the THIRD Annual Margaretpalooza

Lilypie

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Hello Miss Margaret

How did you get here? Well, it was easier than we thought, but harder than I expected.

They all thought that I would have a hard time getting pregnant- but I proved them wrong. They all thought that I would have a hard time with labor and delivery- but you proved them wrong.

You were late. Just like me. Just like I am damn near everywhere I go, but that's ok. We went to Sister's Hospital on Tuesday night. I got checked in and changed. Then we waited for the Doctors and Nurses. They took some blood, checked my blood pressure and your heart rate. I had to have an ultrasound to make sure that there was enough fluid and that you had enough room. Thankfully the answer to both questions was yes and they started the induction. If the answers had been no I would have been prepped for surgery- and I wasn't really looking forward to that.

They gave me Cervidil to help get things moving and an Ambien to help me sleep. The Ambien didn't work but boy oh boy the Cervidil did. The Cervidil started contractions and eventually they got painful, so that meant Nubain for the pain... which did not work. Your Dad sat in the room reading and occasionally napping while I watched a Law and Order marathon. I was supposed to relax and sleep for the next 12 hours but it just wasn't happening. I couldn't get comfortable.

Every time I had to go to the bathroom I had to call a nurse to come unhook me. I had to have my IV and the monitors unplugged so I could get out of bed. The combination of Ambien and Nubain made me feel like I was drunk- which wasn't so great. I almost fell over a few times which gave me a good scare so I decided to try to stay in bed from there on out.

Some where around 2:30-3:00AM I sent your Dad home. He needed more books to read as well as coffee and snacks. It didn't make much sense for me to have both of us there when nothing was happening. After he left things started to pick up, I got more uncomfortable and I started to feel... funny. I asked to go to the bathroom again, that's when my water broke. So there was a very panicked call to your Dad telling him he needed to stop whatever the hell he was doing and come back.

I kept getting more and more uncomfortable so I eventually asked for an epidural. I surprised myself, I thought I'd be crying asking for pain medication early on- but I managed to keep it together for quite sometime.

I will freely admit that there were a few times where I lost it. Once in my head and once out loud. I lost it out loud when they told me to stop pushing. My doctor wasn't there yet and they couldn't get a hold of him. No one knew where he was. That was unbelievably uncomfortable. I cried. I grabbed the sides of the bed and squeezed. And then I cried some more. At one point during this whole ordeal I heard my nurse Jen say "meconium." Then she called the nurses station and asked them to page someone from Neonatology. It was at that point that I lost it in my head. I was so worried that something was going to go wrong.

I closed my eyes- and I waited. I kept trying to tell myself that there was nothing I could do to fix it, I would just have to wait it out and hope for the best. I opened my eyes when they told me that a doctor was there- because I wanted to see who it was. I quickly closed them again and went back to trying to calm myself down.

I didn't open my eyes again until I heard the Neonatologist say that everything was fine and the nurses asked your Dad if he'd brought a camera. I kept my eyes closed hoping that I wouldn't see something that would make me panic more.

You were born Wednesday, August 25 2010 at 10:18 in the morning- after what felt like the longest hour and a half of my life. You weighed 7lbs 11oz and you were 21in long.

Welcome to the world baby girl, it's going to be a long trip.