Welcome, E

It’s been two weeks now since E (as I’m going to affectionally reference her as) was born.

I was induced one day after my due date and, for the most part, had a pretty standard delivery. After hearing and reading some horror stories of being induced and the use of pitocin, I tried a lot of things to go into labor on my own but nothing worked. I was literally running laps around my basement and doing jumping jacks at one point in hopes of contractions picking up. Nope. This baby just wasn’t ready to come out on her own!

I received a call about 5AM on the date of my induction saying I’d have a room available in a couple hours and head on in to the hospital when ready. We got checked in at the L&D welcome center and was taken up to my room. I was checked and pitocin was started at the lowest dosage. (It starts at a 1 and can go up to 20). The pitocin was slowly increased as the morning went on, but not a ton of progress was made on my end. I started getting regular contractions, but they felt more like menstrual cramps and weren’t bothersome. My pitocin level eventually reached an 8 and stayed there until the machine was shut off later in the day. So Tim and I watched TV to pass the time. Oh, and talked about what we were going to name our child because we still hadn’t agreed on a name at that point.

Early afternoon the resident doctor and crew came in to break my water. That was an interesting feeling. Not to be gross, but it’s literally like a gush of warm liquid. Super strange feeling as an adult. This was the point when the “fun” started to happen. Contractions got closer together and much more intense. An hour after my water was broke is when I finally asked for an epidural. I went in knowing I’d get an epidural, it was just a matter of when. Experiencing intense back labor with body shakes and feeling like I could pass out is when I threw in the towel. It was almost 2:30-3:00 pm when the epidural was finally administered. Except I could still feel EVERY. SINGLE. CONTRACTION. The line was clamped shut and I wasn’t received any drugs. So that took a bit to get straightened out and flowing. After that…it was the greatest thing ever. Flipping from side to side was hilarious. You want to move your body, but can’t really figure out how!

I had dozed off and woke to a couple nurses rushing in looking at the monitors and handing me an oxygen mask. The baby’s heart rate had dropped considerably because of some “major event” that had happened. Turns out it was “go time” just two hours after getting the epidural. Of course I’d be ready to have a baby when it’s rush hour and have to wait 45 minutes for my doctor to arrive.

Three pushes later, E was born just after 6 pm. She was a tiny thing at only 6 lbs with the perfect button nose. Her pediatrician says she has big feet, which means she could be tall. Maybe that’ll just mean that she’s going to be a runner like her momma 🙂

–m.