Happy Birthday my little Bug!

Thursday evening, I put a two year old to bed, and I awoke Friday morning with a three year old. Wow. Three years. I cannot believe how time has just flown past me. I feel like I could blink and miss all that I am living day by day. Three years old. My little bug is three years old.

I remember his birth like it happened yesterday. I won't lie, the whole ordeal was awful. Not because birth hurts, but because I was inexperienced, thought I had to follow doctors orders, that they wouldn't "let" me go past 41 weeks. I've grown and learned so much since then, and I would never take back his birth experience, for his birth led me to learn more about the body, and all that it can do.

My dear Little Bug. Happy birthday, love.

Little Bugs Birth story:

I know they say the memories of labor pain will fade with time, but, WOW that hurt.

January 13th, 8 pm

I'm admitted to the hospital for an overnight stay. I'm 6 days overdue, and it's time to get this party started. They hook me up to all kinds of monitors, and I receive a dose of Cervidil (Cervix ripening agent on a string).Then, I'm given a mild sedative to help me sleep (I can never seem to get to sleep in hospitals) I finally fall asleep at midnight.

January 14th, 4 am

I'm woken so I can grab a shower before getting hooked up to the IV for the Pitocin. They put the IV in my hand (which HURTS, I've never gotten one of those before, that needle is HUGE!), and they start my Pitocin at 5 mL an hour, but they come in every 15 minutes and up the dose until I'm at the highest they can go. I start having contractions, but they're mild to medium, and they're irregular. Finally, at 12:30, my doctor decides things aren't moving fast enough, time to pop the sac. Being hormonally emotional, not only did that hurt, it also made me want to cry. So I did.

Shortly afterwards, my contractions started coming every 2-3 minutes, and they were getting fierce. I was given a dose of Nubane, which lasted a bit over an hour, and helped me get a nap in (I was so tired). The pain woke me back up, and I requested more Nubane, but guess what? The second dose was not effective! Apparently, when you are on Nubane, and you go for seconds, it doesn't work.

Time for an epidural!
I was really feeling the contractions now, so I requested an epidural, and they called in the anesthesiologist. I was instructed to sit up on the edge of the bed and lean forward, and when I did, oops, there went my water! I had been lightly leaking amniotic fluid previously, but I guess gravity decided it was time to empty me out.

That made me cry.

After what seemed like an eternity, the epidural kicked in, and the pain was gone.
Then, my blood pressure dropped dangerously low. I mumbled that I felt dizzy, then blacked out. Shortly after, the baby's heart rate dipped to 50 (previously steady at 130-150). I remember asking what was wrong with the baby, but I don't remember much else. I vaguely heard the nurse yell out the door for ephedrine. The nurse said she thought he was laying on his cord.. Uh, babies lay on their cords in utero all the time.. Turns out that‘s probably not it… One of the lovely side effects they don‘t tell you about the epidural is that you can have severe hypo-tension, bad enough, sometimes, that it can kill you…

After that, I dozed off and on for a while.

The doctor had told me that we wouldn't even start laboring until after midnight because I was moving so slow, but at 8 p.m., they checked me, and what do you know, I'm 8 cm dilated!
Suddenly, I realize I can feel the foot of my left leg.
And I'm getting a little back pain in the left side...
Nurse?

This is where the second shift nurses drop the ball.
Half an hour of pain later, they FINALLY check my epidural, and what do you know? IT'S EMPTY. So what do they do? Refill it. Oh, thank you. Now the pain goes away, right?
WRONG!
They may have refilled it, once they let it empty out completely, but they didn't press the button to RESTART the flow.
Where the F*$# do they train these people?
It's time!
I go into full force labor, and I feel EVERYTHING.
It's time to push, and I feel EVERYTHING.

If that old nurse doesn't stop telling me how not to labor, I'm going to kick her in the face...

Since I had such a long day, I ended up getting an episiotomy (which I didn't want... until I DID), and they had to help me with the baby at the end because I couldn't push him anymore, so they vacuumed his head. My little boy came out with a loud scream, just one. With the next push, his body slid out. They placed him on my stomach, and as I looked into his eyes, I forgot about all the pain, the pushing, the annoying old nurse at the foot of the bed who almost got kicked in the face, I forgot about everything but the here and now.

Look at this beautiful baby, I think, Can that possibly be mine?

Mr. Daddy clips his cord, and they take him to weigh him, then settle him back into my arms…

January 14, 2008, 10:10 p.m.
7lb 7.7 oz (they rounded it to 7lb 8oz), 20.5 in long