My So Called Life: November 2011

I know that I haven’t got to write in a while but I have a great excuse! On November 4th Steveo and I welcomed our third little man into the world. And this little man was very stubborn about making his entrance. We tried everything we could possibly do to induce labor naturally. I got a labor inducing massage, took evening primrose oil, did every pressure point I could find on YouTube, and even took Castor oil. Nothing worked besides giving me contractions for about an hour, only for them to stop. Finally my doctor recommended induction (ugh pitocin!) when it looked like I was approaching 42 weeks.

I was so depressed a few days before I had to go in. On one hand I was getting my doctor who knew what my wishes were for this labor, but on the other hand I really wanted to labor at home as long as I could and I felt like everything that I had planned for this labor was just gone out the window. My only excitment was that I had a great doula who I felt like I was really connecting with. So friday morning came and we checked in and got the process started. Around 930 my doula showed up and we spent the next hour just hanging out. Finally contrations were starting but nothing was really happening so we decided to try different positions to see what worked for me. Steve and my doula were great, but my nurse was negative nancy and giving me every horror situation that she could.

Finally at 12 my labor got serious yay! One minute I was lauging through a contration and the next one almost took my breath away and I realized that things were finally happening. The pain was pretty intense but Steve and Melanie (my doula) were really great about trying to get me comfortable and helping with the pain. Then all of the sudden my body has this tremendous urge to push and holy cow this is really happening. My legs are shaking and I am starting to doubt myself at this point. The stupid tigger sticker that someone has put on the ceiling that was annoying me greatly is now my focal point and helping me get through this. After being told not to push even though my body is the doctor is finally there and things are being all set up. I really wanted a quiet labor because I tend to freak out when too much is going on at once all of the sudden my mom is there along with a respiratory team (there was meconium in my water) and madness is about to break loose. Did I mention that at this point I also have an upper respiratory infection and breathing is hard to do in general? Yes so when it comes time to push I am only making it to the count of 5, everything is completely painful, I am crying and trying to not freak out on everyone because they are all talking!!!!

After about 40 minutes of on and off pushing, me getting almost hysterical because the pain is so bad I start screaming to cut the child out of me, give me an epidural, do something because I am not pushing this child out. My poor doctor tried to make a few jokes to which I was a complete brat to and snapping at everyone. Finally the doctor told me the way he could help is try and vaccum this baby out to which I agree. THE MOST PAINFUL THING EVER!!!! After about 3 attempts a head finally comes out followed by a fat body. I hear a sweet first cry and this large child is put on my chest.

At this point I am crying even more because I felt like such a punk for the way I acted, some words I said (sorry Mom), and because I doubted myself. I keep appologizing to mister Chaim Nole and kissing his sweet little head. I was very happy that he was fine and hadn't swallowed any meconium and my mouth hit the floor when we all saw how much he weighed. My fat little man was 10 pounds 10 ounces and 22 inches long. Geez no wonder it hurt so much between his size and the fact that he was face up (which makes labor harder apparently) I no longer felt bad for crying like a little girl ha! So here are some pictures of my sweet little man. He definitely has his own little attitude and the boys love him to pieces.But we are slowly learning to deal with the ups and downs and enjoying every minute of it (ok the non-screaming minutes) with him in our family. And even though at the time I thought my labor was so painful it was a great experience and I wouldn't change any of it. And even though I told Steveo no more kids I would totally go natural again, I just felt so great after and the recovery and pain wasn't that bad and I didn't feel all drugged up. I know that you don't get to hear that very much after a hard labor :)