She's here, and it's over!

Or is it just beginning? My daughter, Addison was born on 11-8-08 at 1:38 pm. I am posting my birth story for those interested :)

I will firmly believe that my appointment that Friday (11-7) was the reason I started having contractions. The doctor had me sitting (not laying) in a reclined upright position. My legs were bent up on the table and she was touching my brain just about. I asked her if she wanted to break my water for me.

I began having contractions regularly at around 8 o'clock that night...they were short, about 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes every hour until around 10:30. Then every half an hour, still lasting 30 sec to 1 1/2 minutes. They gradually picked up in their intensity and frequency. I did not sleep at all that night. Around 2am, they really started in pretty good. I called the dr office where they have a messaging service and they paged the midwife (even though we were a designated dr patient) who told me to take a shower and drink water and if they don't let up to call her and let her know and to come in. Around 4:30 they were still very strong, at that point I had already showered and I had told Preston to go ahead and get ready to leave and to tell my Mom so we could be ready to go. We left around 5:30 and got there at 6am.

Admission was fairly quick. Got into the L&D room, got changed and went through the 90 question drill with the nurse. Gave me some sort of painkiller to help relieve the contractions...at that point they were pretty rad. They checked me and I was about 4cm (and ready for the epidural!). Around 8 or so they gave me the epidural. It sucked dick. I feel like my back is kind of screwy after that...even moreso than before. I did not see the needle, but I did not like the feeling of them digging around in my spinal column. I ended up moving/jumping while they were in there which they do NOT want you to do...but that shit hurt. About 10 minutes later the epi kicked in...to my left side. Nothing happened on my right. It had a numbed feeling...but the epi did not affect that side. I could gradually start to feel contractions on my right side so I called the nurse and let her know. They gave me an additional shot of meds which rendered my waist down useless. Literally. I could not move. This created a big pain in the ass a couple hours later.

They checked me shortly after the epi and proceded to put me on pitocin as an epi can sometimes slow/stop contractions, which it had done with me. I don't recall times (please forgive me-short term memory...basically ALL memory has been out the window since pregnancy) but I went from 4cm to 7cm in short of an hours time. This was after the epi was done. Because of the rapid progress, they decided not to hook up the monitoring device that goes inside you to monitor the baby heartbeat and they continued to monitor using the stomach devices.

I was forced to lay on my right side after the epi which became very uncomfortable after a while, especially prior to them giving me the add'l shot of meds. If I were to rotate to my left side, the medicine would continue to drain out of the right, so I had no choice but to stay on the right. The other thing that I was dealing with a couple days prior to delivery and into delivery, was my right hand/wrist was very painful to move. It hurt so badly, it felt like a sprain or when you pinch a nerve. It went away the day after delivery...but it was really odd.

Around 12:30, the device that monitors the heartbeat showed that the babys heartbeat was slowing down. I had about 8 people rush into the room at once. They shoved oxygen in my face and hurried my mom and his parents out of the room. Preston stayed. I was so out of it...I felt like crying but I was so numb, I couldn't muster anything. All I could feel was the nurse massaging my stomach like they were trying to wake the baby. Because of the add'l meds for the epi, I still could not move my legs. It took Preston and 2 nurses to rotate me onto my back so that they could bring the babys hb back up. She had found a way to lay on her cord so the hb decreased very rapidly. They were able to bring it back up, but I felt so bad for Preston. He told me afterwards he was really scared. I don't blame him...they really don't tell you anything until after the fact.

About 15 minutes later, they checked me, and again it became chaotic. I could feel the presence of something, but not so much b/c of the meds. I was dialated to 10 and it was time to push! The doctor left me with the nurse (while I thought to myself- where the hell do you think you're going????) and we started to push around 1pm. Again, we had to rotate me onto my back. Preston got to hold up one of my 80 pound legs while I pushed. I did about 25 minutes of pushing, and the nurse told me to push 1x, then stop. Did the same thing one more time and she said NO MORE PUSHING. They then attempted to call the doc who had made his way down to the cafeteria...lol. He finally came up and he got his t's crossed and Addison was born at 1:38pm. I pushed for about 1/2 an hour.

Doc said 2 things: He didn't think that I'd deliver vaginally. He expected that we'd have to do a C. He gave me a big pat on the back for that feat.

Also, he was amazed how quickly I delivered, which is why he was down at the cafeteria.


-I look back to the day we found out I was PG and how horrified I was. I wouldn't change anything now. The whole process of life is so amazing. I sit here every day and can't believe that she is mine. She changes and grows every day. I love her. I love watching Preston with her and know that he will continue to be a great father. Babies are truly a miracle.-