Labor and Delivery

I didn't go into active labor on my own, so we went back to the hospital and checked into Labor and Delivery around lunch time on the 9th.  By mid-afternoon, they had me settled into a L&D room with the Pitocin running.

We had Elora with us all afternoon.  She was really good, considering that we were there for 3 or 4 hours without any of her toys (we'd thought she'd be in a day care facility, until they told us we could keep her with us) before Rebekah came to pick her up.  Rebekah stayed to visit for a few hours, then collected Elora and headed to the house for a slumber-party.

Sometime around 8, I think, the anesthesiologist came in to do my epidural.  About an hour after that they broke my water.  The rest of the night was just a waiting game, punctuated by dilation checks every few hours (those were a lot more pleasant after they got the epidural going, let me tell you!) and frequent adjustments to the fetal monitors because Kaylie wouldn't hold still.

 

Brandon and I both slept between interruptions, which surprised me.  I was having regular contractions, but thanks to the epidural, I was only aware of them if I paid attention.  Brandon didn't even realize that I'd finally gone into active labor until I was ready to start pushing, because I was so relaxed.  When it was time to push, I felt completely serene.   That didn't last through the whole delivery, but it lasted through most of it, and it was wonderful.

I started pushing at 6:25 on the 10th; Kaylie was born at 7:08.  My serenity evaporated in the last 15 minutes or so, to be replaced by agony.  I'm not sure if there was a problem with the epidural, or if I'd become accustomed to it, or if it's always that way, but it wasn't at all fun.  They ended up calling the anesthesiologist back in to give me something stronger after she was born because I was in so much pain. I can't complain, because it was only about 30 minutes to an hour out of hours and hours that I could have been hurting, but wasn't. 

I don't believe I have ever been so grateful to live in our age of modern medicine.  I cannot imagine going through that without the security of well trained doctors and effective pain control.  If anything, that 30 minutes taught me to be even more grateful.

Brandon was great through the whole thing.  He was very quiet; he just held my hand and did as the doctors and I directed to help move things along.  He saw a lot more of the process than I'd intended for him to see, but I ended up not minding and neither did he.  He got to cut the cord when she was born, which is something that he didn't get to do with Elora.  

I do wish that things had been a bit calmer after she was born.  There are no pictures of him holding her, and I hate that.  We had a good hour after Elora was born for just the three of us to sit and spend time together once they finished my sutures, and even then, Brandon held her next to my face while they did that, so it went really quickly.  This time, it was completely chaotic.  There was the afterbirth to see about, I was in a lot of pain, and there were a ton of people in and out of the room taking care of things.  (Apparently, I delivered her right at shift change time, and that accounted for a lot of the confusion.)  Once things finally died down, I started to shiver uncontrollably.  They piled heated sheets and blankets on me, but I continued to shiver so badly that I could barely talk, much less eat or try to hold or nurse Kaylie.  Then it was time to move to the postpartum ward, and we had to get all checked in and settled there...

But that is for another post.  The important thing is that my Kaylie girl is finally here, and my little "fambly" of three is now officially an fambly of four.