...monday! HA! Mondays are often the most dreaded day of the week, but sometimes I crave the return to structure. The weekend can be so hectic and uncertain. On Saturday, I had to take our Oldsmobile 88 to our hometown so my Dad could take it to his mechanic friend to get it inspected. It passed, to everyone's surprise! It's a 1997 and has a slew of issues with it. We don't drive it much in the winter because the heat doesn't blow out of the vents. It does get warm-if you hold your hands up to the vents, but defrosting the windshield is really just a bad joke. Last winter was brutal; the car would get buried in the snow in our apartment's parking lot because of the snow plows and Drew and I would have to shovel the car out. (well...mostly Drew ;) ) So, we've gone back and forth as to whether or not to keep the 88 on the road, but it is a convenience. If we only have one car, then Meghan and I have to get up very early and drive Drew to work to drop him off so we can have the car for the day. We don't often go places, but sometimes we have doctor's appointments or WIC or just have to get to the store! :)
We also have a 2001 Alero, this is what Drew usually drives. Right now it's a bit under the weather. The exhaust separated from the car while we were camping last month and we haven't driven it since then because the noise is just obnoxious. I'm sure we would get a ticket for it if we were pulled over. Hopefully the Alero will be getting fixed this week. While my Dad was getting the 88 inspected, he spoke to the mechanic and he said he will be ready for it on Thursday. The plan is to drop the Alero off on Wednesday night. I have to call the mechanic on Wednesday to make sure he'll be ready for it, my Dad thinks the mechanic said he has 3 days of work...but really it might be 4 or 5. That's just how this mechanic is, Once I drop the car off, I'll have to call him every day just to make sure he's working on it. :) He really is a nice guy, great father, but he tends to think he'll have work finished faster than it actually gets done.
One other not-related-to-cars tidbit that I forgot to share with my bloggie friends is that we are still ttc. No luck last month! :( I did get a little sad, but I know God has a plan for us and I trust in Him. We will just keep trying, I know it will happen eventually. I really want a completely different birth experience than what Meghan and I had last time, but that's a whole 'nother crazy long blog post and I have to get up early tomorrow! Good night!
Showing posts with label birth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label birth. Show all posts
Monday, October 17, 2011
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
how do you like...
...the new blogger interface? (for those of you who use blogger) Originally I didn't like it, there's so much white space, I find it hard to concentrate on what I'm writing, plus it's just different! :) So I switched back to the old version for awhile and now I'm on the new version again.
I guess you could call me a flip-flopper! ;)
It's been a little crazy in the small apartment lately, isn't it always? September was just jam packed with birthdays, parties, adventures, and culminated in what I like to call"Angie/Rebeccapalooza"! This past weekend was Volunteer Retreat Weekend at my alma mater, Wells College And my good friends, Angie and Rebecca came into town. Wells is very close to me, Rebecca took the train in from Chicago and Angie drove in from Boston. We spent the whole weekend together, causing trouble like we used to in college! Well, not really, but we did have a lot of fun! And we learned about some great opportunities to help our school.
We also went apple picking on Sunday at Beak and Skiff. It looked like we were going to get rained out, but the weather held out long enough for us to pick apples, browse the general store, eat fritters and drink apple cider! :) MMmmmm, it was delicious!
Of course, now that I've been apple picking twice in 2 weeks, I have a ridiculous amount of apples. I'm going to make apple cake today and probably some apple muffins for breakfasts this week. I found a very simple recipe for the cake on AllRecipes, I'll let you all know how it turns out!
In the baby department, more good news! My good friend and wife of Drew's cousin, Klare is pregnant with their second child! We are very excited! Klare and Jeremy (Drew's cousin) have a 15 month old, Scott, who is 28 days older than Meghan, so we were pregnant at the same time! I joked with her on Facebook that we should be pregnant at the same time again and it would be so much fun! I was ovulating over the past week and I'll know in a about a week! :) I mentioned on Facebook that I had been having vivid pregnancy/birth dreams like I did last time-right before I found out I was pregnant with Meghan... :)
It would be so awesome to not only be pregnant again, but again at the same time as Klare! Amazing to say the least! I joked with Drew that it would be crazy if we were exactly a month behind Klare and Jeremy again-haha! No symptoms yet, so I don't have my hopes up too high yet-just the regular amount ;)
Well, I've got cake to back and toddlers to put to bed, so long.
Friday, August 19, 2011
kait's birth story
haha, Freddy was born a week and a half ago and I am determined to get it written tonight! Ok, here goes...
Once upon a time... :)
First, a little back story...Drew's sisters: Olivia, Eileen and Liz came over to spend 2 nights at our place on Sunday August 7th. Drew and I went out to see Bridesmaids (hilarious, yet shocking at the same time!) on Sunday and we had planned to see another movie on Monday night (I mean, who could not take advantage of free babysitting!) But, I couldn't find our free movie ticket, so I told Drew to go ahead without me and meet his cousin Joey at the movies to see Captain America. I think now that I didn't find the ticket for a good reason! (I have since found the ticket too!) The girls, Meghan and I were hanging out at Drew's other sister, Michelle's apartment (she and her boyfriend Corey live in the same complex as us), just relaxing and playing board games.
Kait started texting me at about 8pm saying that she had woken up that morning at 330am, 4, and 430am with horrible back pain but had been able to fall back asleep. She had left the house to run some errands and ended up at Fred's (baby's father) house in the late afternoon. She and Fred's mother Margaret had been timing contractions, they were regular every 5 minutes or so, lasting less than a minute. I decided to meet Kait back at our Dad's house and see what was going on.
I told the girls I had to go and Eileen and I came back here to put Meg down to sleep for the night. Eileen offered to come and wait until she fell asleep, then I told her she could go back over to Shelly's house. I left Meghan's window open and with Shelly's window open...almost as good as a baby monitor1 ;) Not to mention, Meghan never wakes up during the night and if she does, she's usually back to sleep within a few minutes. I left the girls and told Liz I'd text with instructions for Meg in case this was the real deal and not a false alarm.
I met up with Kait about 9pm. She said the contractions had slowed down, but still had solid back pain. I had her walk the length of the house a few times to see if there was any change. She had a couple solid contractions and wanted to go to the hospital just to get a definitive answer. I told her to call the OB's office first and see what they say, as she claimed she wasn't having regular contractions and her office hadn't broken. She didn't want to and just wanted to get to the hospital so off we went.
She continued to say she only had solid back pain and no real contractions, so I thought we would be sent home for sure. We arrive at the ER where they promptly tell Kait that she should have called her OB before coming in. She's admitted as an outpatient anyways because we tell them her contractions are regular every 3-4 minutes. We're taken to the maternity ward which is half under construction and put into a room literally half the size of my apartment living room! She had to give a urine sample and the bathroom was a toilet and space for your feet. With two doors on each side. That's it. :D The maternity nurses again told her that she should have called the OB before coming in but hooked her up to the monitors to track her contractions and baby's heartbeat. She also had blood drawn. Then we started to walk the halls...
The nurses were hoping that Kait would progress if she walked for a little while so she could be admitted. Which she did, whew! She was a 3-4 (cm dilated) and was a 4-5 after walking for about half an hour. We then got moved from the dinky little room into the newly renovated birthing center room:
the warming bed for baby:
footprints on the ceiling tiles!
tub with jets!
ahem, toilet, and fresh towels, shampoos and bath gels!
kait in labor:
This is Kait and Fred (baby's father) right after we got into the birthing suite. We had one nurse that was determined to have Kait on her back the whole time. She hooked her right up to the monitors and had her get into the bed. Well I put up with those shenanigans for about 5 seconds and had Kait get out of bed and move around into different positions. This is when I started Kait had a lot of lower back labor so she would squeeze Fred's hand while I used by palms and fists to counter-pressure her back contractions.
At about 330am, Kait was checked and at a 7! She had made it all the way to 7cm without any pains meds! She was feeling intense pain, so she decided to get into the jet tub! It looked divine while she was in there, I was a bit jealous! I felt like I was constantly watching the clock, but now I can't recall what happened at what time. I believe a couple hours later, at about 5am, Kait was checked and still at 7cm so she agreed to have some Fentanyl for the pain. I was/am so proud of her for getting so far without any pain medication!
Things moved fairly quickly after that. Kait started complaining that she felt like she needed to relieve herself, so we would take trips from the bathroom to the bed and back. Each time, not producing a baby or anything else. She was checked again at her request and found to be about a 7-8. She had Fentanyl at 5, 6 and 7am. I believe they broke her water at about 730am. And that's where we ran into trouble.
I saw meconium in the waters (obviously so did the nurses) I knew they would not let Kait labor on her own schedule. They continued to hound her. She just would not progress. She got to the point where she was essentially holding her legs shut and refused to do any hip-rocking or swaying or other moves that would allow her pelvis to open up and Freddy to move down farther. One nurse found she had the tiniest bit of cervix left but was completely dilated and not allowing her body to do the work for her.
At this point she was feeling everything and in such distress. She was pleading for a different nurse and for them to do something. She pleaded for a c-section. The nurses refused to give her any more medication because she was so close to being done and I'm glad they did that. I think Kait started pushing around 9am but started hyperventilating and pulling away from the contractions and our hands that were holding her feet. They put her on oxygen and she calmed down a little bit, but was still pulling away. She would push with each contraction and the nurses wanted 3 pushes with every one contraction. And Kait was just too exhausted. She would collapse after every push while the rest of us were egging her on, trying to coax her to push. Soon, it was apparent to everyone that she wouldn't or couldn't do it on her own. This is when they called in the doctor.
The first thing he asked was if she had an epidural. haha. He was quite surprised when we said no! He used a vacuum to help Kait get Freddy out. He pulled a little while Kait pushed. Frederick Harry Ceratt IV was born at 928am on Tuesday August 9th! Weighing 7 pounds 14.4 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Kait was in labor for about 30 hours and we were at the hospital for about 11 hours. She did not have to have an episiotomy and only had a small 1st degree tear internally that was quickly stitched up. Since the birth, Kait has taken no pain meds and is breastfeeding with minimal complications. Freddy was circumcised on his 2nd day and so far has had no complications.
Once upon a time... :)
First, a little back story...Drew's sisters: Olivia, Eileen and Liz came over to spend 2 nights at our place on Sunday August 7th. Drew and I went out to see Bridesmaids (hilarious, yet shocking at the same time!) on Sunday and we had planned to see another movie on Monday night (I mean, who could not take advantage of free babysitting!) But, I couldn't find our free movie ticket, so I told Drew to go ahead without me and meet his cousin Joey at the movies to see Captain America. I think now that I didn't find the ticket for a good reason! (I have since found the ticket too!) The girls, Meghan and I were hanging out at Drew's other sister, Michelle's apartment (she and her boyfriend Corey live in the same complex as us), just relaxing and playing board games.
Kait started texting me at about 8pm saying that she had woken up that morning at 330am, 4, and 430am with horrible back pain but had been able to fall back asleep. She had left the house to run some errands and ended up at Fred's (baby's father) house in the late afternoon. She and Fred's mother Margaret had been timing contractions, they were regular every 5 minutes or so, lasting less than a minute. I decided to meet Kait back at our Dad's house and see what was going on.
I told the girls I had to go and Eileen and I came back here to put Meg down to sleep for the night. Eileen offered to come and wait until she fell asleep, then I told her she could go back over to Shelly's house. I left Meghan's window open and with Shelly's window open...almost as good as a baby monitor1 ;) Not to mention, Meghan never wakes up during the night and if she does, she's usually back to sleep within a few minutes. I left the girls and told Liz I'd text with instructions for Meg in case this was the real deal and not a false alarm.
I met up with Kait about 9pm. She said the contractions had slowed down, but still had solid back pain. I had her walk the length of the house a few times to see if there was any change. She had a couple solid contractions and wanted to go to the hospital just to get a definitive answer. I told her to call the OB's office first and see what they say, as she claimed she wasn't having regular contractions and her office hadn't broken. She didn't want to and just wanted to get to the hospital so off we went.
She continued to say she only had solid back pain and no real contractions, so I thought we would be sent home for sure. We arrive at the ER where they promptly tell Kait that she should have called her OB before coming in. She's admitted as an outpatient anyways because we tell them her contractions are regular every 3-4 minutes. We're taken to the maternity ward which is half under construction and put into a room literally half the size of my apartment living room! She had to give a urine sample and the bathroom was a toilet and space for your feet. With two doors on each side. That's it. :D The maternity nurses again told her that she should have called the OB before coming in but hooked her up to the monitors to track her contractions and baby's heartbeat. She also had blood drawn. Then we started to walk the halls...
The nurses were hoping that Kait would progress if she walked for a little while so she could be admitted. Which she did, whew! She was a 3-4 (cm dilated) and was a 4-5 after walking for about half an hour. We then got moved from the dinky little room into the newly renovated birthing center room:
This is Kait and Fred (baby's father) right after we got into the birthing suite. We had one nurse that was determined to have Kait on her back the whole time. She hooked her right up to the monitors and had her get into the bed. Well I put up with those shenanigans for about 5 seconds and had Kait get out of bed and move around into different positions. This is when I started Kait had a lot of lower back labor so she would squeeze Fred's hand while I used by palms and fists to counter-pressure her back contractions.
At about 330am, Kait was checked and at a 7! She had made it all the way to 7cm without any pains meds! She was feeling intense pain, so she decided to get into the jet tub! It looked divine while she was in there, I was a bit jealous! I felt like I was constantly watching the clock, but now I can't recall what happened at what time. I believe a couple hours later, at about 5am, Kait was checked and still at 7cm so she agreed to have some Fentanyl for the pain. I was/am so proud of her for getting so far without any pain medication!
Things moved fairly quickly after that. Kait started complaining that she felt like she needed to relieve herself, so we would take trips from the bathroom to the bed and back. Each time, not producing a baby or anything else. She was checked again at her request and found to be about a 7-8. She had Fentanyl at 5, 6 and 7am. I believe they broke her water at about 730am. And that's where we ran into trouble.
I saw meconium in the waters (obviously so did the nurses) I knew they would not let Kait labor on her own schedule. They continued to hound her. She just would not progress. She got to the point where she was essentially holding her legs shut and refused to do any hip-rocking or swaying or other moves that would allow her pelvis to open up and Freddy to move down farther. One nurse found she had the tiniest bit of cervix left but was completely dilated and not allowing her body to do the work for her.
At this point she was feeling everything and in such distress. She was pleading for a different nurse and for them to do something. She pleaded for a c-section. The nurses refused to give her any more medication because she was so close to being done and I'm glad they did that. I think Kait started pushing around 9am but started hyperventilating and pulling away from the contractions and our hands that were holding her feet. They put her on oxygen and she calmed down a little bit, but was still pulling away. She would push with each contraction and the nurses wanted 3 pushes with every one contraction. And Kait was just too exhausted. She would collapse after every push while the rest of us were egging her on, trying to coax her to push. Soon, it was apparent to everyone that she wouldn't or couldn't do it on her own. This is when they called in the doctor.
The first thing he asked was if she had an epidural. haha. He was quite surprised when we said no! He used a vacuum to help Kait get Freddy out. He pulled a little while Kait pushed. Frederick Harry Ceratt IV was born at 928am on Tuesday August 9th! Weighing 7 pounds 14.4 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Kait was in labor for about 30 hours and we were at the hospital for about 11 hours. She did not have to have an episiotomy and only had a small 1st degree tear internally that was quickly stitched up. Since the birth, Kait has taken no pain meds and is breastfeeding with minimal complications. Freddy was circumcised on his 2nd day and so far has had no complications.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
a new...
...arrival! My sister had her baby on Tuesday morning! It has been so crazy since Monday night, I haven't had a chance to do a thing except sleep and eat! :) I'd like to write out her birth story from my point of view (and post it, obviously) but I know I won't get to it tonight because it is late and I am tired! I'll probably write it bit by bit over the next couple of days and maybe I'll get to posting it this weekend...sometime!
On a semi-related note, it seems like everyone around me is either pregnant or just had a baby! My sister, 2 girls that are sisters and daughters of a woman my Dad used to date when we were younger had babies in May and July (the 2nd on my Dad's birthday!), my 2nd cousin's girlfriend's baby shower is on Saturday (she's due in September), a girl I grew up with was at the same hospital as my sister at the same time, a handful of blogs I follow happen to have currently pregnant mommas as well as a close relative on hubby's side just found out she was pregnant with her 17th baby!
All of this is such joyful news, but at the same time, I am sad. When I held baby Freddy for the first time and smelled his new baby smell and snuggled his soft, cute, little baby body...I got that overwhelming urge to snuggle my own newborn babe. (not that I don't have that urge constantly...) I know the next baby will come at the right time and I have no control over when or if that will be. (though I pray sooner rather than later!) A college friend of mine told me she didn't get her period back until her lo was 18 months...so hopefully I only have to wait 5 odd months! :)
At any rate, it's been a lovely week and I will post details about the last couple of days soon!
On a semi-related note, it seems like everyone around me is either pregnant or just had a baby! My sister, 2 girls that are sisters and daughters of a woman my Dad used to date when we were younger had babies in May and July (the 2nd on my Dad's birthday!), my 2nd cousin's girlfriend's baby shower is on Saturday (she's due in September), a girl I grew up with was at the same hospital as my sister at the same time, a handful of blogs I follow happen to have currently pregnant mommas as well as a close relative on hubby's side just found out she was pregnant with her 17th baby!
All of this is such joyful news, but at the same time, I am sad. When I held baby Freddy for the first time and smelled his new baby smell and snuggled his soft, cute, little baby body...I got that overwhelming urge to snuggle my own newborn babe. (not that I don't have that urge constantly...) I know the next baby will come at the right time and I have no control over when or if that will be. (though I pray sooner rather than later!) A college friend of mine told me she didn't get her period back until her lo was 18 months...so hopefully I only have to wait 5 odd months! :)
At any rate, it's been a lovely week and I will post details about the last couple of days soon!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
switchin'...
...it up around here! I just changed the background on this blog...not sure if I want to change the background on the giveaway blog or not. I probably will. I blog on a netbook, so it's this tiny little thing with a 10 inch screen, so I try to imagine what it would look like on a normal/bigger screen. I also centered the header and changed my profile picture to a more recent one. The old one was May of 2010 when I was pregnant with Meghan, this new one is in May of this year. Hopefully it looks ok! :)
Today we went to my Grandparents house to celebrate my Dad's birthday (7/22) and my sister, Kait's, birthday (8/8) We decided to celebrate Kait's today because this next weekend, my Grandma will be out of town, Kait's baby is due on her birthday, and then the following weekend we all have a baby shower to go to. My second cousin, Brendan and his girlfriend, Ashley, are pregnant with their first baby girl, Abigail Rose and Ashley is due in September. Brendan and his 2 sisters are close in age to my sisters and I, and we were close growing up. His mom and my mom are the same age and are good friends. His Dad is one of my Grandpa's little brothers.
Enough with the genealogy lesson! :) I only have to watch Dylan once this week, tomorrow. He is going with my Grandma to visit some family in Pennsylvania and will be gone all week. I'm hoping we get to see more of Drew's family this week. (hint, hint Kim! :) Haha, I thought she would enjoy that little shoutout!) Tuesday, Meghan and I will be going out to my Dad's house to see my sister Kait. I'm her doula for her labor and delivery, so I just want to go over some labor pain techniques and talk about what she wants to do, as far as hospital procedures go. She didn't take any sort of birth/pregnancy class, so I'm going to make her watch some videos. I've been sending her a couple emails a week with articles for her to read on birth, labor, breastfeeding, circumcision, etc. She has decided to have her son circumcised and I respect her decision even though I don't agree with it. I told her from the beginning that I wasn't trying to scare her, I just wanted to give her the information so she can make the most informed decision possible.
I am glad she has decided to breastfeed. It wasn't much of a stretch though, we've mostly been exposed to breastfeeding mothers. My older sister Lacie did supplement with formula during the first 6 months and then switched Dylan completely to formula at 6 months old when she returned to work. She stated that she never made enough breast milk, but she never had a good supporter and never really went looking for information on how to boost her supply. But, Kait's got me and Meg and I have been breastfeeding for over a year. I can share all my wisdom with Kait! :)
Then we have no plans for Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, Meghan has her 1st Birthday pictures "photo shoot" at Walmart. Saturday is theBig Latch On. The local event is being held in North Syracuse. I might have to treat myself to Ling Ling's! Sunday is free (so far) and then Meghan's 1 year doctor's appointment on Monday the 8th (Kait's birthday and due date!) Finally, we have a WIC appointment on Tuesday. That concludes our crazy busy long weekend!
Off to cuddle and watch Star Trek on netflix with the hubby, night all!
Today we went to my Grandparents house to celebrate my Dad's birthday (7/22) and my sister, Kait's, birthday (8/8) We decided to celebrate Kait's today because this next weekend, my Grandma will be out of town, Kait's baby is due on her birthday, and then the following weekend we all have a baby shower to go to. My second cousin, Brendan and his girlfriend, Ashley, are pregnant with their first baby girl, Abigail Rose and Ashley is due in September. Brendan and his 2 sisters are close in age to my sisters and I, and we were close growing up. His mom and my mom are the same age and are good friends. His Dad is one of my Grandpa's little brothers.
Enough with the genealogy lesson! :) I only have to watch Dylan once this week, tomorrow. He is going with my Grandma to visit some family in Pennsylvania and will be gone all week. I'm hoping we get to see more of Drew's family this week. (hint, hint Kim! :) Haha, I thought she would enjoy that little shoutout!) Tuesday, Meghan and I will be going out to my Dad's house to see my sister Kait. I'm her doula for her labor and delivery, so I just want to go over some labor pain techniques and talk about what she wants to do, as far as hospital procedures go. She didn't take any sort of birth/pregnancy class, so I'm going to make her watch some videos. I've been sending her a couple emails a week with articles for her to read on birth, labor, breastfeeding, circumcision, etc. She has decided to have her son circumcised and I respect her decision even though I don't agree with it. I told her from the beginning that I wasn't trying to scare her, I just wanted to give her the information so she can make the most informed decision possible.
I am glad she has decided to breastfeed. It wasn't much of a stretch though, we've mostly been exposed to breastfeeding mothers. My older sister Lacie did supplement with formula during the first 6 months and then switched Dylan completely to formula at 6 months old when she returned to work. She stated that she never made enough breast milk, but she never had a good supporter and never really went looking for information on how to boost her supply. But, Kait's got me and Meg and I have been breastfeeding for over a year. I can share all my wisdom with Kait! :)
Then we have no plans for Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, Meghan has her 1st Birthday pictures "photo shoot" at Walmart. Saturday is theBig Latch On. The local event is being held in North Syracuse. I might have to treat myself to Ling Ling's! Sunday is free (so far) and then Meghan's 1 year doctor's appointment on Monday the 8th (Kait's birthday and due date!) Finally, we have a WIC appointment on Tuesday. That concludes our crazy busy long weekend!
Off to cuddle and watch Star Trek on netflix with the hubby, night all!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
meghan's birth story
meghan louise was born 7-28-10 after 42 hours of labor and an unplanned c section. this is where we left off:
i went to the dr on friday 7-23 for my 39th week check up/sono/non-stress test and meghan was measuring 8 pounds 14 ounces. dr. f decided we should be induced monday night at 6 pm if she still wasn't here on her own. i had been having very light sporadic contractions for the last couple of days but nothing that went anywhere. i really only noticed them during the nst because i could see them on the print out.
on monday 7-26, drew went to work (since he would be with me in the hospital for only a couple days we thought) with our only car, so his mom, kim, came out to drive me to my appointment at 3. drew's done with work at 430 so he was either going to meet us at home or at the hospital at 6. well, poor kim was waiting in the waiting room at the dr office because i was in there for 2 hours! dr. f had to call the hospital and tell them we'd be late.
so kim and i met drew at our apartment, we got all packed up for the hospital and met kim at burger king for my last meal before heading to the hospital. we got to the hospital at 7, only an hour late. we got checked in, settled and i changed into hospital gowns. they started with cervadil at 8pm, which is inserted vaginally, looks sort of like a tiny tampon on a string and you have to lay down while it's in, so they start it at night so you can sleep through it. cervadil starts ripening the cervix. due to being induced, they have to monitor the baby the whole time. well, i NEVER sleep on my back and if i tried to roll over onto my side, the monitor would lose the baby. sleep was inaccessible to me. i got a few snippets here and there and the nurse would let me sleep on my side for a half hour at a time but would eventually come in and wake me up to make me lay on my back again.
at midnight they inserted the first round of misoprostol which is a tiny pill inserted into the cervix to continue ripening the cervix. i was dosed again at 4am and 8am. dr. f came in and checked me, i was finally 100% effaced and we could start pitocin to get my contractions going. i begged to have breakfast because i hadn't eaten dinner since the night before. breakfast finally arrived at 10am and we started pitocin at 11am. that's when things finally got interesting.
contractions picked up and were coming every 3-5 minutes lasting maybe 30 seconds in length. this continued all day and night into the next morning. dr. b was now on call and allowed me to eat breakfast before we decided on our next move. i wanted to continue as contractions were every few minutes lasting 60 seconds or more. i was really feeling the pain and got some stadol to take off the edge. i'm firmly against epidurals being that our bodies were meant to deliver babies and i should be able to handle the pain! (haha, i needed that stadol like my life depended on it)
around 1pm dr. b came in to check me and i was still at 4 cm as i had been earlier that morning. dr. b suggested a c-section and i protested firmly because i wanted to keep going. i wanted to have my baby naturally. i wanted to go without drugs and feel every movement, work with my body and contractions to get meghan born. i didn't want her born into a drug induced stupor were she slept for days. i gave into his request that we do a c-section because he said someone was scheduled at 130pm so we need to do it now and i had just gotten a shot of stadol and i was literally falling asleep as he was asking us what we wanted to do.
i was so upset after i consented i was in tears in between falling asleep. i wanted so badly to bring meghan into the world in the most natural way and i had failed her. i felt like i had given up when i could've done more for her. i could've given her the best birth experience and i made the decision to put myself through seemingly unnecessary surgery and a drug drunk birth.
at the same time i feel like i was pushed into 'deciding' on a c-section. no one who was in the delivery room with me (dh, mil, my parents) even questioned me having a c-section despite me adamantly denying that i wanted one earlier during my labor. yet i can only blame myself for the decision. i still cry when i see a natural or vaginal birth on tv.
too make matters worse, now that i've had a c-section my chances of having to have another one are high and there are only 2 hospitals in my area that allow vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean) one is the hospital i gave birth at and the other is in a college city about 1 1/2 hours away from where we live now, a 1/2 hour from the small town our parents live in. so not easy to get there from our current home.
so we went in for a c-section at that time, dh got all suited up in scrubs and they wheeled me into surgery. i kept falling in and out of sleep and i was falling asleep as they tried to do an epidural. i was screaming from the pain of the shots to numb the area, i even swore at the anesthesiologist! the surgery itself only took about 20 minutes and dh was there throughout the whole thing. i could feel tugging and other sensations while they were pulling meg out but i couldn't see a thing.
meghan louise was born at 129pm on wednesday july 28th, weighing in at 7 lbs 8 oz!
i went to the dr on friday 7-23 for my 39th week check up/sono/non-stress test and meghan was measuring 8 pounds 14 ounces. dr. f decided we should be induced monday night at 6 pm if she still wasn't here on her own. i had been having very light sporadic contractions for the last couple of days but nothing that went anywhere. i really only noticed them during the nst because i could see them on the print out.
on monday 7-26, drew went to work (since he would be with me in the hospital for only a couple days we thought) with our only car, so his mom, kim, came out to drive me to my appointment at 3. drew's done with work at 430 so he was either going to meet us at home or at the hospital at 6. well, poor kim was waiting in the waiting room at the dr office because i was in there for 2 hours! dr. f had to call the hospital and tell them we'd be late.
so kim and i met drew at our apartment, we got all packed up for the hospital and met kim at burger king for my last meal before heading to the hospital. we got to the hospital at 7, only an hour late. we got checked in, settled and i changed into hospital gowns. they started with cervadil at 8pm, which is inserted vaginally, looks sort of like a tiny tampon on a string and you have to lay down while it's in, so they start it at night so you can sleep through it. cervadil starts ripening the cervix. due to being induced, they have to monitor the baby the whole time. well, i NEVER sleep on my back and if i tried to roll over onto my side, the monitor would lose the baby. sleep was inaccessible to me. i got a few snippets here and there and the nurse would let me sleep on my side for a half hour at a time but would eventually come in and wake me up to make me lay on my back again.
at midnight they inserted the first round of misoprostol which is a tiny pill inserted into the cervix to continue ripening the cervix. i was dosed again at 4am and 8am. dr. f came in and checked me, i was finally 100% effaced and we could start pitocin to get my contractions going. i begged to have breakfast because i hadn't eaten dinner since the night before. breakfast finally arrived at 10am and we started pitocin at 11am. that's when things finally got interesting.
contractions picked up and were coming every 3-5 minutes lasting maybe 30 seconds in length. this continued all day and night into the next morning. dr. b was now on call and allowed me to eat breakfast before we decided on our next move. i wanted to continue as contractions were every few minutes lasting 60 seconds or more. i was really feeling the pain and got some stadol to take off the edge. i'm firmly against epidurals being that our bodies were meant to deliver babies and i should be able to handle the pain! (haha, i needed that stadol like my life depended on it)
around 1pm dr. b came in to check me and i was still at 4 cm as i had been earlier that morning. dr. b suggested a c-section and i protested firmly because i wanted to keep going. i wanted to have my baby naturally. i wanted to go without drugs and feel every movement, work with my body and contractions to get meghan born. i didn't want her born into a drug induced stupor were she slept for days. i gave into his request that we do a c-section because he said someone was scheduled at 130pm so we need to do it now and i had just gotten a shot of stadol and i was literally falling asleep as he was asking us what we wanted to do.
i was so upset after i consented i was in tears in between falling asleep. i wanted so badly to bring meghan into the world in the most natural way and i had failed her. i felt like i had given up when i could've done more for her. i could've given her the best birth experience and i made the decision to put myself through seemingly unnecessary surgery and a drug drunk birth.
at the same time i feel like i was pushed into 'deciding' on a c-section. no one who was in the delivery room with me (dh, mil, my parents) even questioned me having a c-section despite me adamantly denying that i wanted one earlier during my labor. yet i can only blame myself for the decision. i still cry when i see a natural or vaginal birth on tv.
too make matters worse, now that i've had a c-section my chances of having to have another one are high and there are only 2 hospitals in my area that allow vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean) one is the hospital i gave birth at and the other is in a college city about 1 1/2 hours away from where we live now, a 1/2 hour from the small town our parents live in. so not easy to get there from our current home.
so we went in for a c-section at that time, dh got all suited up in scrubs and they wheeled me into surgery. i kept falling in and out of sleep and i was falling asleep as they tried to do an epidural. i was screaming from the pain of the shots to numb the area, i even swore at the anesthesiologist! the surgery itself only took about 20 minutes and dh was there throughout the whole thing. i could feel tugging and other sensations while they were pulling meg out but i couldn't see a thing.
meghan louise was born at 129pm on wednesday july 28th, weighing in at 7 lbs 8 oz!
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