Labor Day

Ok, here is my account of the day I had Carly. Some of it is fuzzy because it was drug induced not to mention I was exhausted!

I'm going to start the story from where I left off on this post.

..............they checked me again around 12 and I was only 3cm dilated and she was still at a negative 3 station or "really high". Since she wasn't coming down the birth canal on her own they decided to urge the process along by breaking my water. (What a weird sensation! To be leaking cups and cups of water out of your va-jay-jay and have no control of it.) Almost instantly, the contractions went from tolerable to pretty damn painful.

Just as soon as my first serious contraction hit they gave me the pitocin drip (induction meds) in my IV and that was that! My pain went from 0 to 60 in an instant. The pain was out of this world and I don't remember much past this point. My Mom tells me I stayed like that, laboring through one painful contraction after the next, for a few hours before they checked me again. Carly was still "high" so they gave me a synthetic narcotic to "take the edge off". Take the edge off of what - I don't know -- because I still hurt and BAD. No epidural for me though because I wasn't very dilated.

Finally the doc came in and said I could have the epidural. There was a little bit of epidural drama because I couldn't sit still enough for it. They insisted that I sit up instead of doing it the lying down way. Personally I think my anesthesiologist was a royal C-word that rhymes with bunt -- but whatever. Eventually I got to a point where I could put both my butt checks down on the bed and get in to a sitting position so they could give me the epidural. Eric held my feet the whole time while I tried to "relax my shoulders" (hardy har har). Once the epidural was in I pretty much passed out.

Carly's heart rate dropped off the charts as soon as they gave me the epidural. Suddenly there were 6 nurses huddling over me and I had an oxygen mask on. They must have figured it out though because I fell asleep and woke up to the doctor telling me we were heading in to the C-Section plan. FINE BY ME -- I'd had it for the day!

Once they decided on a C-Section everything went really fast. Eric had to get dressed immediately. The new anesthesiologist came to give me a different type of epidural that numbed me from the chest down. Then I was in the operating room. Carly came out but not without a little struggle. Apparently her head was a little lodged in my pelvis so it took a few tugs. Yes, tugs. Once out they told me she had the cord wrapped around her neck and she was "sunny side up". Those two factors would have made delivering her vaginally impossible they said.

They also said my Uterus is unusually thin. Vedry thin for a woman who had never given birth before. So they said I'm not a candidate for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). I know this would upset a lot of women -- but I feel like I experienced the contractions and labor and I don't need to do that again. =) On top of that, they also told me of another pregnancy with hypertension is very likely so a scheduled C-Section will probably be the route for the next baby also. As I said -- FINE BY ME.