I found out I was pregnant on Valentine's Day in 2006. I was excited, Mike was stunned, but we had a full day of making Edible Arrangements ahead of us. Valentine's Day is traditionally one of the busiest days of the year. I told my mother-in-law very quietly and continued "fruiting." When Mike was finally able to process that we were in fact going to be parents, he began speaking again. We purchased a children's book for each of our sisters and parents and had them open them up to announce the pregnancy. Everyone was excited. Mikey would be the first child of the next generation.
Overall, I had a great pregnancy. I did have some bleeding around 10 weeks. This led to some tense days and an overabundance of emotions. Ok, so there was a day or two of downright craziness. We got passed it.
I was due on October 18th or 19th. To be honest, I thought it was the 19th until October 19th. I had a doctor's appointment and was informed I was now one day overdue. No big deal. A day is a day. I worked until the morning of October 30th. I went to the doctor's office for another appointment. At this point, I had been going more than once a week for non stress test, ultrasounds, etc. He decided I would be induced the following morning. Of course I couldn't wait. We enjoyed the rest of our night and what we thought was our last day as a family of 2. We left our car on the street, where it was then hit by someone who was kind enough to leave my Honda emblem in the road and ride off into the sunset. I didn't really care at the time, we were going to have a baby! 2 years later when the dent in the hood was still there, I started to mind.
The next morning marked the first time Mike would carry our "stuff" into the hospital. That was my job during childbirth classes. I took a picture, just so I could remember it. We checked in for our 9AM induction. The woman at the desk said "Oh a Halloween baby! He'll be here by lunch." We headed up to the floor, got our room, apparel and IVs. I was allowed to walk around on the telemetry monitor, but it kept running out of juice, so I spent more time than I would have liked in bed. When the induction started at 9:30, I was 4 cm dilated and fully effaced. I was not feeling any contractions. By noon, I was feeling them and having to stop to focus on getting through them, but they weren't bad. My water was broken and I was about 6cm. Around this time, the doctor came in to tell me that the baby's heart rate had gone down. We stopped the pitocin, put on an O2 mask and I laid on my left side. His heart rate came back up and we kept on. His heart rate would drop once more during labor. My parents and sister joined us in the afternoon. There wasn't much going on, but it was nice to have the company. Around 7, my family had left for dinner. Mike and I were alone and I was feeling the contractions by this time. There is a chunk of time that all I can remember doing is holding on and breathing. Poor Mike just sat and watched. I don't know how long it went on, but I was brought back to reality when the phone rang. We had a fairly steady flow of callers wondering if the baby had arrived. The doctor checked me again. I was still only 6-7cm. I was discouraged and could not see this labor coming to an end any time soon. When the nurse asked what my pain scale was, I told her whatever number I thought would be good enough to get an epidural.
It wasn't that the pain was too much, it was the math behind it all. I had dilated 2 cm in 10 hours. I had 3 cm to go at a rate of a cm every 5 hours, leaving me doing this for 15 more hours. There was no way. When they stopped the pitocin for the epidural, the contractions stopped. It took the doctor 5 or 6 tries to get it in. It was horrible and I wished I hadn't done it, but there was no turning back. I did get relief, but they kept it very low since they had so much trouble getting it in.
Around midnight, we sent my parents to our house to get some sleep. This baby wasn't coming any time soon. No more than an hour later, the nurse came in and noticed that the baby had passed meconium. This, in addition to the drops in heart rate and lack of progress resulted in a c-section. Dr. Fitzgerald could have told me he was going to reach down my throat to remove that baby and I wouldn't have cared at this point. The epidural had worn off what I would guess was entirely. They wheeled me into the OR and Mike suited up to join me. The anesthesiologist was surprised by how much I could feel before the surgery started and quickly took care of that for me.
At the time, I was scared to death. Mike was noticeably nervous, rubbing my head quickly. I could hear the heart rate monitor fluctuation and thought I was dying. I was shaking uncontrollably. He was born at 2:02 AM. No Halloween baby. Mikey was out in what seemed like no time. Although Mike said he wasn't crying and looked a little blue, I saw the NICU team leave without him and was relieved. He was a healthy 7 pound 9 oz little boy. After getting sick, I got to hold him in the operating room. I breastfed him in recovery and was able to see my parents and sister there too.
It took a day to stop getting sick. Other than that, I thought things went well. They were certainly not the way I had imagined them, but I was ok with that. I was surprised at the recovery from surgery. I was impressed with the staff and thrilled that there was an extra bed so that Mike could stay with me. We had a steady flow of visitors and we were exhausted, but everyone did well and went home on Sunday. We took our little yellow man home to begin the rest of our lives together.
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