Birth of Baby Luna

So, I know I kind of disappeared for the past week (or so?), but I have the best news to make up for it! My baby girl is here! I have decided not to go back and finish up the A to Z Challenge, even though I really loved it and wish I'd have been able to keep up. However, I'm ready to move on to fresh new things and share my birth story with you!

To Induce...or Not

Ironically, this story starts with me debating whether or not choosing to be induced on my son's birthday was "right" or not. Would that make me a bad mommy? As my friend jokingly chastised me about "scheduling babies", I was weighing whether or not I would accept the opportunity to be induced if it was on Gabriel's birthday. I wanted to be induced Saturday morning (May 3) for my own convenience, but good luck convincing your doctor to come in on a Saturday to induce you (that's basically what the receptionist said, at least). Can't say I blame her either.

I wasn't even due until Monday, May 5. However, my doctor was leaving town as of the 9th, so I figured she'd be a little more willing to let me "schedule my baby". I only had to wait until 3:45PM to find out.

Gabriel stayed with my sisters while I took my last final exam. I had made arrangements to take all my exams the week before finals. Lucky me. I was due finals week.

The drive from my sister's back toward my house and my doctor was a long one. My kid being in mysterious, agonizing pain did not help the hour drive, either. He finally told me it was his ear, and I'd already called the office to let them know that he was coming with me and needed to be seen. Then he had an accident in the car and I didn't have any extra underwear or pants (of course!), so we stopped and put him in a spare diaper. Then I consoled him with french fries and finally made my way to the doctor.

Not too hard to believe that my blood pressure (for the first time ever) was a little high, right?

You know what is hard to believe? The fact that my water broke on the floor while getting undressed to see the doctor. Talk about timing. And irony.

This was, apparently, a first for my doc, too. After being given a mom diaper and getting back dressed (oh and getting confirmation that my kid had an ear infection), I was admitted upstairs to delivery...where I hadn't pre-registered. Apparently, you still need to do that when your doctor's office is attached to/part of the hospital. Who knew?

My husband was seriously bummed that he'd missed all the fun. By the time he arrived, Gabriel was wearing about as much clothes as me. He'd leaked a little in the diaper and refused to put it back on. Therefore, I was sitting there in a gown, those weird mommy underwear, and a mommy diaper and my son was in his shirt, socks, and shoes. He had no shame crawling around on the floor and having a good ol' time, his naked little butt flashing to all the nurses who entered.

Let's Get This Party Started

It was at least an hour before they started the penicillin for B Strep, which I'd tested negative for this time but was getting treated for as a precaution since I was positive once before. I didn't get any Pitocin until around 8PM, because the nurse was under the impression that Doc wanted me to wait. She was wrong, by the way.

So, still no contractions or real labor going on. I was dilated at roughly 3CM and hadn't ate since 11AM. I was just ready to have this damn baby and I only had 4 hours until it was Gabe's birthday.

The contractions started shortly after, with "real" labor going on by 9-9:30PM. Around 12:30AM (yep, we skipped right into Friday), I got a bathroom break and asked for the birthing ball. The one in my room was deemed unworthy (AKA: not tall enough) for me, so I labored in the rocking chair while my nurse never did find went to go look for a better suited one.

Being upright was better, but only marginally. It's a good thing they never did let me eat. With every contraction came waves of nausea. Well that and excruciating pain. It was at this point that I stopped giving a fuck about the pressure to birth au natural (again) and society's pressure to skip the drugs (something Jenny Mollen mentions in her humorous birth story).

I don't know how I did that for 20 hours or so the first go, but it was not happening this time. The big kicker was when my husband insisted I was at least 7CM dilated and wanted me to be checked. I didn't want the disappointment of hearing 5CM, so I had been happy to forego and cervix prodding. Guess what! I was only 4CM dilated. Yep. Epidural here I come.

Drugs, please!

Paperwork, waiting for the anesthesiologist, and roughly 1 hour later and I was back of my knees pressed against the side of the bed, clutching a pillow, and burying my chin to my chest. I was also thinking: "Why didn't I labor like this, it isn't as bad as every other way I've tried, thus far". I was thinking that as I rode out another contraction and had my spine numbed. I didn't even feel the first needle and barely the second.

After everything was said and done and I had a constant drip of labor numbing drugs, I received a nice compliment from the anesthesiologist about how well I did/that went and that meant the epidural would be most effective. Glad to be of service, sir!

As soon as I could, I passed out and indulged in some much needed sleep. The nurse woke me to roll to my side, mentioning her dissatisfaction with baby's heart rate. I only had a moment to feel worried and panicky before I fell back asleep. I woke when I started feeling hella contractions on my left side. My nurse told me to roll to that side so gravity would pull whatever drugs were in that epidural drip of awesome over there.

I slept off and on until around 5AM, when their was a shift change and my new nurse (doc's sister) came in to check me. Apparently, we were just waiting for baby to swim on down so I could push her out. Well guess who was kindly waiting for me to do just that?

Who knows how long she'd been hanging out, ready to come out of there. I'd been sleeping on my side and hadn't felt all that pressure of her being there until rolled onto my back. I'm thinking night nurse had just decided she'd let next shift handle baby delivery. She hadn't checked me for hours.

Pushing was a cinch compared to what I remembered. I pushed for 90 minutes with Gabe! This time I didn't even feel like I was doing much of anything for the first several pushes. Of course, after push number one my doc announced baby had a full head of hair. That was encouraging. I figured I'd get stuck with a bald baby girl, since I was so looking forward to the hair accessories.

5:33AM: Luna Sue is born

...on her brother's fourth birthday, whether I liked it or not.

Need Some Other Good Reads?

• Photos of Real Women in Various Stages of Pregnancy (NSFW)
  
• What It's Really Like Giving Birth
  
• 20 Things No One Told You About Birth