Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Motherhood

Currently Reading:
A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin
A Storm of Swords - George R.R. Martin (out loud to Ryan)

Most Recently Watched:
Beasts of the Southern Wild - in theaters
The Dictator

Current Obsession:
Tyler Hansen Aman

I should update this thing more regularly than in quarterly intervals.  Things happen though, like having a baby, that keeps me pretty busy.

So much has happened since Tyler's been born.  He turned 3 months just last week and I can't believe how much bigger he's already gotten.  He's now twice the size he was when he entered this world!

Our baby boy was born June 17 at 12:45AM, Father's Day!

My water had actually broke the Friday before but I hadn't realized it.  We were told that if your water breaks it either comes out in a gush or in a constant trickling.  I didn't have either of that.  We had a birthday dinner to attend at Bomb's Away so we decided to go to that and bring our hospital bag just in case my water really did break.  After dinner I went to the bathroom to check and nothing, I was completely dry.  So we figured it was a false alarm.  We then went to Market of Choice to buy some raspberry tea since we heard it could sometimes speed up the process.  Ryan made me drink a large portion that night.  That was unnecessary.

At 4AM I got up to use the bathroom.  More trickling.  I went to bed and said to Ryan, "More water.  Maybe my water did break."

Then we went back to bed.

Got up again at 7, did my business, stood up and pulled up on my pants and this time I felt it rush out.  Once again, no gush, but that definitely wasn't normal.  Excited, I went back into our bedroom and I told Ryan that today was the day...I think.  It could possibly be a false alarm and I didn't want to alarm anyone so we calmly took a shower and got our bags ready (again) and as we were heading out the door we tell Ryan's parents, yeah, we're heading out to the hospital.  We might be having a baby.

I knew that if we did end up delivering that day that I wouldn't get to eat so we stopped by Market of Choice again and I ate breakfast.  Looking back on all of this, I can't believe we were so calm and nonchalant about it all.  I had expected things to be much more chaotic.

We strolled into the hospital, told them that we suspected my water had broke, and they took us up into the maternity ward.

A couple of months before we had done a hospital tour just to familiarize ourselves with the procedures and the facility.  They showed us all of the rooms including the tiniest room they have that they liked to use only as a last resort.  I remember looking at Ryan and saying that with our luck we would end up in that room.  But we were assured that no one had delivered in that room for years.

We ended up in that room.

It was a busy weekend, 5 other pregnant women had come that day to deliver, including one of our close friends!  They had gone in on Friday (she started having contractions while they were in the theater watching "Prometheus," needless to say they never finished the movie...) and baby Declan was on his way!  But that meant we got stuck in the teeny tiny room.

When we got there, a woman was delivering in the room next to us and literally howling in pain.  I had no idea what that sound was at first and when I asked Ryan he told me that someone was singing.  I told him that they weren't singing very well.  Then I heard, "Owwww, owowowowwwww!"  She was having a baby!  It sounded very painful!!!  We were later told that she came in with no seconds to spare so they weren't able to give her anything for the pain, she was doing it all on her own.  If I had any doubts about the epidural, that woman cleared them all away.  I was definitely getting the epidural.

We were still unsure if we we really were in labor so the nurse came in and did a swab.  At 10:00AM she announced that we were having a baby!  Right away we called our parents and everyone began preparing their arrivals.

Despite the fact that I was having consistent contractions, I hardly felt anything.  Even with contractions that registered at high levels, all I felt was a slight pressure.  I thought to myself, This is easy!  Who said contractions were painful?

And then the doctor came in to examine me.  She explained that my water had broken high up, which is why not much had come out.  She decided that it needed to break even further and did so manually.  Now that was a real gush.  And then the pain came.  No more easy contractions for me.

It was 4PM when they decided to give me Pitocin.  4:30PM I got the epidural.  Declan had already been born and we thought Tyler would join his BFF-to-be that same day.  At 6PM I got to move into one of the delivery suites, so much nicer than the broom closet I was originally in.  And there I stayed all night waiting for the contractions to get closer together.  At one point they needed to give me another dose of the epidural and I was given a bit too much and I wasn't quite elevated enough so I had absolutely no feeling up to my neck.

It wasn't until midnight that Tyler was ready to go.  After a quick 30 minutes of pushing, we had our baby.

It is such an intense feeling holding your baby for the first time.  You get such a rush of emotions--instant love, a flutter of worry (is he okay?  What if he doesn't like me?  Why doesn't he stop crying?), relief that it's all over...  It's pretty amazing.  Sometimes I look at Tyler and I can't believe that he's the same baby.  Like right now.  As I'm writing this, Tyler is hanging out in his "bed," sucking on his thumb, and making funny little squirmy noises.  I have such a vocal baby!!  It's crazy thinking that just three months ago he was a tiny little guy, super scrawny, who slept most of the time.  Now he's plumped out and so much more interactive.  He's just perfect.

I didn't think that I would blog about the delivery today.  But that's what my fingers wanted to type.  But now I'm going to play with my baby and change his diaper.  Apparently the squirmy noises were to help move his BM along.  I'm not looking forward to that diaper...