The Story

The lengthy story will follow, but first let me say a few things:

1. I am so grateful for modern medicine! The fact that I was able to be induced and then have pain relief was wonderful and led to the easiest delivery I've every heard of!

2. I am so grateful for a wonderful doctor and terrific nurses! Our labor nurse was FANTASTIC! I am so impressed with people who are willing to serve people every day of their lives...doing things that are too unpleasant to mention here...and doing them with such care for the patient. I know a few nurses and I just want it said that they're amazing people! I felt badly for our Mother/Baby nurses because it was obvious that they were trying to do all they could, but they were simply understaffed.

3. I am so grateful for our wonderful mothers; this would be so much harder without them! Last night, Ethan wanted to take pictures. He took these two all by himself!

4. I feel very strongly that there is no one right way to do labor and delivery. A woman must make the choice she is comfortable with and whatever she chooses is right for her. With that, I'll share the details.

Now, for those of you wanting to keep reading, here's the story. My mom came in on Saturday (the day before the day before the due date) since both of our other boys were born on the day before the due date. I really wanted her here to watch Ethan. She arrived and I instantly was impatient to get things going. Well, nothing happened. I had a check-up on Monday and my Doctor said she was willing to induce and called the hospital to set up an appointment. They were busy on Tuesday so our appointment was made for Wednesday morning at 8am. Nothing happened in between the appointment and Wednesday so Alan and I headed for the hospital as scheduled. It was a very strange experience to walk into the hospital without having contractions or anything. (For those of you who commented that I didn't look like I'd just had a baby, this is one reason...when it's scheduled, you know just when to have your hair done and makeup on.) :)We got admitted and at 9 they started the Pitocin. The next few hours were boring, honestly. We were just waiting for things to get going. It was rather slow. At 3, they called my doctor to come break my water to try and speed things up. She said she'd be there in about an hour. I had them give me an epidural at 4:00 because contractions were getting pretty strong and past experience said that all heck breaks loose once the water's broken. (Here let me say that I really debated the epidural, but because things had been moving so slowly, I decided I didn't want to be in pain for lots of hours. Call me crazy!) :) Now that I was nice and numb, I got to lie there as happy as a clam waiting patiently. I did however, appreciate the fact that the anesthesiologist gave me a low enough dose that I could still feel a little and wiggle my toes and such. I could tell the baby was getting low...lots of pressure, but my water hadn't broken yet. The doctor arrived at about 5pm. I was completely dilated and the baby was right there. She broke my water and then told me I could push with the next contraction. It took exactly 1 contraction for the head to arrive. Then the doctor told Alan to make me laugh and I could laugh the baby out. That nearly happened because I totally laughed at the idea of such a thing being possible. With the next contraction, the rest of Jared arrived as well. I have never experienced anything like it! No tearing or episiotemy. No crazy extreme effort. Very different story from the last two deliveries! In this case, recovery has been much harder than the actual delivery. Due to the tri-level nature of our townhouse and the fact that there's only one bathroom and it's on the top level, I've been basically living in my bedroom and going down for small periods of time. I have to go to the bathroom quite frequently and I don't feel up to doing the stairs so many times a day. That being said, I'm doing well and getting stronger. I feel so much compassion, however, for people who are put on bedrest! Here's a picture that show quite clearly that I did just have a baby...frizzy hair that dried in a ponytail, no makeup, shirt with something on it, etc! If you look closely, you can see my setup with the computer and phone on the bed. Thank goodness for modern conveniences as well!!