Labor and Delivery

*I started writing this post on Friday, but wasn't able to finish it until today (Monday).

So it's Friday night and I'm still in the hospital. Nathan will be discharged today because he is doing great (of course he is, he's totally advanced above and beyond the other 29 babies born in this hospital the same day he was). I on the other hand, have to stay in the hospital one more day, so here's the story some of you have been waiting for:

We were scheduled to be induced this past Wednesday morning and called the hospital at 7:30am to see if they could fit us in. Apparently everyone decided to have babies the same day, like I said before, 29 babies. After calling every hour we were finally able to check in at 11:00am and start the process by noon.

I was in labor for eight hours. The first four hours were done with no pain medication. Then they broke my water, and all hell broke loose. The contractions were getting so close together and so intense that I couldn't see straight. After about an hour of really intense contractions I'd had enough. No more. Bring on the epidural! I love the anesthesiologist, he is my new hero. The epidural is such a gift. I'm glad I was able to experience a little bit of the pain associated with natural child birth, but I'm also so glad there's such an amazing solution to the horrible pain. The epidural medicine was administered so I could still feel the contractions, but not the pain. So when it came time to push, I still knew when to push and how to push. Yes, the anesthesiologist is my hero.

Everyone kept telling me that I would have to push for 2-3 hours because it was my first child. Well, Nathan and I showed them! Thirty minutes later the nurse told me to stop pushing because the next push he would come out and my doctor wasn't there yet. So there we sat for 15 minutes waiting for my doctor to arrive and deliver the baby. I don't think my doctor believed the nurse when she told her that I had only been pushing for 30 minutes and that it was time for her to come up to the hospital. But the nurse was right, one more push when the doctor came and he was out. The sensation I felt when he was born was totally euphoric. I don't have the talent nor the words to describe the emotions I felt when they laid him on my stomach right after he was delivered. With each cry and breath he took my heart ached more and more because of the love I felt for him. I couldn't believe that the day had finally come for me to meet the little person who had been growing inside of me for the past nine months. The tears immediately started flowing and I just couldn't stop staring at him. Now, not to brag or anything, but he's perfect. Absolutely and totally perfect. He didn't even have a cone head!

I have to give special credit to BSC who was my rock and support throughout the entire labor. I couldn't have done it without him. He turned into super-dad the minute we stepped into the hospital, and has played the role non-stop. He helped me through the contractions, encouraged me when I got scared and held my hand through the whole thing. It was so hard for him to see me in that kind of pain, and he finally told me, "Lori, this is not a competition about who can endure the most pain. This is about bringing our son into the world. You will not be a failure or any less of a mother if you decide to get the epidural." What great words to hear from someone who means so much to me.

After the delivery it was determined that Nathan was healthy, which was a major relief to all of us. But I wasn't doing as well. My temperature rose to 102.7 and the shivering which follows labor and delivery was uncontrollable. The nurses had to hold my arms down just to get a reading on my blood pressure. My whole entire body was tense from the experience and wouldn't stop shaking. My doctor told me that I had an infection, and that I would have to be administered antibiotics through an IV. Sounded fine to me. Only problem was the veins in my hands didn't react well to the antibiotics and kept shutting down. Almost every time they brought in a new bag of antibiotics, a new IV had to be administered into my hand (I just love being poked with huge needles). After drawing blood four times throughout my stay in the hospital, they never figured out exactly what type of infection I had. The first time they drew blood, they scared the crap out of me by telling me that I needed a transfusion because my counts were so low. Then they came back and said that my counts were fine, but it still didn't explain my high fever and chills. Because of all of this, I had to stay an extra day in the hospital, never really knowing what was wrong with me.

But we're home now. We were able to come home Saturday afternoon and have been doing great ever since. Motherhood has been wonderful. Thank you to everyone who has e-mailed, called, and stopped by. It's so nice to know that we have such great love and support from people all over the world. BSC is also quite enjoying fatherhood. He has taken diaper-changing duty to the ultimate level. I don't think I changed one single diaper until today.

I'm not going to post all the gory details of the delivery cause I'm sure most of you don't care to hear about such things. If you want to know the details, e-mail me or call me and I'll give you the low down on everything that went on Wednesday night.

Oh, and just so you all know, he has my weird "club toes." Yes!