My parents had been here since Christmas Eve, awaiting the arrival of their first grandchild. He was due on Dec. 29, 2016 and we were all hoping he would make his appearance before the new year. Well, the new year came and went and still no baby. I had an appointment on Jan. 4 where we set an induction for the 7th, still hoping he'd come in his own before then. I was scared to death of being induced because of some of the things I had heard about pitocin. I really wanted to go into labor on my own. Well, the morning of the 7th came and I woke up feeling like I was having menstrual cramps. I had heard that labor can sometimes start out feeling that way and wondered if that's what it was. Then I went to the bathroom and to my surprise, blood. Another sign of labor. Hmm... So I continued to go about my morning, getting ready to head to the hospital at 8am. We got there right on time, and a few minutes later I was in a hospital gown waiting for the doctor to come in. She came in and asked how I was feeling. I told her about my morning and the symptoms I was having. With that in mind, she checked me and I was already to 3 cm and 80% effaced. She said that my body was already going into labor on its own! Because it was already doing it's thing, that meant I was more than ready to get the party started. The pitocin would just give it a good kick start and things would get moving a bit quicker. So, they started me on pitocin at 9:30am. Within the hour, I was feeling contractions 1-3 minutes apart. I went into this wanting to hold off on the epidural because I wanted to see what labor felt like and see how much I could handle.
By 11:30am I had had enough, so I asked for the epidural. At noon, I received it and starting feeling the contractions ease off within a few minutes. Aw... relief. Now I was able to relax and let my body and the baby do their thing. I was a little disappointed in myself though. I felt like I gave into the epidural too easily, but I just wanted some relief! The anesthesiologist had told me that the epidural would not take my pain away completely, but that it was meant to bring my pain down from a 10 to about a 4. You know how they ask you to rate your pain on a scale of 1-10? Right before I got the epidural, I told them my pain was at a 6 or 7. I felt like such a wimp but didn't even want to think about what 10 would feel like. After receiving the epidural, I was asked again to rate my pain. I told them it had gone down to a 3 or 4. When I expressed my disappointment to the nurse and anesthesiologist that I thought I wasn't handling the pain very well, they both agreed that by what the monitor had been showing, I was probably a lot closer to a 10 than I had thought and I was just being too modest with my ratings. Hearing that actually made me feel better about myself. Haha!
Anyway, they checked me again at 12:45pm. I had progressed to 4 cm and they broke my water.
Right around 1:45, I started to feel the epidural wear off so I pushed the button to administer more. Well, apparently I waited too long because contractions were back in full swing before it kicked in again. It was so hard reverting back to feeling contractions again after I had just spent the last two hours feeling so relaxed and pain-free. It took almost an entire hour for the epidural to completely take over again. Ugh.
2:10pm, I was 6 cm.
By 4:00pm I was hoping I was progressing well and would be around 8cm. To my surprise, the nurse checked me and told me I was at 10 cm and it was time to start pushing. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! We decided to wait until 4:30 to actually start pushing to give the baby a little more time to move down and for the nurse to make sure everything was ready. She also wanted me to stop pushing the button for the epidural so that I could somewhat feel when a contraction was coming. That would help when pushing and would make the pushing a bit more effective.
4:30 came and it was time! Only 7 hours after I had started pitocin! I seriously couldn't believe it.
So, I pushed and pushed and pushed for about 45 minutes. I was told the doctor would come in when the baby was crowning. I believe it was around 5:15 when the doctor came in. I thought for sure that meant the baby would come out any minute. It wasn't until 5:50 that little Jordi was finally born!
From arriving at the hospital at 8:00am to delivering at 5:50pm, it took a total of just shy of 10 hours! I call that success!
I had expected that when he was born, a nurse would grab him and place him on my chest. Instead, the doctor pulled him out and immediately told me to take my baby! It totally caught me off guard! I couldn't believe that I was allowed to touch him! Haha! He was all slimy and bloody but I couldn't have cared less! It was the most wonderful experience being able to hold him in my arms just seconds after he was inside my body. For the first few minutes, he was laying on my chest with the hospital gown between us. He cried and cried, but I can honestly say those first cries were the most beautiful sound! As soon as I pulled the hospital gown down and put Jordi directly on my skin, he stopped crying immediately and just laid there peacefully for the longest time. It was such an amazing feeling!
Unfortunately though, the hardest part of it all hadn't even started for me yet. I had an amazingly quick and easy labor and delivery. I had a beautiful baby boy to call mine and I was overcome with joy and emotion. But a few hours later, the epidural wore off. Wowza! Recovering from childbirth is no joke! I was told I had a 2nd degree tear (yes, could be much worse), severe swelling and multiple abrasions. I'm obviously not super familiar with postpartum recovery and what is normal and what is not, but from what I was told by many nurses and doctors, my swelling was much worse than the norm. I didn't know anything different, all I knew was that it sucked to feel that way. Now, almost a week later, I still walk funny, I can't simply sit down without discomfort, it hurts to get in and out of bed and I move slower than a tortoise. I am seeing improvement everyday and honestly, my recovery is going quicker than I thought it would, but it has definitely been a rough week. For the first 4 days I seriously could not get in and out of bed without lots of help. Just walking from bed to the bathroom and back to bed again was a feat. Thank goodness for Andre and my mom! I could barely take care of Jordi for those first few days because I could barely even take care of myself. I couldn't stand long enough to change his diaper, I couldn't get out of bed to nurse him at night; someone had to bring him to me. Although the worst of it only lasted about 4 days, it was the longest 4 days I have ever experienced. Now I am feeling much better, but am still in the process of healing. Swelling is still going down, the bleeding still has a long way to go and my ability to sit comfortably is still something I look forward to! Oh and breast-feeding, well that's a whole other story that every new, breast-feeding mother knows all too well. What no one told me though is what it feels like to have to learn how to breastfeed when I can't even find a comfortable position to sit in because of my own postpartum pain. I can't wait for the day that I can just plop down on the couch without having to spend 5 minutes finding a semi-comfortable position! And then enduring 15-30 minutes of nursing in that position.
Ok, not that I'm complaining because this has been such an amazing week getting to know my newborn baby boy! We love Jordi so so so so much! I just want to show him off to the world! Even through my own physical struggles this week, I have been so happy! I have broken down in tears a couple of times because of pain, but I can still say that I have been so happy! I feel so blessed to have become a mother this week and it has been such a blessing to see Andre become a father and for my parents to become grandparents. Jordi brings such a beautiful spirit into our home and I would not ask for my life to be any other way right now.
