At the hospital, the paperwork was quick and easy. They had me in one of those a-modest gowns before I was emotionally ready. Kev and I watched a little morning news before the family started showing up.
At 8:30am someone came in and gave me a little pill to start the induction. I was dilated 1cm at that point. The pill worked. I started having contractions right away....they were 2 minutes apart and didn't hurt a bit. I started making jokes about having a defective uterus that wouldn't allow me to be in pain during contractions....that was very wishful thinking, folks.
A little after 2:00pm I was dilated 3cm and so they decided to break my water. I was really nervous about this part, because I read that they use a hook. A HOOK, folks. INSIDE. Amazingly it didn't hurt a bit....didn't feel it at all. I did feel my water break, though. It was warm.
I should have asked for my epidural at this point. My contractions were starting to hurt a little bit, but I thought I'd try and wait it out a bit.
At 3:00pm the Ellen show came on, and before she could dance with the audience, I was in some pretty good pain. I called for the epidural and laid back with my eyes closed, concentrating on my breathing. The anesthesiologist will be here any minute, I kept telling myself. About an hour and a half later, my contractions were so bad that I wasn't really mentally present in the room anymore. The only thing I could do was breathe, and I wasn't doing that very well. Mom and Kevin took turns rubbing the base of my spine as I white-knuckled the side of the hospital bed.
4:45pm rolled around and I began to lose control of my body. I experienced something similar in college. I stole second base twice in our game against the Henderson Reddies and had a palm-sized raw place under my right knee to show for it. It was pretty nasty and oozed for a long time. To clean it, I would pour alcohol on it. Well, I did that once. It was such a maddening, hair-ripping pain, that I could not bring myself to pour that little capful of liquid fire on my wound more than once. But, I knew it needed to be cleaned, and so I made one of the boys from the basement come up and do it for me. The contractions I felt at that point reminded me of that pain, except worse..... My controlled breathing was no more. I was gasping and trying to hee-hee-hoo, but it was impossible. I managed to say to the nurse, "I think I need to push now." They say when it's time, it feels like you need to poo. They're right. The nurse panicked a bit and checked me. I was fully dilated without that stupid epidural. This was not the plan.
About 15 minutes later, the blasted doctor came and gave me the epidural. A little late now, Doc, I wanted to yell, but it's hard to yell when you can't breathe. He stuck me in the spine, which didn't hurt at all compared to the hell I was experiencing, and I immediately began losing feeling in my lower half. The contractions lessened, but they still hurt. They let me rest for a while, and let the epidural do it's thang, and then it was time to push. And push I did.....for 14 minutes. They brought me a mirror, because I wanted to see, and I pushed that little girl right out. It was blessedly quick, an explosion of baby, really. Don't think I'm lucky....I'm paying for it now in stitches and a busted eye vessel. She was born at 5:28pm.
Reagan Michaela Crow
Born 4/28/09
Weight: 8.5 lbs
Length: 20 inches
1 comment:
That's such a sweet story, Jenny! Way to go for making it so far without the epidural! Congrats!
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