chunkySay my name girl
Moto MotoErik Louis Jardina
9lbs 13oz
21.5”
1/19/11
8:38 pm
I’d been having contractions irregularly since Saturday afternoon. They were strong enough by Sunday for me to call my brother and ask him to stay in Atlanta so he could watch Jake when I went into active labor (he was scheduled to work this week, which is a three hour drive away). After Monday’s non-stress test I learned that those contractions had all but faded away. Tuesday they returned, but they didn’t seem near as strong and certainly still weren’t organized enough. Since I’d been having those same kind of menstrual cramp type contractions for weeks, I started to feel like the girl who cried wolf.
Between these annoying contractions, having to pee and Jake coughing I was waking up every hour all night. Around the 2am hour when I woke up I mentally made a list of the errands I would run in the morning. When I woke up around 3am, my first thought was that I needed to go ahead and put all the hospital bags and stuff in the truck just in case my water broke in Lowe’s. I don’t know why that thought popped into my head, but when I got up for the day I figured it couldn’t hurt to be prepared. I’m glad I did, since it saved me a trip home later.
So Jake and I woke up and headed out for Lowe’s, Hobby Lobby and the car wash (Jake’s favorite activity of late). In Hobby Lobby the contractions got a bit stronger, and when I went to the bathroom I saw bloody show. My heart told me I was in the beginning of active labor, but I second guessed myself since I’d thought that so many times before. So I finished up there and headed to the car wash. About the time the colored soap hit the windshield I decided that my plan of action would be to go get Jason, eat some lunch at Zaxby’s and if I was still contracting to go on in to the hospital.
But I was very early for our scheduled lunch and Jason was protesting. I ended up having to say “Jason I’m in labor. Come out here!” to get him to leave. After that I saw a flurry of activity in his office as he gathered his things and told people he was outta there. When he got into the SUV I told him my plan. For months people had been telling him that the second child comes quicker than the first, and he was so not down with my plan to sit and eat somewhere. But I insisted I get something to eat so we went to Burger King. I also insisted I go inside to pee, which he didn’t like but did anyway. I kept telling him we had time and he kept insisting we didn’t.
At this point I’m still not entirely sure I’m in active labor and I’m thinking they’ll send me home. We called my brother and told him we’d be dropping Jake off and heading in to the hospital, which we did. My water hadn’t broken and the contractions were no more regular but I figured I was committed to going in at that point. Called the OB practice on the phone and they put me on hold for a good bit which drove Jason batty. He wasn’t as nervous as when I was in labor with Jake, but he was still pretty nervous. I found out that my favorite midwife (Dixie) and my favorite OB (Dr. Dennard) were on call so I felt pretty lucky.
Once we got to the hospital he calmed down and we settled in the lobby to wait for a delivery room. Apparently the full moon plus a front coming in had lots of ladies going into labor. We waited for about an hour before they took us back and we got situated. I put on the oh-so-lovely hospital issue gown and they strapped monitors on me and the whole time I’m still thinking I’m probably not in active labor and they’ll send me home and I’ll be completely embarrassed.
Then Dixie came in and checked me and said that I was still the same 3cm and 50% I was the week before, but that she wouldn’t be sending me home. She would give me a bit of time to progress and then if nothing happened they’d go ahead and break my water and if nothing happened after that they’d bring on the Pitocin. I called Mom and told her I was in the hospital in early, early labor and to go ahead and make the drive over. At this point both Dixie and the nurse Stephanie said that I had a very happy baby after seeing his heartbeat.
Jason wasn’t in comfortable clothes and we hadn’t packed him any so I sent him home to change and get a few things I’d left like my laptop. While he was gone I called and checked on my brother and Jake, who were having an awesome time. I also called my Dad and left a message. Then the contractions really started kicking in. I asked the nurse if I could get unstrapped so I could walk around and she got the okay for me to be off the monitors for 45 minutes of every hour. The first cycle went well. I was able to walk and breathe through the contractions even though they were getting stronger, and Erik cooperated for the 15 minutes and let them get a good track on his heartbeat.
The second hour was harder. Jason showed up right after they’d made me get back into bed and strapped on the external monitors. Erik kept moving away from the monitor so they couldn’t get a good track on his heartbeat. The 15 minutes came and went and they couldn’t unstrap me. At this point there was no way I could sit still through the contractions which wasn’t helping. I was sitting on the edge of the bed trying to do whatever I could think of to mitigate the pain and it wasn’t helping. I know now that I should have researched methods of pain management a bit better. Reminding myself to breathe through the contractions was about as good as I could do at that point. I had a death grip on the bed rail and was kicking my feet against the side of the bed and OMG IT HURT.
Looking back on it, I was probably in transition at this point. When they checked me I was at 8cm. All I knew was that if I couldn’t move and walk around or get in the shower I wasn’t going to make it. I caved and called for the epidural. At first I told them I wanted to take a shower before I got the epidural. After another 20 minutes or so of me being unable to move and sitting on the side of the bed telling myself to breathe and saying OH GOD over and over again I finally told them to forget the shower and get me the drugs! The anesthesiologist finally showed up maybe 10 minutes after that. When he went to numb my back he said it would feel like a bee sting, and about the same time I had another contraction so I started moaning and “OH GODing” and he said that the worst part was over and everyone said that hurt, to which I responded that I thought the worst part was the contraction I was having and to get on with it. He laughed and said, “well, yeah, there’s that.” He ended up repositioning it 3 times. I’m not sure if he just didn’t get a clean line the first time or if I was moving too much.
In any case, he got the line in and as he was leaving shouted a parting “War Eagle!” to which we responded with “Roll Tide” (Jason had on his Alabama cap) and everyone laughed. The relief from the contractions was almost immediate. Very soon after that I started begging them to turn it down. I couldn’t feel a damn thing, and I didn’t like it. They eventually turned it down to 8 (most people have it at 14). Two hours later I still couldn’t feel anything and Dixie came in to check me, said I was ready to go and she could feel the head and the flurry of activity started. Nurses came in to set up the baby area (Mom calls it the “baby baker” and Jason calls it the “fryolater”) and the stuff they needed for both of us for the actual birth. They turned the epidural off completely but it was too late.
Mom had arrived soon after the epidural went in, but the actual birth is something Jason and I like to keep between us so I kicked her out to the waiting room. They sat me up and put my legs up and Dixie was putting one arm in her gown when I laughed at something random and her eyes got really big and she yelled at me not to laugh. Then they positioned the mirror and I could see Erik’s head starting to crown. When I laughed I was inadvertently pushing him out. Dixie finished getting dressed, sat down and had me push and the head was out. Then she told me to push again and out came his shoulders and I had a baby on my belly. They pointed out that he had a true knot in his umbilical cord and showed it to me. It could have caused him distress, but apparently it wasn’t tight enough to bother him. I knew he was a mover but he had literally tied a knot in his cord. This happens in just 1% of pregnancies, and generally in twin pregnancies where the twins share an amniotic sac. I kept telling everyone he was exceptionally active in the womb, and that certainly proves it! I wish we had gotten a picture of it.
I can’t say that I regret getting the epidural, because seriously I wasn’t dealing well with the pain and not being able to get up or move around made it much worse. But I do wish I’d had another option in between going without and having the epidural knock out all feeling and ability to move. While pushing I couldn’t feel a single thing and it really bothered me. Mom kept asking me why I wanted to feel anything anyway. I just hate that totally numb sensation and feeling rather useless. They kept saying to push harder and I was like I’m doing the best I can for not being able to feel a damn thing!
I think if I had known just how close I was, and the monitoring had gone better and I’d been able to be unhooked I may have made it. Next time I’ll research coping methods better and see how far I get. I’m pretty happy about getting to 8cm. I do think it helped this birth go much faster. I started truly contracting around 4pm and he was out at 8:38.
He stayed on my belly for a bit, but they had me start roughing him up because his color was off. Then they took him over to the baby baker and started talking in low tones. Jason had gone to get Mom and bring her back in (she was in the waiting area maybe 30 minutes) and they were both hovering around listening but I couldn’t hear what was happening. I was still delivering the placenta and getting stitched up (I had a tiny, one degree tear). He was in respiratory distress because all the fluid wasn’t coming out of his lungs. They kept saying he was “flaring”. They were trying to make him cry and called someone from the pediatric unit. I freaked out a bit. But by the time she got to our room he was nice and pink and doing well. They gave him back to me and we snuggled until the lady from the nursery came to admit him.
The nurse who came in to weigh and measure him said “Congratulations! You’ve had a linebacker.” Which had us giggling. That began the comments about what a chunk he is. And how adorable he is because he has dimples. I’ve taken to calling him Chunky Monkey or Moto Moto (after the hippo in Madagascar 2).
They were so slammed with people that there weren’t enough staff in the nursery to do the admitting routine in the delivery room. So they had to take him up to the nursery to get him admitted and bathed. Jason went with them just to keep an eye on Erik. Since I had gestational diabetes they also drew a blood sugar on him.
Meanwhile I got all cleaned up and moved into a regular room, right across from the nursery and waited for them to bring him to me. And waited. And waited. About an hour and a half later the nursery nurse came in and told me that his initial blood sugar was 16, and that if it had been 14 he would have gone straight to NICU. He had to have two readings of 40 or better in order to come in with me. His second reading was 35. At midnight it came up to 59 and the 1am reading was 61. After that they gave him his bath and he finally came to room with me. They checked again at 5am and it was 51, so they declared him stable and good. While he was in the nursery in the baby baker he took full advantage of being able to stretch out.
The pediatrician checked him out this morning and said his color is great and he’s fine overall. He is grunting/snoring/making the most adorable noises you’ve ever heard and apparently that’s due to fluid still in his lungs. The pediatrician decided to take a chest xray just to “keep the evil spirits at bay” (I love my pediatric staff). The xray came back and they said that there wasn’t cause to do anything aside from just keep an eye on him. (Mom’s quipped that he’s probably radioactive after having an xray on his little body. But then she just said that his clothes don’t fit and his socks and hat keep falling off because he’s too fat. LOL)
So far he’s eating good and is much more alert than Jake was at this point. He will latch and get a few good sucks before he decides it’s all too much trouble and falls asleep again. LOL My babies love to sleep the first few days, which is a blessing really.
Dixie came by this morning and said since everything was going well and we’d be released tomorrow. There’s no checkout time so hopefully we can get out of here in advance of rush hour. We just have to wait for the pediatrician to check him again, his circumcision and the hearing test to be done and all the paperwork filled out.
So far Jake is doing really well with him. He wanted to hold the baby and lay in the bed with me and Erik for a while just looking at him. When Erik started crying Jake got upset too and kept telling me he was crying. He later said that Erik was cute. I miss him so much and it broke my heart when they left and he kept saying I had to go home too. I’m glad I’ll get to go home tomorrow.
I have a weird face because we were trying to get Jake not to pull a goofy face and just smile.
Tons more pictures at:
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