I guess I can start with these photos. They were taken Oct. 21, when we decided to take advantage of the beautiful autumn day and go for a drive/picnic. Using our mini tripod, we spent some time taking goofy pictures. It's a good thing no one else was around to witness!
And then less than 24 hours later, it wasn't just the two of us anymore.
It all started just past midnight. I woke up to what I can only describe as a strange sound...except I didn't hear the sound, I felt it in my lower abdomen. It was kind of like the sound of squeezing bubble wrap. With the sound came cramps, but at that point I thought they were practice contractions, especially because one was followed by another without much interval.
Although I didn't think it was labor, I was pretty shaken because I was worried I had done something to harm the baby. Ko-chan encouraged me to go to the bathroom to see if maybe my water had broken, and I was relieved to find no indication of that. Then, a couple of minutes later when I got out of bed again, I felt it--my water had broken after all.
We called the hospital to let them know we were on our way (good thing we're only a few minutes by car), and by 12:30 I was in the labor room. It turned out I was already having contractions at 5 minute intervals, and the midwife predicted that based on her examination, the baby would be born by the time it was light outside.
I progressed fairly well until I was about 8-9 cm dilated. It was past dawn by then and there didn't seem to be an end in sight. At that point the doctors came in and said that my contractions were too weak (they sure didn't feel that way!!) and they may have to "encourage" labor by medication if the baby started to look under stress. That went on for a couple of hours (did I mention that there was no pain relief?) and finally I got the go ahead to start pushing. I don't know how long that continued, but it seemed like forever before they let me in the delivery room. Once in the delivery room, though, the baby was out within 20 minutes.
In total my labor lasted close to 11 hours. People tell me it was a short labor considering this is my first baby, but it sure didn't feel short. The first couple of days I swore I'd never do it again, but now that I'm recovering and that it's likely the next time will be a little easier, I just might consider having a second child...
Right now, though, I've got my hands full with Evan. I think in my next post I'll go on and on about how adorable he is.
No comments:
Post a Comment