Peas' dramatic arrival

Nothing can be easy in life that is worth having right? Well then my children should be preparing to accomplish something extraordinary because of all of the work that even getting them here safely has been!

After the fun of morning sickness and the fatigue of the first trimester. I was eager to move on to bigger and better things. Bigger and better complications maybe.....

She measured small from the 20 u/s...hmmm let the frequent md appts start. Delightful. They also started administering weekly 17p injections to hopefully maintain my pregnancy a little longer...yeah that worked well.

at 27 weeks I abrupted slightly and got put on strict bed rest. Ever done bed rest with 2 children?? Yep contradiction in terms; rest in general with 2 kids is a contradiction in terms.

I continued to dilate and have contractions.... at 30 weeks we had the fun of pre-term labor and the ensuing party that is magnesium sulfate I would not wish that on my worst enemy. Seriously nasty stuff.

My doctor ordered a follow up u/s for that week because I had continued to measure small and the baby did not appear to gain weight well. The follow up u/s confirmed that. We were then sent to an MFM for more in depth diagnosis and treatment. The doppler studies confirmed that blood flow through the cord was not optimal and that the baby was in fact small. Nope nothing I could do about it, just wait, watch, and worry, frantically. It was decided that I would go back for weekly doppler studies and if things got worse it was baby-time.

Early Friday morning the next week, my water broke. I did what every 3rd time mom would do, woke up husband told him to get me a towel and turned over and went back to sleep. It was three am, what was I going to to do? Sit in an uncomfy bed at the hospital?? Nope.

When I could bear the anxiety no longer, I got up and surfed the net, had breakfast, showered etc. Called OB, was told to go to hospital. I had to stop at Kohls to pick up some last minute items, namely baby clothes.

The doctor confirmed that my bag had broken and was sent to labor and delivery, he wanted to induce right away but had to call and check with the MFM, she wanted to wait for three days...until I was officially 34 weeks before induction, they would not stop labor if it started, but would not start it until 34 weeks. More bed rest, this time in the hospital.

Monday came...It my attempts at laboring alone was not effective. So pit was started, nothing happened. Very annoying. I decided to lay down and try and rest in the afternoon after all day of intermittent contractions that were ineffective. I was beginning to think about the possibility of a c-section. She had other plans. As soon as I woke up contractions were hard and fast, true pit contractions.

3.5 cm crap..hours later...no change, baby was lower. Shift change, mean nurse came on see previous post. No cervical change. I was afraid I could not handle the labor.

Had husband call Super Doula Neighbor. Wow. having her there really helped. Just the presence of another woman helped and I have never felt so secure in such a vulnerable situation.

Having them both there helped me through the contractions, the feeling for no control, helpless....not good feeling.

I decided that I wanted an epidural, the contractions were to fast and too hard. In the time intervening between asking for the drugs and being able to get them, they needed to run in fluid to flush out other meds. I asked for the pit to be turned down. The nurse, turned off the pit which made all of the difference of the world. My body was allowed to then do its job.

The anesthesiologist arrived to administer the drugs, the nurse helped me sit up to get the medication, as soon as I sat up I realized that there was not going to be time to get the drugs. The baby was coming, right then. NICU team was called, in-house OB was called, things were prepped for delivery.....however Peas, did not want to wait for anyone else to get ready.

With B, Super Doula, and the nurses all telling me not to push (I wasn't) But who has any control at that point....Not pushing was futile; she was coming.

In a second Peas made her arrival on to the bed assisted by two nurses. She was immediately handed off to the NICU team. She needed a little help waking up but over all she did pretty well.

Very soon after the in-house OB walked in and was still half asleep. He seemed surprised to have missed all of the fun. Minutes later my OB arrived again surprised that things moved so fast.

I got to hold Peas for a second before she was taken to the nursery for some more help. Soon after I got to get cleaned up and get some rest.

It was a dramatic experience but one that I would not trade. I am so glad that I did not get any drugs. I liked feeling a part of the labor and delivery, I liked being fully aware and conscious of it. If we ever have another I would like to do it without drugs again.