Good news! On October 25th, 2004 JONAS ELISHA was born at 11:33 AM. He weighed 7lbs, 11.6 oz. and was 20.5 inches long.
I couldn't sleep well on the night of the 24th, and finally my water broke at about 2:20 am. I told my husband and took a shower while he called the hospital to tell them we were comming. When we got there at about 3:30, the nurses didn't seem to believe me that I was in labor, because I hadn't yet felt any contractions. Also, they said that from my urine sample it didn't look like my water had broken.
Thankfully, they were mistaken because by the time I was all hooked up to monitors, I was having contractions 5 minutes apart and was dialated to 3.75 cm. All of the nurses were then amazed that I couldn't feel my contractions.
Around 5 a.m. or so, I was wheeled into Labor and Delivery and was allowed to use the bathroom "one last time" on my own before they hooked me up to various devices for monitoring. I briefly debated not having an epidural, since I could hardly feel my contractions, but thankfully I came to my senses at accepted it. I was afraid the pain would get too intense and then it would be too late to have the drugs. It made my legs really numb like they were asleep. Labor progressed quickly, as if the hands on the clock were spinning round and round and not dependant on actual time.
The baby's heartrate was very low and so the doctors decided that he should come out fast. I had pitocin and also they used the forceps to pull him out, which now they call "spoons", in an effort to make them sound friendly.
The worst part of labor was the last 2 hours. The baby was low in my pelvis and it created alot of pressure which can't be relieved by drugs. Also, the "pushing phase" seemed to last forever, although it was only about 30 minutes.
When Jonas finally came out he was so calm and serene. It was beautiful. He wasn't even slimy when they gave him to me. He didn't cry until they gave him a bath about 20 minutes later.
Then came the other bad part of me being "sewn up" while Jonas had his exams in the corner of the room. He got a 9 for his apgar score! Go boy!
It was the perfect day for him to be born. My brother was in town for a few days, and my mom was off work. All of the family and friends who I wanted to come were able to visit us in the 2 days we stayed in the hospital.
I got really sick the night of the birth and delivered an amazingly huge bloodclot. The nurse saved it to show the other nurses and I heard them talking about how big it was. They said it was the size of a softball. Then she pressed on my abdomen and tons of blood poured out of me. I refused to look so I wouldn't barf.

****to be continued****
ckb

Friday, Oct. 29, 2004 at 7:44 PM