sleeping beauty in my lap

mark's version

slow on the birth story as usual. i spent the first day home getting my house back into shape, and then yesterday i was really feeling my recovery so i sat around all day -- didn't even feel like writing.

but back to the beginning. sunday night i was feeling my usual tired-of-being-pregnant, so i asked mark to check to see if i was dilated. if you recall, which you can't because i didn't write about it at all, when i went to the hospital for my "we changed our mind about a homebirth" check up i was only 1 cm. that was... saturday the 25th. here's a recap i posted on hearthkeepers:

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Wow, ok. I went to the hospital last night, just to sort of feel things out and have a little exam and be sure that everything was progressing as I thought it was. There are two hospitals very close to us, and we decided to go to the little Catholic hospital that is right down the street instead of going down the highway to the big Memorial hospital.

The nurses were SO nice. They didn't even blink at us saying we'd been planning a UC, and were mainly curious about why we changed our minds. One nurse even recommended a lay midwife in case we hadn't thought about that yet, but it was the same one I had already talked to that I can't afford.

So they monitored the heartbeat and contractions (heartbeat is good; not having nearly enough contractions to get excited yet), checked the baby's position (head down), all that normal stuff. There weren't any doctors around to do an ultrasound, though, and the nurse told me that if I waited until morning the doctor probably wouldn't see a need to do one anyway. (She told me that she couldn't say that I shouldn't wait until morning because until then there were no doctors to officially release me, but she didn't sound like the doctor would do or say anything in the morning that was worth waiting for, either. So we checked ourselves out a little after midnight.)

Then she warned me that none of the doctors in this hospital do VBACs (even though I've done two VBACs already). Right after that is when she asked if we'd looked at lay midwives, and from then on when she talked about me coming in she implied fully effaced and ready to have the baby so they wouldn't push me into a c-section. Since they are only 3.8 miles away, that's not a problem.

I really liked the nurses and felt a lot better when I got home.

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well, by sunday (this past sunday, not nov. 26th) i was 4 or 5 cm. which was surprising but cool, since that's pretty much considered active labor. but i wasn't having any contractions, so we pulled out our tried and true method of starting labor, which no i won't tell you. hint: it doesn't involve a trip to whole foods.

round then freddy came over and he and mark got to playing online poker while i went to bed. i was hoping that i'd wake up in labor in the morning, but not counting on it. instead, i couldn't get to sleep because of the sudden gripping 3 minute pain in my gut.

that couldn't be it, i thought. too easy! so i moved around, and i rolled over and i tried to shake it off. real contractions don't go away when you move, so that's always the first thing i try. after three or four at only 5 minutes apart, i called mark. i still wasn't sure, i said, but there was a possibility i was in labor.

i want to have it recorded here that for the first time EVER i was right about labor the first time! i had at least one false alarm with all three of the others. this time, i called it.

so we waited around a bit because we were planning to go to st. catherine's and they don't do vbacs. our plan being to get there at the last minute so they couldn't say anything about it. we called sarah to watch the kids until mark's mom got here (though freddy was here, too), and i packed my bag and paced impatiently while mark played poker and every few minutes asked, "how many minutes was that?" then, right before we left, he took a shot of jager just so he could say that he was drinking and playing poker when we left for the hospital.

on the way to the hospital we started talking about whether we really wanted to go to st. catherine's. i dunno, it just didn't feel right -- i didn't want to deal with the pressure to have a c-section. so we talked about our other options, and the only thing i could think of was how great hermann was when we brought sinead there after she was born. so that's where we ended up.

when they checked my dilation on our arrival at 2 am, i was 5 cm. they admitted me, and took me up to a labor room. but it seemed to me like my contractions had slowed down a lot, and it turned out they had. in fact i hadn't really progressed at all, but i was too far dilated to turn back. now, this is when they usually start talking c-section, but the nurses were pretty open about wanting to avoid that if we could (which is exactly my position), so first we tried breaking my water. which was... interesting.

we waited a few more hours (i slept a lot of it) but by morning i was only 6 cm. the contractions were starting to really hurt, making me cry, but not getting me anywhere. that was the worst. i can handle the pain if it's constructive, but i hate to suffer for no reason. finally the nurses suggested that i give it another hour and then try a very low dose of pitocin. now, i hate pitocin with a passion, and normally i'd refuse, but even i could tell that we had to do something or i was going to end up with another c-section. and i felt really comfortable that the nurses and i were on the same page. they explained to me the higher risk of rupture with pitocin (which i already knew), and i felt better that they were taking that into consideration when determining the dose. it was just going to be a very low amount to get me started again.

so the hour came and went, and as i gritted my teeth through some really painful contractions i decided that if i was getting pitocin, i was getting an epidural. again, something i am normally against, but an unnatural pain deserves anesthetic. i checked with mark (his baby, too), and he was ok with it, so we called the anesthesiologist. she did a really good job, let mark stay in the room, and didn't give me so much that i couldn't feel my legs like with seamus. we waited until we were sure it had kicked in (and boy it helped), and they checked me again before starting the pitocin. good thing -- i was 8 cm! so we dropped that plan and in about ten minutes they had me start pushing. that was an interesting experience. hermann is a teaching hospital, so they crowded what appeared to be every nurse, resident, and attending in the hospital into my room. i had my feet up in the stirrups (i like to push that way), so i was pretty exposed. it was kind of uncomfortable at the time, so i kept looking into the ceiling lights to avoid looking anyone in the eye, but now i find it pretty amusing. mark said it was like being in an episode of scrubs.

aisling renee was born at 2:08pm, weighing 7 lbs., 7 oz. and measuring 19 inches.

the hospital stay was pretty short and uneventful. they let us room in, they bathed her in the room with only a minor fuss (i said we'd talk about it when mark got back from his cigarette break, they came back and said ok we'll do it your way), and they didn't have a problem with us refusing pretty much all the standard stuff they do to newborns. in fact, when i signed the forms the nurse mainly seemed to want to assure me that i had a right to refuse but they needed my signature to prove that they hadn't screwed up and forgotten about it.

granny and papa came to visit shortly before aisling was born -- they were already in the med center getting papa's chemo treatment -- and angie visited that night. mike came the next day and brought us the carseat the he and my mom were getting us for christmas (we thought we had more time!), but he wasn't able to come to the room because he had to get back to work. so he still hasn't seen her (though my mom came by the house wednesday -- she was totally excited. we get very few girls in our family and now i have 3!)

the only really bad part was that a couple of hours before aisling was born, mark was checking his work blackberry, and he got an email he wasn't supposed to see telling his coworkers that mark no longer works there. the s.o.b.s fired him while i was in labor. (his recruiter had been trying to call, but mark's personal cell was shut off.) and just like his last job, it was totally without warning beforehand or explanation afterwards. this whole being a disposable contractor thing is starting to suck big time. also, mark's dad was in a car accident monday night. hit a woman who was running a red light and driving on a suspended license. his car was totaled, but he's ok.

i do kind of regret that once again my maiden name is on the birth certificate. i still haven't had it legally changed. i really need to do that.

oh -- pics coming soon. this entry took for-freaking-ever (2 hours) to write because i've been doing school with the kids and helping them talk to their mom on yahoo, so i'll have to do that later. for now, i'm gonna go get my baby.

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