we all thought george was going to be a big baby. i measured 3-4 weeks ahead for several months, and i had more aches and pains when he moved as if there wasnt room for him in there. emma was 8 pounds 11 ounces. and george had to be bigger.
so i scheduled an induction. size, my very quick labor, and jason taking summer classes (that were to begin on my due date) convinced me to induce. i picked june 3rd as the day and we packed our bags.
several times i went to the hospital for monitoring hoping to be admitted. the most memorable i think was the night before heidis wedding. we took emma to jesse and sarahs and spent 5 hours at st lukes walking and checking and walking. the contractions were there, they werent going away, but they werent getting any stronger either. so at about 330am they sent us home to rest. we picked up emma in the morning and went to heidis wedding in the evening.
just a few days later, on june 2nd emma stayed the night with jesse and sarah so that we didnt have to drop her off early in the morning on the way to the hospital to be induced. june 3rd, we left home at 615am and headed to st lukes to have a baby.
my last pregnant picture
we went up to the 2nd floor, checked in and waited for our nurse to take us to a room. no triage when you are scheduled for induction. it was around 730 when i first got in my gown and in bed to be monitored for a few minutes while everything else was prepared. i hate those monitors that are strapped around your belly. emma and george both hated them too. they would kick and kick at them and try to wiggle away. so uncomfortable.
time for my iv. i told the nurse my horror story from emma (took longer to get the iv than any other part of labor, and 7 tries.) she went and got someone who was very good and she got it on the second try. well, first really, because the first time she pricked me i was laying in such a way that i got really dizzy really fast. i rolled onto my side, away from the arm she was using, and then she actually got to stick the needle in. the first time she had just barely pricked me and i just couldnt hold still and conscious any longer.
i had packed battleship, uno, and a deck of cards incase we had some time to kill while labor progressed. jason and i played uno for a while before they started my pitocin at 815. then we kept playing. dr anstine came in around 830. i was a 5 when she arrived. she was there to break my water. with emma, my water broke on the 2nd of the three pushes i had to get her out. it was a gush of warm that was so soothing to my aching bits. when dr anstine broke my water this time, i didnt feel anything. not a trickle.
i had been having contractions since before the pitocin was started, and they picked up regularity with the iv. i was told that having my water broken would make them stronger. dr anstine told our nurse that i could have my epidural whenever i wanted it. i told them both that i was pretty sure i didnt want it. at least, i didnt want it right then, and wanted to just see hoe it went. jason and i prepared for this labor knowing that many people experiance more diffucult labor when they are induced and have their membranes atrificially ruptured. but, i have babies quick. i was alrady dialted to a 4 before we began. i knew that the pain might be great, but it would be short lived. i could get through it. that was the game plan.
we played uno until i needed to get up to potty. on the toilet i did feel some amniotic fluid. this is probably way more detail than anyone wants to know, but its part of the story. i was sitting there to pee, but once i was finished, the liquid was still coming out. it really felt like i was wetting myself, but i knew what it was. i got back in bed, and my contractions did get a bit stronger. jason and i kept playing cards. we joked and every time i laughed a little more fluid came out. then i said to jason that i was leaking, and i knew what it felt like to wet the bed and on and on and we just kept giggling. he said things like "you say the sexiest things" and that he didnt care to know anymore about my wetting myself. the nurse checked me again and i was at a 7. im not sure what time that was, but we were still playing cards, and we played until around 930.
when the contractions were strong enough that i didnt want to use my rest time to think, we put them away. jason knew they were hurting by then. he encouraged me to play because he didnt know what else to do but i pushed the cards away and told him no more. so i sat, every one and a half to two minutes having a contraction and crawling like a pill bug inside of myself. then the break came and i tried to make conversation. i asked if it was raining, what jason could see out the window... then another contraction, and i closed my eyes and tucked my head and my arms and legs disappeared as i curled inside of my uterus to snuggle with george. then it was over again.
our nurse saw the intensity of my contractions, checked my cervix and saw i was at a nine. it was 945. she called dr anstine. when dr anstine arrived, she told me that when she got back to the office in the morning she told mattie she thought she would get called back before lunch. she had told me when she left at 830 that she would come see me again around lunch time to check on my progress. something made her think in the five minutes back to the office that it would be much quicker than that, and she was right. she got gloves on and i laid back for her to check me again. she felt as a contraction came and i went from a nine to a ten. i was still making conversation with jason, i needed to talk in the breaks. so i asked him if he thought george would have hair. its had been a big question all along. his guess was just a little fuzz. dr anstine said she didnt think she had felt any hair, but its hard to tell with the gloves on.
the room had several nurses now, i was scooted to the bottom of the bed and georges things were all prepared. a nurse started to raise the bed and set me back up but i was in the middle of a contraction and stopped her. the one thing i would change about this delivery would be at this point, once that contraction was over, i was raised back up to a semi sitting position. but i wasnt. and i couldnt reach around and do it myself, or find the words between contractions to ask someone to do it for me. laying down was great for contracting, but not comfortable for pushing, or for holding my baby afterward. but it was time to push. with emma, i had been afraid of the pain of pushing. that fear kind of got to me this time too. dr anstine asked me if i felt like i could push (i didnt have the urge to push like with emma, but who knows i how long i had been at a ten with her either.) i remember saying, someone needs to tell me i can do it, and being pacified by a couple people in the room saying yes, of course you can. so i pushed. the first one didnt feel very effective. oh the other thing i would change, i had my feet in the stirrups (which was fine) but because i was laying so far down, i couldnt hold them there while i was pushing. one leg kept coming free and that made it more difficult to push. probably why the first push didnt feel like it had done any good.
but i pushed again and there was the burning. no one told me to stop, or that i couldnt push. i had prepared myself for that this time, but it wasnt there. i pushed again, maybe twice, i dont remember, and there he was. my first though as a blanket was spread out to cover my gown was how sticky and bloody and leggy he was. he was still so wet it was strange to touch him. and such long and skinny arms and legs. not the chubby ones i had expected. and he had hair.
so much hair
he was alert. eyes open and taking in the world the first moment i saw him. he was born at 1017am. just two hours after my iv was started.
i held him for a while. delivered the placenta, and then it was time for stitches. i let the nursery staff have him to weigh and measure and send jason to that corner of the room for pictures while i cringed with dr anstine.
i shouted to jason when they put him on the scale, how much does he weigh? how big is he? because it was pretty obvious that he wasnt the chunky monkey we had all expected. he weighed 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 20 and a half inches long. my skinny little boy.
i had three or four stitches, i dont remember, but i do remember the second shot of local because again i could feel as i was being stitched up. after he was weighed and measured, foot printed and his eyes smudged, i got him back.
after all the important things were taken care of, and i had george back in my arms, dr anstine chatted with us a few minutes. then all of a sudden as they are cleaning up medical supplies behind her she asks jason and i if we want to see the placenta. we said sure, neither of us had seem one before, and she seemed eager to show us. a nurse had already packaged it up, but dr anstine got the bin it was in back off the cart and opened it up. she pulled out what looked like a dinner plate sized tenderized steak with a filmy stretchy hanging bag thing on the back of it. she explained that we were see the side that was connected to me, but that the sack george grew in actually delivers inside out. when the babys cord pulls, it tugs the placenta from the inside to the outside of the bag. she turned the filmy bag on itself and we could see what george saw for the last nine months, a large smooth placenta and attached cord. it was gross, but also kind of cool to see what had helped george grow all those months.
i changed gowns, we went upstairs to our room and settled in all before lunch. when i packed our bags, and packed georges things, i brought a crochet hat for him. the babies in the hospital are always wearing hats, but they are those pink and blue and white knit ones and really not very cute. i had made emma a blanket to come home in and to have as her first mommy made treasure, and wanted george to have something too. but in june, a home made blanket to come home in didnt seem as good an idea. (and he does have his blanket. its the blue and brown one. it was waiting for him at home.) what i didnt know was how famous he would be because of that little beanie. all the nursery staff talked about him, and other people peeking in the nursery windows commented. even waiting for the elevator to go down to the lobby and go home a woman came out as we were going in and said to me and to her friend, thats the baby with that adorable hat! and he was pretty cute in it if you ask me.
in the afternoon jesse came by with emma (and jesse jay and toby) to meet george. he took lots of first family pictures for me when we introduced emma to her brand new little brother.
we stayed overnight and came home the afternoon of the 4th. on the way home from the hospital we stopped by jasons office to pick up his tennis shoes. he had been in his boots the last two days because he had forgotten them at work after his run. and, we showed off the baby, tucked into his car seat after his very first trip.
when we got home that evening, jason was exhausted. (so was i, but i wasnt the one snoozing with the baby.)
and thats how my little boy came from my tummy, back to our home.
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