Presley Faith Gibbs made her appearance on June 11, 2006 at 4:08 in the afternoon. After about two weeks of contractions and false alarms, we had an induction scheduled for June 15. Fortunately, we didn't need it.
At about 4:15 a.m., I woke up thinking I was leaking amniotic fluid. I woke Scott up and called the hospital. They said I needed to come in ASAP to be tested. So, we packed our last-minute items, woke up Reagan, and headed to Nana & Gran's to drop her off. We got to the hospital at around 5:40 (not bad, considering it's on the other side of town and we had to make a stop). The first test was negative for amniotic fluid, but they wanted to watch me for an hour and check again. At 7:00, the test was again negative, but when the nurse did an exam, more fluid gushed out, so they had me walk around for another 30 minutes. After that, the test was STILL NEGATIVE! But by that time, I had dilated to 4 cm, so they decided to admit me.
The funny thing is, the contractions I was having were much milder than those I had experienced over the last couple of weeks at home. In fact, if I hadn't had the leakage issue, I wouldn't have even gone to the hospital until much later in the process. I certainly didn't feel like I was in labor.
By 6 cm, I decided to get my epidural (around noon)--not because I was in so much pain but because I was afraid I would dilate beyond the point of no return before I got it. (Didn't want to risk pushing the baby out without meds!) But the epidural experience was so bad that I almost wish I hadn't had it. I know, that sounds so unlike me! I have long sung the praises of a good epidural, but this was not one. Rather than just numbing me from the waist down, this one went all the way up to my chest! I had no muscle control and my breathing was affected. I also got nauseated, which was awful. (Try throwing up when you can't feel your stomach muscles--not easy.)
The anesthesiologist tried sitting me upright and turning down the meds, but eventually I asked them to turn it off completely (around 2:00 p.m.). By the time I was ready to push (3:30 p.m.), I had regained much of the feeling in my upper body, but I still couldn't even move my lower body. All I could do was hold my breath and grunt, hoping that was pushing the baby down.
Fortunately, everything worked out fine, and I was able to deliver her in about 40 minutes, with only a minor episiotomy. But I didn't regain all the feeling in my legs until 7:30 or so that evening.
Despite the bumps in the road, we are extremely thankful to have our beautiful, healthy baby at last. She looks pretty much like her big sister did at this point. She's eating like a champ and, after a couple of rough nights, is now sleeping between her night feedings. (She was having some stomach issues--spitting up and not having enough dirty diapers.)
We're settling into a rythm and actually getting some sleep--and she's not even a week old yet! We're praying that continues.
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