Adventures in Modern Motherhood

Cassidy is here!!!

Posted on November 8, 2007. Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cassidy |

Well, any of you who check Brian’s blog already know this.  Sorry I haven’t posted yet, but this is the first time I have been awake and without baby in arms, and when things are slow enough for me to post (finally!).  For those of you who don’t know, here are the details (feel free to skip through…when I say details, I mean it): 

Thursday afternoon when I left work, I made a (joking) comment to my boss and coworkers that it was time for me to leave and that hopefully I would go into labor that night and not see them tomorrow.  Little did I know, it was no joke.

We got home from work and it appeared to be a normal evening.  We ate dinner, then at about 10:00 pm I went to bed.  I watched TV for a little bit (my normal winding-down routine) and started getting very sleepy.  I remember thinking that I needed to turn the TV off and go to sleep, and even intended to do so, but I apparently fell asleep before I did.  At 11:08 (I remember the time because I was born at 11:08 am), I woke up to a strange feeling.  It felt an awful lot like I had started my period unexpectedly (women will know this feeling), but I knew that couldn’t be the case.  Then it hit me…OMG!  My water just broke!  I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom and GUSH…out it came.  Now, what is funny is that throughout my pregnancy, I would tell Brian that the moment that my water broke would not be like that scene from Coneheads where all of the sudden, she floods the living room.  Well, it sure felt like it was!  The people who say it feels like “a little trickle” have obviously never had this happen to them!  I put some other clothes on (a pair of sweats and a maternity t-shirt that I grew out of at about 6 months, so I had a mid-drift) and went downstairs as calmly as I could…which apparently wasn’t very calmly…according to Brian, I came flying down the stairs.

Me: “We need to go.”
Brian: “What?”
Me: “My water just broke.  We need to go.”

He jumps up and goes to get his things. I grab a Poise pad out of my hospital bag, hoping that it would serve to catch any fluid on the way to the hospital. He comes back down about 2 seconds later and we are off to the hospital! When we got to the hospital, the only door open was the emergency room door, so that is where we went. We walked in and people were all staring. We got a few “oohs” and one “we know what they’re here for”. We walked up to the nice man at the counter and I told him that I was 39 weeks pregnant and that my water broke at 11:08. He told me that he would call for someone to come get me. He calls and says (and I quote) “Hey, there. We have a water breaker here. Would you like to come and get her?” I almost died laughing. They were looking for a wheelchair for me and there happened to be an empty one in the waiting room. They asked the guy sitting next to the chair if it was being used. He told us that it was, but that she went to the bathroom and would be back in a minute. The ER tech told the guy that if she can walk to the bathroom, she is fine to be without a wheelchair for a few minutes and that I was in labor, so we were taking the chair. I hopped in, and a lady came to get us from labor and delivery.She wheeled us back there and they didn’t have a room ready quite yet (they were extremely busy), so we sat in the waiting room for about 20 minutes while they got me a labor and delivery room. At this point, I am gushing fluid with each contraction and I look like I am sitting in my chair peeing on myself. Brian went to get me some towels so I didn’t leave a puddle on the floor. That made me feel better for two reasons: 1 – people couldn’t see the huge wet spot on my pants. 2 – I felt (a little) less like I was sitting in my own pee. They had a room ready soon after that and they came to get me. At this point, my contractions were about 2 minutes apart and lasted about a minute. I didn’t feel any contractions before my water broke. When we got in the room, it was like a switch flipped. My contractions were no longer regular. They got me hooked up to an IV and let me sit there and see if my contractions would get regular on their own again. Nope…nothing doing. At about 8 Friday morning, Dr. B came in to take a look. He said that he didn’t like the contractions and the decision was made to go ahead and give me an Epidural (I was dilated to 3-4 cm at this time) and some Pitocin to help my contractions. The nurse (who clearly didn’t have it all together…more on that later) came to get me set up for my Epidural. The anesthesiologist came and gave me the Epidural (after a short argument with the nurse about whether or not Brian could be in the room while they administered it…he got to stay, by the way). Now, apparently at some point, the idiot nurse was supposed to give me a button for the Epidural as well. Well, she didn’t…and I didn’t know anything about a button. This would prove quite troublesome in a few hours.

As soon as the Epidural started taking effect, they gave me the Pitocin. At this point, I was feeling GOOOOOOOD. I’m sure Brian would have loved to have a video camera at the time. We chill for a while and they come check me again. I am now 8 cm dilated (don’t ask what time…I’m not really sure). A little while later, I call the nurse because I am starting to feel some pain with the contractions. She comes in and acts like it is normal. She says that means that things are progressing and she checks me. I am now dilated to a 9. At this point, I don’t know that there is a problem because I have never gone through this before. I think this was actually when the Epidural started to wear off, though. A few minutes later, I call because I am feeling the urge to push. I pushed for a little while before Dr. B came back in.

The rest of delivery is a bit of a blur to me. I remember a lot of pushing, and I remember that Brian was a God-send. I also remember a lot of pain. My Epidural ran out 15 minutes or so before Cassidy was born. I remember pushing and screaming because it hurt so bad. At this point, there was a conversation that went a lot like this:

Dr. B: “Come on, Rebecca, you can do it!”
Me: “I can’t, it hurts too bad!!!”
Dr. B: “Did you push your Epidural button?”
Me: “What button? I don’t have a button!”
Dr. B: (looking at idiot nurse and speaking rather sternly) “She doesn’t have a button?!?!” (looks at other nurse) “Go get her a button now!”

The other nurse (who was quite good) got me a button, got it hooked up, and pushed it a couple of times, but it was too late. Cassidy was crowning and I had to push her out. At this point, I got mad. I could have strangled the idiot nurse, but I took that energy and put it into a few last pushes. Dr. B had to give me an episiotomy so I didn’t tear. He said that he could have gone without it, but I would be in labor for another hour and he wasn’t going to do that to me without a working Epidural. Finally, at 2:59 pm, after 16 hours of labor, no sleep for 34 hours, no food for 22 hours, and about an hour or so of pushing, Cassidy was born. She was 20.5 inches long and weighed in at a svelte 8 lbs 9.6 (officially 10) oz. That’s pretty big for a baby that we thought was going to be 7 – 7.5 lbs.

If any of you would like to see pictures, Brian has posted a lot of them on our Flikr feed. I plan on taking a post-prego belly pic soon and posting it here. I really was all baby!

As far as how I am doing, I am well. A little sore, but that is to be expected. Hopefully, I will have a chance to update more later, but if I don’t, continue checking Brian’s blog for updates and adventures in parenthood.

And now, I must say adieu. The munchkin is still asleep and I had better get a shower while I can. Feel free to call/email me and stop by the house to see our beautiful new baby girl!!

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