My Reflections.

I don't know if I can follow Seth's eloquent post, but I will do my best. He said my own reflections were coming, and I waited until I could sit on the computer chair. It's been two weeks, and I can now sit! I enjoy reading other ladies' birth stories, so I wanted to write mine as well. So, consider yourself warned: this post contains Eli's birth-story details.

Ahem, we were admitted to Baltimore Washington Medical Center on Thursday the 29th of October (my grandma's 84th b-day). We went in at 6-ish at night and I was put on a low dose of pitocin. I stayed on it all night in hopes that it would "get things started." I went in expecting a long labor, and that's what I got. I had one doctor looking after me that night that said I was 1 cm, with low fluid, and she did an ultrasound at 2 am because she thought Elijah was breech.....I didn't sleep at all that night. I had myself convinced by morning that I should have a c-section since I was scheduled for one at 1 pm anyway.....But, by 9 am my Dr, what a lovely man, told me I was a "floppy 4-5 cm" and that although it would be easier for him to go see other patients and return at 1:00 to do my c-section, that he believed I could do it and that I should continue with my trial of labor. He stayed by my side for the entire time.

He had them place my epidural (it was REALLY creepy to get one when I wasn't even in pain). After my epidural my pit was turned up (still very very low dose though), and I went into a nice labor pattern. Once I was uncomfortable they hooked up my epidural medicine. Once I was numb Dr. Parshad broke my water. He said the other doctor was "a moron" because I actually had more fluid than normal.

Once my water was broken I was a 6...then like 20 minutes later I felt the most unearthly pressure. I had never felt anything like that before and I thought my uterus was exploding. My doctor laughed and said I was 10 and that it was time to push. My epidural was kept at a low dose so that we could make sure that I could feel what was going on. I squatted and pushed for what felt like an eternity. I kept having the images from Andy Andersen's physiology movie "birth in the squatting postion" flashing through my mind. It was so weird to feel an urge like that to push, I was even grunting. I did NOT feel beautiful.

I hated the squatting by the way, so I laid down and 1 hour and 5 minutes later Elijah was born! They did lose Eli's heart beat for about 3 minutes just before he came out. I was FREAKING out but my doctor helped me calm down and become rational again. It turns out that since the hospital women's center was BRAND new, the nurses didn't know how to use the equipment properly....Eli was just fine. I did end up tearing (blech) right at the last second, but it must not have been too bad, because I can now sit down. It was amazing to not have to have a surgery again, and I would recommend a vbac to anyone.

Elijah was 9 lb 3 ounces and 22 and 1/4 inches. My doc called him a brute....but he's really just the cutest thing in the whole world.

My hospital stay was interesting, the nurses brought me the wrong baby at 1 am. It was the night after my labor and I hadn't slept at all the night before, plus I had taken percocet, so I was out of it. I remember they handed me my baby to nurse and I thought to myself "he's not as cute as I remember, oh well." I nursed him, sent him back to the nursery and as soon as I was asleep two nurses marched in and flipped all my lights on. They said they needed to "discuss an incident." I thought they were going to tell me that my baby had had a seizure or that someone had dropped him. They then explained that they had brought me the wrong kid........they then chastized me with this "always always always check your arm band and make sure it matches your baby's arm band." My response was: "always always always bring me the right baby." There were only 2 babies in the nursery....both boys, both had dark hair, both were 9 pounds........anyway I didnt' sleep after that because they had to do HIV tests and other crap like that. They're lucky I'm mormon :).

My Dr. was upset the next morning, because both of the baby switch patients were his....Other than that things were great.

We went home on Sunday and were admitted to the hospital in Annapolis on Monday because Eli's bilirubin was 20....SO we spent the day and night in peds. He got a nice tan, his levels came down, and we came home. Things really went smoothly.

Eli is an angel but he likes to party all night. Hopefully he'll figure that out before too long. He had his first bath today, and we are really enjoying having him in our family.