Wednesday, September 2, 2009

the Ella Monster is now two weeks and a day old, and I finally feel like I have processed what went on during labor and delivery. It has been a surprisingly traumatic experience, which threw me off and made it more traumatic. The first few days I got sick to my stomach every time I thought about what happened, I even had some nightmares about it. It may make me a bad mom, but I think I didn't bond with her right away just because I couldn't connect the time we had during pregnancy and now this is her without the interruption of the night she was born. I may just be being overly dramatic, but with the hormones, no one ever tells you that you have to deal with those feelings too.

So here's the first part of the story...

We went on Monday the 17th for my usual weekly nonstress test and appointment with Ann, the midwife (who we hate..more on that later..). I knew from the ultrasound previously that we would be scheduling an induction for sometime that week after tuesday when I was 39 weeks. I've heard once the induction is scheduled, a lot of times women go into labor themselves so I was hoping for that. NST went well with the usual many contractions that have been happening for weeks during my 20 minutes of surveillance. Then we went upstairs to Ann. She checked, 2 cm like the week before. Surprisingly no lecture on my sugars, and I found out it was because she knew I had to be induced. "So, when do you want to do it, today? I'll call the hospital and set an appointment.....Ok, be back in an hour." WHAT??? I'd been waiting for this day, so thankful I could plan and that it would be definitely that week, but and HOUR? We hadn't finished packing the bag! The Car seat wasn't properly installed! We had Lunch plans!! That's how we felt. It was almost as if there was the spontaneity of going into labor naturally. After the initial shock, it was actually pretty fun! So we went home, made some calls, finished packing our bags and went to lunch (lots of calories they said, it was going to be the last thing I ate.)

Got to the hospital around 1:30. They did some monitoring of the heartbeat, paperwork, vitals, and told me about what was about to happen. Ann would come and insert a gel. This gel would start contractions and hopefully fully start labor. I would lay totally still on my Left side for 30 minutes, then be able to sit up but stay in bed for 2 hours. Then I have to get up, walk for 30 minutes and then back to bed. After 6 hours they would re asses, and if needed (which everyone assumed it would be) there would be another round of gel. Those 6 hours would go the same as the first and then the pitocin drip would start. The pitocin is the part to avoid because usally it causes 3-4 minute contractions with 30 seconds to no break in between. I've heard so many horror stories and was hoping that even time-wise I would not get to this point. I was told I would be in labor probably 24-28 hours. At this point I was just ready to have the thing out of me. But non the less it was shaping up to be a looong night ahead.

At 3:00 Ann came in and administered the gel. By 3:08 I was starting to have contractions....

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