On a brisk January(30th) morning we arrived at my 39 week appointment. The nurse asked me how I was doing, and I just looked at her... oh they know all too well how I'm doing! I'm swelling like crazy, can hardly move, can hardly sleep, and I just want this baby out of me A.S.A.P. They took the normal measurements: weight, blood pressure, and urine. They took my BP several times and it was pretty high (165 over... who can ever remember the bottom number?). Andrew and I met up with the doctor and she says "Well your blood pressure is high, and you have protein in your urine(signs of preeclampsia)... how soon can you be at the hospital?" I replied with "Oh... probably 30-45 minutes". That was that... little miss feisty britches was coming out, soon!
We got home and I had pretty much everything organized and ready. I was annoyed cause I had wanted to have most of the hospital stuff in the car before we even went to the appointment. We pulled out the list of remaining things to grab(the little everyday stuff, i.e. toothbrush). I was excited/nervous and Andrew was freaking out, "I didn't get to finish this thing I was working on at work!" he said, as he was running around the house like a CRAZY man.
We were admitted at 10:30 am, I was drilled with questions by the nurses. Then I was poked again and again and again trying to get the IV in. (as I'm reviewing this in the journal we kept apparently the IV/pitocin drip was making fart noises, and Andrew thought it was me!) At 1:00 pm the Doc came and struggled to break my water, she said it was like a glad bag, ha! Then we just hung out and watched movies and TV til 6 pm. They put a contraction monitor inside my uterus(and yes, it hurt like hell going in). I was at 4 cm then and when they checked me at 11pm, yes, even with painful and constant contractions(and when I say constant I mean I literally didn't get a break from them) I had not dilated any more. The Dr. had mentioned that my pelvis might not be big enough to deliver her, so the nurse gave me two options:
1. Try to continue to progress naturally which would probably take another 10-12 hours(it had already been 12).
2. Have a c-section.
I really wanted to go natural but since the doctor was already worried that I couldn't, I chose the faster option of c-section. So I was prepped and then we strode down the hall to the operating room. I had a spinal block and was laughing as they were moving my large, pregnant, jiggling body around. The nurses commented that they had never heard a patient laugh in the operating room. Well.. I am no ordinary patient. I'm EXTRAordinary, stitches! In 10 minutes little Lorelei was born.
Lorelei Michelle Shepherd
born on
January 31, 2014 at 12:13 am
6 pounds 13 ounces (3.09 kg)
19.5 inches long (49.53 cm)
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| Ignore my swollen MASSIVE double chin |
Now recovery.. that's a tale for another day!
