Week 40
Hey everyone!
I haven't had much time to be on the internet since I went into labor last Tuesday. Well, hard labor, that is. Now that my little man is sleeping and I'm not dragging ass, I figured now would be a good time to post my birth story so here it goes...
I went to the doctor Monday the 28th for my 40 week appointment. I was dialated to 4 and the doctor decided to give me a membrane sweep to help jump start labor. An hour later I was cramping big time, but I didn't think much of it since that's what usually happens after the sweep. A few hours go by and now I'm starting to feel like I'm getting contractions, although they felt fairly mild to me. The doctor had told me that by 10:30pm I should be feeling hard contractions and to go to the hospital. He said that they would probably give me Pitocin, my Epidural and I'd have my baby.
At midnight I decided to go into the hospital because I was in a lot of pain. They checked me and I was still only at 4 cm so they told me to take an hour long walk. I did and it made the pain and contractions worse. They checked me again and because I didn't progress, I was sent home. Keep in mind that the contractions registered 5-8 mins apart and I was still at 4 cm. The doctor on call told them to give me Ambien, which really pissed me off. Who give a pregnant woman a drug that has been known to be addictive? So Dave and I got home at 4am that morning and he decided to start his vacation a day early.
That same day, now the 29th (2 days after my due date), Dave and I decided to walk around the mall all day hoping to get things rolling. That was really painful as the contractions hadn't subsided one little bit. We were gone until about 4:30pm. By 5:30 I was timing the contractions at 3-5 minutes apart. The pain was still fairly tolerable so I chose to wait until 8pm to leave for the hospital again. My water still hadn't broken so I figured that if I was admitted that night, they'd have to break it for me.
We get to the hospital at 8:30 pm and now I've progressed to 5 centimeters. This whole pregnancy I was hoping to get my faveorite midwife to deliver the baby and I got my wish. Tiffany was on call that night and chose to admit me. They hooked me up to my IV (ugh, I hated that shit) and got me in my room. I decided to get the Epidural because my water hadn't broken and the pain from the contractions were really bad. I figured it would only get worse. About 15 mins later I got my drugs and all was well with the world. After the Epidural kicked in, they sent in a resident to break my water. My skin itched bad due to the Epidural so they gave me a bit of Benedryl as well. At that time they checked my cervix (around 9pm) and I was at 6/7.
The nurses checked me every hour. At 10pm I was at 8. At 11 I was at 8/9. It took until about 1am to get me at a solid 9. Then we waited. An hour and a half later I didn't progress so I was given the Pitocin. It took until 5am to get me to 10. Finally it was time to push. Of course, when I needed it the most, the Epidural ran out and I felt every contraction and everything else that went along with delivering this baby.
At 5:59am Angelo Kristian was born, thank God!! He came out at 8lbs, 11 oz and 22 inches long. No wonder I had such a hell of a time sleeping, damn! I didn't feel that instant reflief people say you get when the baby comes out. That happened when I passed the placenta. I got to see Angelo for a few seconds on my belly and then they cleaned him up. The midwife didn't have to cut me and I didn't rip much so I only got 4 small stitches. As I'm getting stitched up, I heard the nurses whispering and finally they told me that Angelo had swallowed some fluid and they couldn't suck it all out of his lungs. They took him to the NICU for oxygen, antibiotics and X-Rays. Dave ran after them and I was flipping out.
Everything turned out ok with the baby, but they kept him in the NICU due to the antibiotics. They wanted him on for 48 hours and also wanted to get him eating well. We brought him home on Saturday, August 2nd. I left the hospital on Thursday because I couldn't take it anymore. My mom and sister were coming into town that night as well. I felt really good and the NICU wouldn't let me spend more than an hour with Angelo, with 5 hours in between. He was the biggest baby in that whole unit.
Since I'm a smoker, I figured this child would be on the smaller side. Nope! I also figured that my placenta would've matured faster, since that's what I was told. Nope! Tiffany told me that there were no traces of me being a smoker in the baby's size, lungs and organ development or the placenta. How weird is that? Yes I cut down my intake immesely during the pregnancy, but since I didn't quit, I always felt extremely guilty. That and of course there were people judging me and trying to make me feel like shit about it. The NICU bit had nothing to do with me being a smoker. It had everything to do with the fact that my son couldn't keep his mouth shut, lol. One last gulp before entering the real world...
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