So we choose option #1-why? Well because I am impatient and a control freak and loved having a "date" of when I would bring a baby home...most of you know this about me :)
Monday, Feb 11th-7pm: enter myself into the hospital, daddy is at home putting Parker to bed like normal and waiting for Auntie Tammy to come over and sleep at our house. I am admitted and in my room just chilling. They start the IV-in my arm per my request. With Parker it was in my hand (against my will) and drove me CRAZY when I was trying to squeeze my arm through the handles to push. IV itches and they realize I am allergic to the tape! Nice-now I have a rash on my arm and again the control freak in me is freaking out and whining about an itchy arm! Switch the tape around and use fabric tape-ahhh much better, but it still itches! My nurse is Sherry-she seems fun-I know I am going to emotionally attach to whoever gets me through this experience...Sherry places the Cervadil-of course it doesn't go in correctly the first time-tricky little procedure-second time works just fine. Contractions start with in the hour-not bad though, nothing the "queen diva" in me can't handle. I go until about midnight being monitored, baby being monitored, peeing like a maniac and they realized I have spiked a temp, gotten a nasty head cold and the baby's heart rate is accelerated to 200 bpm! I also have “viral conjunctivitis” aka pink eye! Yikes, what else can happen here? Dr. has then called to check up on me (on his day "off”) and decides to pull the cervadil and let me rest until the morning and try pitocin without the cervadil at all. It did however work a little-I was thinned out more. They shut everything down-give me mega fluids through my IV to rehydrate me, since I was fully dehydrated and that was part of the cold and the cervadil. Nurse Sherry wraps up my IV and lets me take a hospital "hot" shower. Did you realize they turn the water temp down so nobody burns themselves? Well I vote they crank it up in the labor rooms so pregnant emotional moms can have a hot bath/shower! But no...I took a luke warm shower. I am exhausted and it is now 2 am! Daddy was there the whole time by the way...watching TV, trying to sleep in the chair and snacking on real food...as I had already begun my Clear Diet...chicken broth, orange jello, juice, and water. Try to get some rest, early morning tomorrow with the pitocin...
Tuesday, Feb 12th-5 am: Nurse Sherry comes in to start the pitocin. Hooks it up to the IV. I have had no sleep, since they check your vitals and baby's every hour! I had my temp taken, blood pressure and finger pulse taken 100 times already! Okay a little exaggeration. Daddy's tired too, wondering if we made the right decision?! Too late now...
Tuesday, Feb 12th-7 am: Shift change with the nurses. Sherry goes home...I get Margie! She is my angel-but I don't know it yet. She comes in with Lisa and learns the ropes of all the "new" equipment. I look at Bear with questioning eyes-is this for real? This nurse doesn't know what is going on?? Help! But I learn from her that she has been off from the hospital for a year with a Brain Tumor!! What! You are an angel~so she is thoroughly excited about what this new equipment can do. Like the traveling heart rate/contraction monitors that allow me to walk around and still be monitored. Much better then laying in bed! Did I mention I have now basically lost my voice from the head cold and end up with bloody noses off and on because it is so dry in my room? I have been doped up on cough medicine and Tylenol through out the night and day now…I don’t think either is really helping. So the pit is in and I am having contractions here and there. Every hour they increase the level, until the max level is reached around 12 noon. Heavy contractions going on here. Yeah! I hope I am progressing. She "likes" checking to see if I have made any change-I realize, she like me, likes to know what is going on at all times...what only 3 cm? You've got to be kidding me? Dr. checks on me again and says he has his own levels of pit-which go all the way up to four levels about the max. Ooh, that sounds like fun-let's go there!! Again-daddy thinks we are playing god and messing with mother nature and doesn't think this is working-which it's not!-and thinks we again, made the wrong decision to induce...too late now I say again.
Tuesday, Feb 12th-6 pm: I have labored all day long-I managed to get to 5 cm on the “outside” and 4-5 cm on the “inside”…remember they are supposed to match or the baby won’t come out? I have ran in circles in the hospital. All the time wearing my pink fuzzy robe! I had a shower that morning but no blow dryer so my hair is totally flat and I have swollen pink eyes and a red Rudolph nose (I actually made Bear go home and get my own Kleenex with lotion in them to help my poor nose). The hospital staff has been joking with me the whole day about walking that baby out…or not! The stupid, new, wonderful, heart rate/contraction monitor we were so excited about does not work all the time…it loses the baby and contractions so I am constantly sneaking into random hospital corners to be readjusted…but on the bright side-my Dr. is so cool to let me walk around while on pitocin-which normally isn’t “allowed”. Bear was sick of walking around pushing “twiggy” which is the name he gave my IV…it hurt his wrist (boo hoo). I had my mom with part of the time walking with me. Lisa walked with me a little too…so it hit 6 pm and of course I have been stuck at 5 cm all day. Dr. and the rest of us vote to turn off the pit, rest through the night, see if I contract on my own and if not much progress, start the whole process over again in the morning. Margie shuts off the pit, unhooks my IV, wraps up my arm and lets me take a “hot” shower…I have my meltdown! Emotionally the last two days have been so draining I am not sure I can handle it anymore. I call my mom and cry! I miss Parker is what started the whole bawl fest! I had sent Bear home to rest and we left Parker at Steph’s (“daycare” which was really just a fun sleepover with his buddies to him) but I wanted to put my baby to bed and kiss him goodnight. I just couldn’t keep it together anymore.
Wednesday, Feb 13th-3 am: I can’t sleep. I take another shower, “fix” my hair with a ton of product and a brush, hang out at the nurses station with Darci and chat while eating popsicles! Now my purple tongue completes the look I have going on here!
Wednesday, Feb 13th-5:30 am: Margie volunteers to be with me another day, which she says she has never done before! All because I was so much fun and not crabby. Well isn’t that nice of her. Of course when we try to flush my IV out it has since blocked during the night, so we get to pull that and start a new one in a different and better location in my arm. On the bright side I get to scratch the itch of the old site! Ahhh, relief. New IV, new day…pit goes in at double the pace of yesterday since they know I can handle it. Dr. says he’ll give me until noon to progress and then we make a new decision…#1 turn everything off and go home and see what happens, if nothing come back next week to do it all over again #2 break my water and see if I progress and deliver “naturally” #3 the #2 means I could end up with a c-section. So I put on my pink robe and run circles around the hospital again and joke with staff that I am still pregnant! They of course are still shocked to see me walking and pregnant. Contractions are huge and I feel like this is the time it is going to work. Margie obsessively checks me-and of course-still 5cm! I, by now, hate the number 5. If this kid comes out with a 5 in it’s birth weight or length or ever wants to be #5 for tee ball I’ll scream! So back to walking. I walked from 7:30-9:30am and got nowhere! Totally freaking by this point because the contractions frickin’ hurt now!
Wednesday, Feb 13th-12 noon: Dr comes in and checks me, does the #1,2,3 scenario with us and is very adamant about Bear and I making the decision on our own. Of course we had just had our walking conversation about what are we going to do. He was wanting to stop the whole process because he knew I didn’t want a c-section. I want to keep going because I want to take a baby out of this hospital by Friday! Again-control freak…what bugs me most is I can’t control my body. So we decide to break my water and if I end up with a c-section so be it. I start crying again, this time, to the Dr. about not being able to handle the whole process again next week emotionally. Physically it’s not that bad, but I couldn’t see myself checking out, going home and being a good mom-all the while being dilated to 5cm! So…
Wednesday, Feb 13th-1:15 pm: Dr breaks my bag of water. Gross…now I can’t walk around anymore so laying in bed it is. Good thing Days of Our Lives is on-perfect timing! Well the head cold and aggressive cough means my bag of water definitely continues to “shoot” out! Double gross…Margie checks me and says 6-7 cm joyfully! Oh my gosh-I have beaten 5 cm down and I am winning this game! Ha, ha, ha (stupid 5). Margie easily convinces me to have some fentanyl in my IV to help take the edge off. Well of course that helps take the edge off for a whole 10-15 minutes! I am allowed to have double the dose every hour. Margie then tells me the levels of fentanyl I am at is what they use in the ER to knock people out. Well, why isn’t it knocking me out?? Or at least making the contractions feel less painful? I then think back to my last dental work I had done and I needed “extra” Novocain to make me not feel the drilling-I was told my body metabolizes the pain meds faster than normal. So that explains why all the different meds I had been given-weren’t really going to work.
Wednesday, Feb 13th-4 pm: okay these contractions really must doing something, they feel “different” and the intensity is greater. Dr comes in to check me and says7 cm inside and out and do you want the intrathecal all in the same breath. I say great and yes please!!! Margie gets a hold of Rich-the good old anesthesiologist-who is conveniently down the road working out! He comes right over-I teased him about not having time to shower and stinking up the room! He then remembers me from when Parker was born…I think it’s the drugs but my husband knows it’s the real me joking around when in labor. Rich struggles and my husband is swearing under his breath as the needle goes in my back…6 times! I am freaking because I had a headache for 6 days with the same procedure when I had Parker and did not want it this time around. Rich explained he kept hitting bone and wasn’t withdrawing any spinal fluid-which is what causes the headache-finally success! My legs feel that familiar tingle and then my body responds with the drug addict morphine itch! Did I mention I got another bloody nose during this process? Fun! So I am scratching all over my body and rubbing my nose like a druggie and think that people do drugs for the fun of it-what do they get out of being high and itchy? I don’t get it. Anyways-I remind Doc and Margie that I progressed really fast with Parker after the intrathecal. So they scramble to get the room ready for delivery and recheck me…10 cm! Holy cow-you weren’t kidding about progressing fast…I of course feel the contractions break through the pain meds but I knew it was what I needed to allow my body to relax enough to dilate.
Wednesday, Feb 13th-5:20 pm: I start explaining to the people in the room that I feel the need to push and that there is a lot of pressure down there and to please make sure my baby doesn’t fall out of me onto the floor! So I finally get to start pushing. I use my same technique as last time-put up the holding bar and throw a towel over it to grab onto to pull myself forward and use my “abs” to push! Yeah-it’s working and going much faster this time. Bear does awesome about holding my head so I don’t strain as much in my neck this time. He and Margie hold a leg each and out comes a BOY! I immediately start crying-Bear looks at the clock and says 5:48 pm! I say how little he looks and everyone in the room says-“nope, he’s a big boy!”. Dr. mumbles under his breath that we should of just broke my water yesterday! I pretend to kick him in the head! He then says-I’ll get to make my dinner date too yet! Smarty pants! So we have a healthy, screaming, pink baby boy! Bear cuts the cord and the nurses clean up the baby, do the normal tests, he scores 9 on his APGAR and feeds perfectly right away! We call all our family once we know what his stats are: 8# 4.2oz and 20 ½ inches long (I refuse to write 20.5 because of the 5!) We however, don’t have a name for this “little” fella. Bear decides he doesn’t like Liam and we have zero middle names picked out for a boy and we surely can’t call him Audrey Piper! So he stays baby boy Olson for a day…
Wednesday, Feb 13th-8 pm: we have had all our visitors in and out already. Parker loved meeting his new brother and did not once call him “bebe Ella!” The grandparents, cousins, friends, aunts and uncles all got to meet the baby. I send Bear home to put Parker to bed and resume his routine. I then look at my mommy and ask if she wants to stay the night with me? Of course she does. They move me into a new room with a way more comfy bed, put in a cushy recliner for grandma and we settle in for the night ahead. They continue to check vitals on both of us, I nurse him off and on and grandma snuggles in the recliner holding the baby for 3 hours! It was 12:30 when I was done feeding him and at 3:30 she is still sitting back holding onto that baby-I think she was in her glory. Bright and early daddy shows up and grandma had pulled an all nighter at 60 years young and then goes home to make muffins and go to work! What a woman! In the process of the night we talked over names and middle names and names some more. We went over the names that Bear and I liked and I settled on Emmitt Jon. Emmitt because Bear and I both really liked it and he looks more like an Emmitt than a Liam. And Jon with no “h” after Jonny A: Bear’s “best friend”. We spelled Emmitt this way since it’s symmetrical for mommy and because Bear’s name has two r’s and two t’s. Makes sense right? We are going to try to avoid the EJ thing since we aren’t big on shortening names.
Thursday, Feb 14th-8:30 am: scheduled $700 “cosmetic” circumcision has been postponed until lunch time…which is throwing off my plan to go home today. You must wait until the baby pees after the circ to be able to go home. Also, the lab does a few tests after the baby is 24 hours old. So we hang out all day, baby nurses perfectly and family and friends show up here and there to visit and drop off gifts.
Thursday, Feb 14th-4 pm: Bear goes home to switch shifts with Parker, gets grandma and papa to babysit until we get home. We start packing things up and hauling them out to the car. Which has a dead battery! Bear left the parking lights on. Funny part is, when cars go “dead” these days you can’t use the power locks to get in, so he has to crawl over 2 car seats and 3 rows of seating to get the jumper cables in the back of the vehicle! All the while having a balloon go crazy all around him in the 30 below wind. Dr. comes in the room to clear us to go home and gives me a big hug and says "you did great, you make having these babies look easy, I'm proud of you both and enjoy your new son!"
Thursday, Feb 14th-6 pm: We have a Valentine’s Day Dinner! How did this work out so perfectly? The hospital has a new thing where they put on dinner for new parents on their last night in the hospital. A babysitter is provided, you pick what you want from the Holiday Inn (sized down) menu and you are served in a separate room by candlelight and soft music. So we head down to the meal room that is set up and see how beautiful it all is. Funny too. There are real linens on the table and also on the walls-randomly covering up things like the disposable needle box! The food is in those fun serving trays to keep it hot and our waiter happens to be the maintenance guy from the hospital. He pops a bottle of sparkling cider and serves us our salad and leaves the room after setting our music to our preferred choice. We giggle and toast to a new baby and a Happy Valentines Day! We laugh hysterically after he leaves because he is dressed in the all black attire-wearing white rubber gloves! He looks the part but also covers the sanitary side of serving food to us! He comes back and serves us our chosen meal of Chicken Kiev, wild rice and those awesome popovers with honey butter! We devour it and I am wishing I could taste more of it’s goodness but the head cold and sore throat are getting in the way. After 3 days of orange jello and chicken broth I know this food is tasting good! I was so sick of orange jello-they did put some red jello on the menu in honor of Valentine’s Day but that was the first day I was allowed the real food and guess what they served us for lunch? Chicken Kiev! Needless to say the Holiday Inn meal was waaaay better! We finished off our romantic dinner together with turtle cheesecake!
Thursday, Feb 14th-8:30 pm: we finally have everything in the car to go home! We get home and Parker is ecstatic about seeing mommy! I start tearing up again but I am so happy to be home and have this whole thing over with and have 2 little boys to love! We make it until about 9:30 and crash in bed!
My husband thought it would be funny to take a picture of me during a full blown contraction-I think he hopes I'll say-"I'm Done having kids"...he says he's done. I haven't gotten to that stage yet.
One of the funniest pictures I found on my camera was this one-Bear missed the nurses "stamping" Emmitt into the world but took a picture of it after wards...of course propped up against the cervical dilation chart!!!
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