Around 2:30 am early Monday morning I started having some contractions that I could actually feel. Not really painful, just knew I was finally having them. So, we called in the nurse and she hooked me up to the monitors. At that time it picked up that I was having contractions but they were not real regular, so after an hour she took me off and said if they got worse to let her know and they could give me some pain meds too.
Around 6 am or so they were getting stronger, still not horrible, but enough to call back to the nurse and get some pain meds to try to cut the edge off of them. So she gave me a percoset, which did seem to make them a little less harsh. She went on and put me back on the monitor and then at the shift change and Elizabeth came in and we just remained on the monitor and then determined they were coming around every 5 minutes but were still fairly tolerable.
Dr. How came by sometime around 9 or so and said it looks like Mallory will be coming later today or early tomorrow morning, so Ben started calling all the family to let them know I'm officially in labor and will be moved to labor and delivery soon.
We decided to go on and get the IV hooked up to me so I could get the bag of fluids in me before they gave me the epidural when we got to Labor and Delivery. Since I have such lovely veins, it took them a while to find a good vein to put the IV in. So by the time we got the IV in and started the fluids going the contractions were getting worse and I was ready for that epidural!
That's when Dr How came back in and decided to check to see how much I was dilated because they had not checked me at all since I was at Owensboro since they didn't want to risk the possibility of infection. So, around 9:30 to 9:45 she checked me and said she's fully dilated we need to go to L&D NOW!
So with that I asked just to confirm what I was pretty sure I already knew, no time for an epidural. Nope, this baby is coming and coming now!
That's when Ben hopped back on the phone with all the family and said they might want to hurry because she's coming sooner than later!
So we arrived into L&D around 10am or a little after, contractions were very painful by this point and thankfully there were plenty of people helping me to breathe through them, but it wasn't fun to say the least.
We got settled on the L&D table and once in the right spot was pretty much allowed to push right then. Dr How and the entire room full of people were great. Some of the nurses I knew, some I'd never seen before and there seemed to be a gallery of people just watching, but at that point you don't care who sees what!
Ben wasn't quite comfortable being right there beside me so he was at the side of the room sitting in a chair behind a curtain where he'd peek out from time to time an vocally let me know that he was there for me. Again, everything happened so fast I didn't care who was holding my hands or letting me scream a little!
It seemed longer than 20-30 minutes to me, but that's all the time it took for our little bean to enter the world once I started pushing. Dr. How immediately put her on my stomach and she started crying, which was a great sign! She looked much bigger to me than what I anticipated, so I was thrilled about that and of course you could tell how cute she is!
So once the tied off her umbilical cord they took her to the other side of the room and cleaned her up a bit and checked her over. She got an 8 or 9 on her aspargs or whatever you call those, so that was really good. They brought her back over to me to see and kiss before she was off to the intermediate nursery. I was thrilled she could go to the intermediate nursery instead of the full out NICU!
So, I thought, yeah baby is born the worst is over! I think the placenta was worse than having the baby, but either way without going into too much detail, that just wasn't much fun, but I made it through all the rest of the stuff that had to be done and could then have one big sigh of relief that our little Mallory Claire was here and doing good for a 33 week 1 day baby!
So, then Ben was calling back all the family again and saying, well she's already here and doing good and then calling all other friends and letting them know what's going on and that Mallory has arrived!
I think everyone was really amazed at how soon things progressed. No one ever dreamed it would have happened so quickly and let me tell you, with no epidural, I was glad that it did progress quickly because I didn't plan on the no-drug route and didn't want to endure it too long without drugs!
They finally got me cleaned up and resting in the L&D room and that's when Susan got there and then mom not too far behind her. Dad then showed up and they all went down with Ben to see Mallory in the Intermediate nursery. Ben's parents and Micah showed up a little later and they too went down to the nursery. I finally got to go down late afternoon and got to hold her then! Ben and I went down one more time after everyone else went to the hotel and just got to see her and spend a few minutes with her, so all in all is was a very good day, even without the drugs!
So a quick thank you to all the great nurses, doctors and others that I have no idea why they were standing around watching me in labor, but everyone was awesome and I'm glad I remembered to put on deodorant prior to leaving my room as we rolled into labor, but really wish I had remembered to brush my teeth!! Oh well, mental note for next time!
Here's a few more pictures that we took of her at 1 day old, she's just so darn cute, of course we are a little biased though! I told Ben, we make cute babies!! Oh yes, and of course, George got to meet Mallory as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment