Memorial Day 2012

[Alternately titled: Holy Beans, We Have Another Baby Now!]

First and foremost: here is little BooBoo now:

Piper Joy Livingston, born May 28, 2012 @ 6:48 P.M. 

7 pounds, 8 ounces, 20 inches long

We finally named her since they won't let you leave the hospital with a nameless babe!

I figured I better write down Piper's birth story so Dave can force me to read and remember it some time in the future when I suggest that we have more kids!  If you care for a Myla birthday refresher, you'll find that here.

Full disclosure: this is a birth story.  If you know anything about childbirth, you can probably make an informed decision as to whether or not you should continue reading.

Duh.

The Background

     Since Myla arrived one week early and I was already 2 cm dilated at 36 weeks, my MIL came into town a little early to wait for baby with us.  Basically, this means that once I hit 37 weeks, I was ready to get this show on the road.  I literally thought "today might be it!" every.single.day.  Not so.  By the week of my due date, I had pretty much given up.  We scheduled an induction for May 31st, 6 days after my due date.  The doc would only let me go up to a week overdue.

The Good 

     Monday morning around 3:00A.M., I woke up with some cramping contractions.  After lying in bed for a few of them, I decided to start timing them and not get my hopes up.  Sure enough, they weren't strong, but were 7-10 minutes apart for a while.  They slowed down enough for me to have a regular(ish) morning.  By that I mean, I ate a waffle for breakfast and a bowl of ice cream around 8:30, because how could I know if I would be able to have ice cream later on that day or not?!  Since the discomfort was manageable, we ran some errands in the morning and went to Schlotsky's for lunch.  For some reason, I decided that a sandwich was what you eat when in labor.  By about noon, contractions started to feel more uncomfortable (where I would stop talking/eating), but still not severely painful.

For some reason, we still headed to my folks' for some Memorial day celebrations and back home to hunker down before hospital time.

The Bad

I'll go into an approximate timeline here, since the whole thing becomes a blur anyway.

2:00-4:15: hanging at home, take a bath, lie in bed for a while

4:30:  Every other contraction or so really hurts, so I tell Dave I am ready to go to the hospital when he is.

We don't really make phone calls, because I figure I will have to get settled in anyway.

5:00: We get into a room, I change, and we start some paperwork.  Ok, I would call this pain now.

As a little background info, I sort of wanted to try an unmedicated childbirth this go-round.  I had an epidural with Myla and loved it, but I wanted to see if I could do it without one (which is also why I really wanted to avoid the dreaded Pitocin).

The Ugly

5ish: I get checked.  6cm dilated.  Then, it goes something like this: get an IV, sign something, feel nauseated, ask for barf drugs, sign something, contraction, get barf drugs thank you Lord, sign something, this is horrible, oh crap.

Time? I get checked.  7-8 cm.  Ask for an epidural.  I think I might die here today.  Nurse realizes things are moving quickly, and isn't sure if she will finish my medical background paperwork in time.  She says the anesthesiologist is on his way.  On his way from where?!  She doesn't know. 

Time? The pressure.  You know the one.  I know what this means, and I'm terrified.  The drug doc arrives and gives me the option of a spinal that will work for 90 minutes because it's so late in the game.  I am starting to freak out because I know I can't sit up at all (without dying, remember?).  I turn him down and probably start sobbing or something.  Who even knows.  I get checked, and it's go time...

...only, my doctor hasn't arrived yet.  I don't think the nurse knew I would go from 6-10cm in a little over an hour.  I have to keep doing the stupid "blow the candle out" during contractions to keep from pushing.  ANYWAY, to shorten this novel, Dr. Awesome (a.k.a. Nguyen) makes it there, calmly delivers Miss Piper after 2 contractions, and the rest is history.

Things that may have been whispered/spoken/shouted at some point:
     Oh God, please help me Jesus, help me Jesus.
     Please don't touch me, it makes it worse.
     Why do people do this?
     How did my mom do this?
     I've been trying the candle thing!
     (Doc: Ok, grab your legs and push) NO, I CAN'T! I CAN'T!
     I can't believe I'm screaming.  I'm like those screaming people on tv. I sound so dumb!
     I'm sorry for saying don't touch me.
     Dr. Nguyen, did you have to leave your Memorial Day party for this?
     Oh my gosh.  I am NEVER doing that again.  
    
Needless to say, I didn't get to watch High School Musical this time around.

We had to give her a cookie to act like she enjoys being a big sister so far.  And we had to give Mama the traditional post-childbirth meal: Whataburger.

This may have been incoherent, but hey, I can still blame strange behavior on the hormones, right?  And you thought this post would be about a family barbeque or something.