March 19th

I have wanted to be able to have time to sit down and blog since the night Kaleb was born, but there is always a choice to be made between sleep and blogging... I guess you can guess what has won out! On March 18th we went to the doctor and my blood pressure was OK, but it had been up for several days before that. I had been on bed rest since Monday (if you can call it bed rest when you have 2 kids to take care of). I had so much help from family and friends, but it's hard to totally relax and let someone else take over your job as Mom. My doctor decided (after consulting with other doctors and thinking about it for awhile) to send us to the hospital and induce labor at 36 weeks and 4 days. My good friend Kim lost her little girl to an abruption at 36 weeks, and she had the same problems with her blood pressure going up and down. My doctor was also Kim's doctor and I felt that she knew what was best so we went home...after running some errands, and got to the hospital around 4:30. The nurses got my IV started (and Trudy did such a GREAT job!), my blood pressure was around 114 over 73, and I was so relaxed so they didn't have to start me on any Magnesium (which is AWFUL stuff). They gave me a Cervadil to start thinning my cervix and a sleeping pill to help me rest...and rest I did! The next morning the Pitosin was started to get my labor going, and I was cramping some when DR Henderson got there to break my water. I was only dilated to 2. About 9 or so I was hurting to the point that I was having to breathe through contractions, not too bad, but I was feeling it. The nurse came in and offered to ask for my epidural, and I said "sure, why not!" I got my epidural, and let me just say that I was GOOD! I slept until I started pushing. I felt like they had given me another sleeping pill, but I think it was just that for the first time in a long time I felt like I could relax and just sleep! (I think I would have another baby just to get that few hours of total RELAXING SLEEP again. It was WONDERFUL!) My epidural was pretty strong because when the nurses came in to get me to start pushing they had to hold my legs in the stirrups...I kept thinking "whose legs are those?" I couldn't feel a thing! From the time I had my epidural to the time I had Kaleb I went pretty fast I think. They put a monitor on Kaleb's head and I do remember sometimes waking up and wondering why his heartbeat kept slowing down. Apparently, they were concerned because they had me start pushing at 8 and I went to 10 pretty fast. DR Henderson got there and suited up in 4 minutes, and I pushed constantly for the next few minutes, even when I wasn't having contractions...they just kept saying "let's get him out". I just remember wishing that someone would come help me by holding my shoulders up. I was so exhausted I felt like I was riding a bicycle up a HUGE hill. I could just see a big glass of ice water and I wanted it "right now". I kept looking at Jason and Kim and wishing I could get their attention to help me, but apparently the "show" was too good to pay attention to me. They were totally absorbed in the excitement and the nurses couldn't leave my legs for fear I'd fall off the bed! I'm sure it would have been hillarious if it hadn't been so urgent. When Kaleb was finally born I heard a nurse say the cord was around his neck...I couldn't hear a lot b/c I just kept waiting to hear my baby cry... It seemed like forever, but finally he did start crying. It was a screeching cry...unlike an of my other babies...and he was BLUE. They worked on him for a few minutes, and then handed him to me for about 2 minutes. Jason wanted to get a picture of the DR with Kaleb so he took him and handed him to her, and that was the last time I held my baby for many days!