This enters my mind at least once a day. Seriously. But in my own defense (I'm defending myself from...myself?), I have been slightly occupied being pregnant, experiencing physical pain, discomfort, and exhaustion (and I'm not even referring to labor & childbirth yet), and enduring a nesting phase that even caused my neat freak husband to ask me repeatedly, "Why are you cleaning that? It'll just get messy again."
And after I crossed those things off my to do list, I went to the Dr., was informed that Will was measuring quite large (8 lbs, 6 oz during a 37 week ultrasound), and they recommended I be induced at 39 weeks. As you can imagine, the next 2 weeks were a frenzy of activity in our house as we busied ourselves preparing for Baby Will's arrival. And at 39 weeks, the night before my scheduled induction, I skipped into the hospital, donned my gorgeous hospital gown, started Cervadil to "ripen" my cervix (raise your hand if you want to hear more about my cervix!), starved until 10:30 p.m. when I was allowed to eat dinner, and then waited for the fun to begin.
And fun it was! Even before the Pitocin (the good stuff that brings about steady & more intense contractions) began first thing in the morning, I was having fairly regular (but not yet painful) contractions. Things were starting to get a little more uncomfortable before they broke my water, and then, the fun I thought I was having before became even more...FUN. The cervical checks hurt since my Cervix of Steel was in a posterior position (meaning, back behind Will's head, so the Dr. had quite a reach, if you know what I mean). The breaking of my water hurt. And all of the contractions after that really hurt.
I think it was sometime in the early afternoon that I asked for an epidural. I couldn't take the excruciatingly painful contractions that were happening about every 2 minutes any longer. And ahh, what sweet relief that epidural was (not including the scary episodes of my blood pressure dropping, but thankfully, they got that resolved pretty quickly). I could finally smile and carry on conversations with visitors again!
I made comments to several family members and nursing staff about what an awesome epidural I'd gotten. I even stroked the ego of the anesthesiologist, telling him, "That was the best epi I've ever had." I'm pretty sure he blushed. And for a while, it really was great (note the emphasis on "was"...foreshadowing, anyone?). I couldn't feel my contractions, but was still able to move my feet and legs. That meant I garnered cheers from my nurse since I was successful at peeing in a bed pan (twice! And who doesn't love to do that?! But hey, it was better than a catheter!), and have some mobility in bed instead of feeling completely numb.
Sweet, naive, unsuspecting Lauren.
It was a perfect epidural for a while, but when it came time to push, the epidural was only working on my stomach. And no longer working AT ALL down there.
When I began pushing while pregnant with Jacob, I couldn't feel a thing.
Numbness = Fantastic! And only 30 minutes of pushing.
With Alex, my epidural was only working on half of my stomach.
Partial numbness = Not too shabby! And only 10 minutes of pushing.
And this time with Will?
No numbness = A dramatic childbirth scene from a movie, complete with the star screaming, "Owwww!!! Help me! Get him out!" and yelling my very first curse word during any of my labors & childbirths (I chose the "S" word, an exclamation I apologized to the Dr. and nurse for later.).
And naturally, my hardest childbirth without a working epidural would include a baby who was "sunny side up", meaning his head was facing up, instead of to the back. This can (and did) make it more difficult to push a baby out of the birth canal.
No numbness = Dramatic scene + upside down baby + 45 minutes of pushing.
But oh, when he was finally out...I didn't care about any of the pain I'd experienced and I just cried happy tears when they handed him to me. My precious and adorable new son is named William Jeffrey. He was born at 4:13 p.m. on April 23, 2010. And I couldn't be more in love with my third little boy. He was (and is) just perfect.
Oh, and the little butterball they had me convinced I'd give birth to? Pssh. He was a mere 8 lbs, 5 oz. and 21 inches long. (And thank goodness I didn't have to push anything larger out of an area that was quite the opposite of numb.)
His big brothers are thrilled that he's finally out of Mommy's belly (and so am I).
On our way home from the hospital...
After we arrived home from the hospital, the boys were very eager to hold their new little brother. The immediate love & fascination goes both ways. Will stops whatever he's doing to pay attention when Jacob & Alex are talking. He listens intently to everything they're doing. Clearly, he's already taking notes to help him keep up with his 2 older brothers later.
"So you're the Mommy, huh?"
"And I have two older brothers? Hmm...it should be interesting to see what kind of fun and chaos we'll bring you, Mommy."
"Don't worry, Mommy. I've heard that having 3 kids aged 5 and under is a breeze. Ha- sorry, even I couldn't keep a straight face during that one."
These last 3 weeks since Will's arrival have been quite an adjustment period. Things should be interesting around this house, that's for sure!
2 comments:
So glad you're back. I love the new pictures of Will. I saw them on your Facebook today too. He is just so precious. I can't decide if I still think he looks like Jeff/Jacob or not- sometimes he does, other times he doesn't.
Anyway, I know this is a huge adjustment for you, but you're doing a great job. The first 6 weeks are the hardest! You're already halfway there.
Love the way you told the story. How blessed are you to have three beautiful boys?
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