting to do it all over again, as much as I do. I still felt a lot of pain but I was very aware of what was going on and enjoying myself to an extent. Except the oxygen mask, I hated the oxygen mask.


She was wide awake for at least 2 hours after, very alert and has at least one period a day of just looking around for an hour or two now. She also can roll over onto her side and almost her stomach... impressive, I know! But, kinda scary too. I haven't had the baby blues too bad, I had them more last week and this weekend with the hospital stay. I tried keeping them in all last week until Thursday night, I was just holding her sitting up and she was just looking at me and I just started bawling. Trent came in the room and asked what was wrong and I was just like, "I just love her so much, I just want her to be happy!" It's so weird!

Anyway, things are all good now. She weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz and 20 inches long. She was spitting up everything she was eating and had to get her stomach pumped to get out all the amniotic fluid still in there and that helped a lot! She dropped down to 6 lbs 8 oz but is now back up at 7 lbs. But I'm thinking a few ounces has got to be poo cause she hasn't pooed in 3 days.

We love her a lot and I can't get enough holding her. Half the night is spent sleeping in her bassinet but the other half is on my chest.