I need to get this down before I forget everything. The lack of sleep combined with an already poor memory does not bode well for you, I'm afraid, Oscar. But I'll do my best.Nana got into town a week before Oscar's due date. I was pretty convinced I would never be having this baby. The contraction activity had slowed down and I was so used to being pregnant, I just figured I would deliver this baby in time for his high school graduation. The night before his due date, Nana implored us to go out to dinner while we had a free babysitter and one child (outside of the uterus anyway), so we took her up on it and left a weepy Annie whom we reassured of our return and went to Jack Fry's where I had a lovely sea bass. Little did I know it would be my last meal for 21 hours. (I should have gotten dessert.) When we returned home a little before 8, it was business as usual. I lumbered upstairs, synched on my scrubs (the only pants I could fit in), brushed my teeth and got into bed. About 45 minutes later I started to have some contractions that seemed to last more than 30 seconds and were looking to be somewhat regular intervals apart.
I told Jay and after they got to be about 8-10 minutes apart, we called the OB on call to see what she thought we should do. With Annie, my water broke before I got to the hospital so there was little doubt that I was indeed in labor, but this time it wasn't so clear. At the same time, my OB told me not to wait until they were 5 minutes apart since it was my second (whose births typically go a lot quicker), which of course put the fear of God in me (I have a new car and really didn't want to give birth on the upholstery). So they said not to wait too much longer before coming in, so at about 11:30, Jay and I woke up Nana, packed up and headed over to Baptist East. We had a perfect parking spot given the ungodly hour and anyone who knows me knows how much that meant to me. We headed in and it was all so surreal. I wasn't in crazy pain so it was kind of like checking into a hotel after a bad airplane ride. I got my gown on and got hooked up to the monitors. I had to get an IV of penicillin because I was Group B Strep positive. Let me tell you, that hurt more than the contractions--and I had to get it every 4 hours.
So after all the wires and needles were in their appropriate places, we just sort of waited. For a REALLY long time. The contractions kept their 8 minute intervals, but then slowed to 10. I told Jay, look, we're here. We're having this baby one way or another. So at about 5 AM (after another round of that IV of acid they called "antibiotics" and a nursing shift change) when the contractions were really just plain misbehaving, they administered Pitocin, or "Pit" as the nurses like to call it. Now the contractions were 2-3 minutes apart but I still was only at 4 cm (I need to be at 10 to push). They also weren't super painful. I was all "if this is 'bad,' I can totally do this naturally." My body had no memory of exactly how excruciating Annie's labor was. I kept thinking, maybe I was just being over dramatic. Then another nursing shift change. More Pit. Not much more activity. 4-5 cm. The doctor finally visited us around 9 or so (this is foggy). She said she would break my water after she did a C-section on someone else. The contractions were stronger but nothing I couldn't breathe my way through. We started watching bad HG-TV shows full of slate pavers and misguided design choices. Jay got some work done on the computer. I updated my status on Facebook. And I was STARVING. I just kept thinking about all the food I wish I could be eating instead of those blasted ice chips they push on you. Jay got breakfast, then Jay got lunch. This was getting ridiculous. When would this labor kick into gear?!?Then something happened. About an hour after they broke my water (which only led to a trickle since the baby's head was so low), the baby did some crazy kind of jolting head butt inside me. It was as though he got turned around and decided to just poke a new hole in me to get out. It actually scared me the way someone saying "Boo!" when you least expect it scares you. Then, literally, the flood gates opened and all that pain I had so conveniently blocked out came rushing at me like a freight train. Derailed. Downhill. Over and over again at 1 minute intervals.
I had brought along a picture of Annie to be my focal point, but remember that weepy Annie we left behind telling her we'd be there in the morning when she got up? Well, unfortunately she was put on the phone when we called to check in with Nana that morning and she was screaming crying for me to come home and give her a hug in the most pathetic Hallmark Hall of Fame way possible. I lost it after hanging up the phone and then every time after that, when I looked at her photo, that whaling flooded my ears and tears flooded my eyes. Annie and I had literally never not woken up in the same house since she was born. Never. I felt like I was cheating on her. So much for the focal point. So when Jay said, "Do you think you want the epidural now?" I have never in my life nodded so emphatically as I did then.
At 1:30 the anesthesiologist came in and by 1:45, the line was in and he was starting to push the meds, or as I like to call it, liquid heaven. Just before then the nurse checked me and I was at 5-6 cm. It took about 20 minutes for the pain meds to kick in but once they did, and the nurse checked me again, she was startled to see how far along I had come in such a short amount of time. She had just gotten off the phone and told the doctor to get lunch. Now she had to frantically call her back and thought she may have to deliver the baby herself. The delivery nurses came in, people were rushing about. I felt like I was in an episode of ER. Jay was great. He kept reassuring me how well I was doing. When the pain was bad, he watched the contraction monitor to let me know when each one was ending. And most important, he didn't eat in front of me.
Once the doctor returned, she coached me through a few pushes and I felt like I was getting the hang of it and it only took like five more pushes to get him out. It was crazy fast. And this time, unlike with Annie whom I spent 4 exhausting hours trying to push out, I was so present for his birth. I also remembered to wear my contacts so I could actually see him when he was born. I was exhilarated and overjoyed. And the best part: given the late epidural, I didn't feel a darn thing. There was no tearing, so my recovery would be easier, and there was this boy, our boy, right in front of me, screaming to go back inside where it was warm and dark. Nine months of heartburn, back pain, exhaustion and waiting all came together into something so beautiful and perfect. I felt like laughing and crying at the same time, and I did. Jay looked amazed. Now all we had to do was name him. We took a rain check and I sent Jay to get me a sandwich. A big one.
Because I had so little problems with the delivery, I talked them into letting me go home a day early. Oscar was fine (according to the pediatrician) and I could not bear missing Annie's birthday morning that Monday (Oscar was born on Saturday, the same birthday as my dad, and named on Sunday). After more screaming and crying when she left the hospital after visiting on Saturday afternoon, I just couldn't take another day away from her (or me). So Sunday evening I came home as a mother of two. Oscar Kind (pronounced like you would in Kindergarten, Jay's Mom's maiden name) was born at 2:43 PM on 11/7/09, weighing 7 lbs. 4.3 oz. and measuring 19.5 inches.Oscar since then has been great. He originally had his days and nights confused which meant he was getting up pretty much every hour on the hour at night to feed, but we've slowly worked that out. Now he seems to be getting the newborn thing down. Eating, sleeping, pooping. And I've only been peed on once! Annie's adjusting pretty well to all the change. Having Nana here has been a great help. Annie's totally head over heels for her and they're having a great time playing with AALLL of Annie's birthday presents. I'm a little scared (OK, petrified) of what life will be like when she leaves on Monday and I go from having 4 hands to just 2 again, but we'll figure it out. Just don't expect too much in the blogosphere. Although, be kind of impressed, I typed most of this while Oscar was sleeping in my arms and/or nursing. Yeah, I can totally do this.
