Go Time??

Addy’s in the swing chilling HARD so i figured i’d give everyone a quick update. i changed the blog layout! look at the new ticker and the pretty little picture! i’m sure it will change from time to time. ironically, saturday i had started a “wrap up pregnancy” blog with all my feelings on the matter.  the draft is actually saved but it’s pretty pointless now!

ok Addison was born Monday morning, but my contractions started Sunday night.  i wasn’t going to Facebook or Tweet the whole thing because i hadn’t really put much pregnancy stuff up there anyway.  most is written real time between contractions, and then the actual labor part was typed after the baby was gone to the nursery and we were in recovery making the calls.

Not sure if this is the real deal or not. About 11ish (I assume, I was sleeping) I started getting some cramps. Bout 1150 I thought it was regular constipation so I went to the bathroom. But the cramps didn’t stop.
So I tried to get comfy and turned on Iron Chef. Finally one was bad enough for me to wake up Brownlee and tell him I didn’t know what was going on.
1am the cramps are still coming. Not a minute long but less than 5 minutes apart. We’re confused and I’m alternating between laying down, kneeling, and wondering if I’m just constipated. I went to try and poo again totally scared of having a toilet baby.
115- brownlee starts to freak out and cleans up the living room and panics that we didn’t pack movies for the hospital room. He starts the iPhone app to time contractions
140- brownlee “are you farting too?” Me “no are you?” Brownlee “um yeah you’re scaring the shit out of me”
3- still under 60 seconds long but happening every couple minutes. Suddenly I have to throwup. Then I get the runs. I heard people saying that their body cleans itself out before labor but jeezus. I try the shower and see if that helps.
340- we try the on call hotline to see what the professional says. She says its more so on how uncomfortable I am. Seeing as how they’re getting stronger ill say pretty damn uncomfortable
4- I figure enough is enough and I’d rather just go in. After I chug a Brisk iced tea. Make it to the car rather calmly. Figure the beltway is unnecessary at this time of morning.
415- sit at registration desk. Thank God we pre-registered. Lady checked us into a room. Luckily we did the hospital tour Saturday so we knew what to expect. They get me all naked and checked. Nurse Amanda says I’m about 3-4cm dilated. I was 2 at the doctors visit Wednesday. They get me all monitored and IV’d up. Ask a billion questions and get a feel for how the contractions are. Amanda’s all “whew you really toughed it out at home”. Amanda gives me some oxygen. I want to quote Fight Club and tell her “oxygen gets you high” but I don’t.
5-they call the on call doctor from my practice and the anesthesiologist. Woo hoo epidural
530- after some really bad contractions the anesthesiologists comes in. I would say he was a dick but didn’t say anything to me but “you’re gonna feel some pressure”. Jeeeeezus it hurt but for a split second or two and Amanda helped me breathe through it. (They kicked brownlee out for that part).
6- my legs are tingly and my butt is numb and I’m all “what’s a contraction?”. I still feel a little something but Amanda says its cause my bladder is full of the IV fluid. She puts in a catheder but I don’t really feel it. She checks again and says I’m about 6cm and my bag (water) is really close to breaking but she’ll leave that to the doctors.
We take a brief nap.
7- shift change. New nurse Donna and a nurse student. Nurse Amanda comes to say goodbye and wish me luck.
Luckily my doctor comes in and I don’t have to deal with an alternative doc. No problem. She checks me and says I just have a rim left. That’s between 8 and 10cm. Then she breaks my water. Says there’s a little bit of poop in the fluid but nothing to be too concered about. They’ll just suction the baby out real good.
8ish – the nurse has me do some practice pushing. I knew they did that but what I didn’t know is that the whole while they’re stretching me out with 2 fingers. Bleh.
9- the pressure is getting strong and the nurse is telling me to push through it. Mmkay. They call the doctor down about 915. After about 3 strong contractions pushing 3 times each the babys head was out and they sucked all the gunk out. One last contraction and she was out. 9:48am. 2/28/11.
Of course I cried. More than the baby. She just seemed more irritated with the nurses wiping her down. 6lbs 15oz. 20inches. She just looked around to see what was going on.
I ended up with a 2nd degree epistiotomy. So the doctor stitched me up while they let Brownlee hold his baby. I can’t believe he knew the whole time that it was a girl. She’s already giving him hell. Born in the wrong month. Ha.

maybe i can gather my thoughts on how this first week has been but i don’t even really know what day it is and the rhythmic motion of this swing is about to put me to sleep anyway.