When Jeff was born, part 1

So I've never really written anything about the actual birth of Jefferson. I was inspired by reading another blog to do this, just so I don't forget things and so people know what happened. I probably already have forgotten some things, and some things have probably changed in my mind and the actual reality is lost forever. :) I promise I won't mention too many gory details.

So, I think everyone knows about how I was late and we scheduled an induction, and then got bumped twice due to some sort of baby boom going on in Corvallis. One of the times we got bumped, it was because our friends Mike and Staci had their baby. Staci's water broke about 15 minutes before I was supposed to call back (they thought they were going to have a bed available) and they "stole" our room. :) I was very happy for them, but I will have to say I was quite disappointed that I didn't get to have my baby that day. My mom had been staying with us for a while already, which was so great, I think I would have gone crazy by myself in that last week when I was overdue when Kirby was at work. That week, I finally (unfortunately) got a lot of water retention and my ankles disappeared, I gained a bunch of weight on top of that (even my doctor was shocked), and I just wanted to meet my little baby!! My mom and I took walks, went shopping, baked (or I sat around watching Baby Story while she baked and then just ate a lot of whatever it was), and she tried to be encouraging about me being late. I remember one day watching Baby Story (which by this time made me cry every single time I watched an episode, even though I tried to hide it), and my mom came by, touched my shoulder and just said, "Oh sweetie, now it's your turn." I couldn't say anything, and just kind of nodded, hiding the tears. I just wanted my baby in my arms! I don't think I was a raging b#$%@ in those last days, I hope I wasn't, but I guess I don't know for sure, I just felt frustrated like I was doing something wrong and things weren't just perfect. In my mind I was supposed to have him a little before my due date, not after. I wasn't supposed to be quite that fat, I wasn't supposed to be quite so emotional. I wasn't supposed to be late! My sister had just returned from Slovakia after being there for a year, and my mom couldn't go back to greet her, and she was leaving again within 10 days, and I guess I just thought it would all work out just fine, and obviously it was just fine, but I felt like things were getting all messed up. I was making a bigger deal out of it than I should have, I knew that this happens to a huge percentage of people, especially for the first pregnancy, oh well.




So, during that week, I started jumping up and down for a while a few times a day trying to get contractions going, and I did some pretty intense yard work for being that pregnant, using the weed wacker on the upper part of our yard, cutting down the ivy, trimming branches from the trees, using a saw on the bigger ones, climbing underneath some rhododendrons to saw some rogue branches growing out of a root of a tree (I have no idea how I even accomplished that seeing how huge I was)... anyway, at that point I figured that it didn't matter that I could make myself go into labor because that was kind of the point. The only thing I should have thought of was how tired I would have been had that happened. Finally, the day of our induction, I woke up having a much better feeling about our chances of actually having the baby that day. I was calm and excited at the same time. It was a quiet, cool morning, and I just ate a little breakfast made by my mom, Kirby and I put our bags in the car, and we took off for the hospital. There was a beautiful sunrise outside as we walked (I waddled) in. The hospital in Corvallis is up on a hill on the edge of town and the sunrise was a pretty sight, and I thought to myself that it was the last time I would be outside and not be a mom. How exciting it was!


It seemed weird checking in when I was just the same as I had been when we were visiting Mike and Staci the day before. It was funny that day we visited them, the nurses just kind of stared at me as I walked in, and I said, "Don't worry, I'm not in labor yet!" They all looked pretty relieved and I realized they must have been quite busy. :) Anyway, it was fairly quiet as we got upstairs and into our room: a very large, nice room with a beautiful view. My nurse came in and got an IV started and I got into a gown and into bed. I was so excited to get started! The only thing that wasn't great were the screams from the room next door. Somehow I was still pretty calm, and I just hoped for her child's birth to go quickly, and I hoped she would just forget about the pain once the baby came. I kept telling myself that wouldn't be me, since I was planning on having an epidural. The nurse and I got the monitors around my belly, the ones that monitor contractions and the heartbeat of the baby. I also had to have my blood pressure monitored constantly. I was contracting already, but I hadn't really felt anything at all, although sometimes in the previous week I would touch my belly and find it to be really hard, but I just wasn't feeling it much. Then they started the Pitossin to really get things going.




Anyway, it was exciting to think that at least things were starting, and I had dilated a bit more since my last check-up. My doctor came in a little over an hour later, and because I was contracting and coming along and feeling the contractions, she decided to break my water to make it happen faster. That was an interesting feeling, and I knew it meant that labor would be coming along quicker after that, especially since I was being induced. Supposedly that makes labor fairly intense. Labor really did get going hard after that, within 45 minutes I got to the point that I couldn't really concentrate on what I was saying or what was going on around me. Contractions are a very unique feeling, a pain I can't quite describe but also one I can't quite forget.




When I was younger, I remember thinking that I should go through labor without pain medication at least once to see how it was. Later on, I realized that yes, women have gone through labor for many many many years and that is how mankind continues on, but why should we have to endure it if we have discovered wonderful medications to take away the pain? I know that if I had to, I could do it without medication. I think I could anyway, I don't wish to prove this statement any time soon, but I really think I could do it and it would be very hard but of course I would just do it, since it would mean that my baby would be coming. Women are designed to withstand childbirth and most the time everything is fine. But, since there was the option of an epidural, I decided to take it. Call me a coward, weak, whatever.




Anyway, at that point I told Kirby that I thought we should ask for the epidural, because I knew it takes a while to get it set up and get the person up there to do it, and so within the next half hour or so, the doc came up and we did it. It wasn't bad at all, even though right when she was putting in the needle a contraction started. She said I did great staying still and calm, and that I had a nice back, easy to see where the needle should go. :) Very soon, my legs started to feel very heavy, and suddenly the pain was gone. It is very weird not to have much control over your own legs, and it was crazy seeing the huge contractions on the monitor screen, and not feeling a thing. It was the best thing ever!




I was able to enjoy my day while my labor progressed: my mom came and hung out, my friend Emily visited, I talked with several friends and family on the phone; it was great! I think I was a little loopy a few times, I said a couple things wrong, and just felt like I sounded like an idiot a couple times, but whatever. I should have rested, but I was just too excited. Kirby took a nap on the little couch in our room. I got checked a couple times by the nurses and my doctor and things were coming along just fine. They actually had to turn my Pitossin way down, because the labor kind of started going on its own, and I was contracting too hard too close together. One funny little anecdote was when this nurse manager lady came in for a while and chatted, and when she went out, one of our friends who was on his way to say hello heard her say, "That girl's baby in there is going to be over nine pounds if it's an ounce!" :)




Finally, at about 5pm, I felt a little different, and felt like I might be feeling some pressure, so I thought I would at least mention it to the nurse. Before she came in Kirby and I were talking about how crazy it was not really knowing how long labor would take, and how long it would be until we could start pushing. The nurse came in and I told her I thought I felt something different, and she said that she would check just to make sure, and sure enough, I was fully dilated and she said I would get to start pushing within the next half hour. I called my mom who had gone out to dinner to tell her the news, and Kirby and I were just so excited that now we knew we were on to the next step!




About a half hour later, about 5:30pm, my nurse was describing what to do and how to push, and all of a sudden I felt pretty nauseous, and just decided to interrupt her and tell her, and she immediately grabbed a bag and thankfully she did, because then I threw up. I think I had a bit too much cranberry juice that day, and maybe that moment, even though I didn't feel that nervous, my body got stressed and needed to get that out. :) Anyway, it was over soon and then I was able to start pushing. It was very weird because I could sort of feel my contractions, but it was very hard to feel how I was pushing, and I kept thinking how much more efficient I could be if I did x, y, or z. Kirby was laughing at me, watching me say things like, "I think next time I need to put my legs like this and really push without letting my face get into it too much and...." I tried to get better the whole way through.




I actively pushed for a couple hours like that during every contraction, not feeling any pain, but getting a bit tired out, and still very excited. Kirby counted me through every contraction, and was there the whole time. He was great. We had a nurse there most of the time too, and my doctor came in a couple times. The baby was still high, and at first I made some really good progress, but then it slowed down, and the baby seemed to be stuck. The heartbeat wasn't dropping much during contractions though, so they weren't too worried about it at that point... (to be continued in part 2.)