i'm a mommy!

It's been 10 days since Camden was born. Been wanting to update this blog (not that all that many people even follow it!) but sleepless nights, feeding and adjusting to our new lives with baby has of course, kept me busy.

I'm sleep deprived (this term, btw does not do how new parents feel justice), hormonal, in some physical pain though not too bad and have only a few moments of feeling "normal." So, there will be typos galore and who knows what else moving forward, just fyi.

Where to start? How about a quick recap of the labor and delivery.

Labor wasn't bad at all. All future moms, don't be afraid because it is NOTHING compared to the first week with baby. A cake walk, in fact. Here's how it went down for me:

Sept. 21, 2009

7:30am - Hospital calls and says to come down for my induction. I'm unbelievably nervous about being induced. 9 days overdue so doctor gave me the choice of being induced on Monday or Thursday. We opted for Monday, but the weekend before I started to question our decision. The internet can be a terrible thing. Researching inductions on the web was a bad move. Sometimes what you don't know won't hurt you! So I was nervous about it not going well and mostly about having to be forced into a c-section. Let's just say I sweated my way to the hospital.

9:30am - Arrive at hospital. Kristine is our nurse. We loved her! My hula sister, Lani, works at Swedish as a L&D nurse so she called ahead and told them I was coming so Kristine was extra nice to us.

10:00am-ish - Check into our birthing suite. It's huge! Apparently, Gov. Locke built it when his wife gave birth. Knowing Lani has awesome perks! Thank you aunty Lani. :)

11:00am - IV is in (this sucked, btw. I HATED my IV. So uncomfortable), antibiotics start flowing for GBS and the pitocin is started at the lowest level. Kristine pretty much stays in the room with us monitoring for me the most part. I'm attached to fetal monitors and a BP band around my left arm round the clock. After awhile, all three -- IV, monitors and BP got annoying.

12, 1, 2...5pm - I feel nothing painful! Contractions are coming closer together but they just feel like stronger tightening. So, they keep slowly upping my pitocin.

5:30pm - Okay, I feel that contraction. Ouch. It kinda hurts. And because of the pitocin they are coming really close together -- about 2 minutes apart. I've heard that it can take up to an hour to receive an epidural from the time you order it so I contemplate how long I can hold out. I'm only at 5cm at this point but since the contractions are pretty much one on top of the other, I'm not really getting a break. I can probably go another hour with the pain but what if the epi takes longer than that to get here? I'm uncomfortable enough to stop talking during the contractions...I have to breathe through them. I decide to get the epi.

6:30pm - Good call on my part! Right after I "order" the epi, the guy giving it to me gets paged for a few more orders. Luckily I got mine in 30 seconds before the mommy-to-be next door to me so I got to go first. Takes about 15 minutes to get the epi in. I was scared, I'm not gonna lie.

They have me sit up and lean over a pillow. The anesthesiologist first "numbs" where he's gonna insert a huge needle into my spine with a smaller shot. The numbing one doesn't hurt much but I don't really now how much it numbs anything cause when that big needle (or I assume that's what it was...thank goodness I can't see it) went in, I sure felt it! It wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be, but it definitely hurt. Sort of like a combo of really strong pressure and stinging.

Then they put the catheter in. That hurt more!! Luckily, the pain doesn't last long. He asks if I feel it on the right, left or middle. I felt cold trickling down the right so adjusts it so I feel it in the middle. The adjusting kinda hurt too.

Then it was pretty much over. He tapes my entire back, had some trouble with some attachment where the medicine goes in at the top though. Another guy comes and helps him undo a "kink" somewhere near where the needle went in my spine. Thank goodness cause I did NOT want to redo that entire process!

6:45pm - The epi really kicks in and life is good again. I feel no pain. It is lovely.

7:30-ish - Aunty Kainoa, Uncle Ponce and Aunty Nicole come to hang out for a bit. I told them it would be a bore fest, but they are so sweet and came anyway! I can now laugh at jokes and have a conversation. Epi ROCKS.

9:00pm - My new nurse, Marissa, keeps telling me that "I should rest." I think that was code for, "All you visitors, get the hell out of here."

9:30pm - Aunties and Uncle leave and Brian and I try to sleep. I sort of slept but it was more like skimming the surface of sleep rather than diving deep. I never actually thought I was asleep but time went by quickly so I must have slept some.

10:30pm - Marissa checks me, I'm 6cm.

11:30pm - Checks again, 7-8 cm!

September 22, 2009

12:00am - 9cm! I can feel the contractions now. THROUGH the epi. They feel like the contractions I was having at around 4.5 cm. I can't fathom what they would feel like without drugs!

1:00am - Nearing 10cm! Time to let the doctor know...

1:45am - I start pushing. Marissa and Brian assist me. I feel the contractions so I know when to push. I don't feel anything when I push though and am thankful. ;) Contractions come every minute or so. I just chill in between them. They told me "I'm a great pusher." Who knows if that's just a line of crap to encourage me along or not, but I ended up only pushing for a little over an hour and they say most women push for 2-3.

2:45am - Doc arrives. I continue pushing. After a few pushes, she says that I'm more than likely to tear. The babies head is right there but doesn't want to come out. She thinks I might tear up and says that a very small cut is all it would take to get baby out. Tearing up is BAD so I agree.

3:00am - She makes the small cut (about 1/4 inch she says but who knows), tells me to push gently and poof! Out comes baby!! It happened so fast. He came out and I heard him cry. She passes him too me and I hold him to my chest. Oh my goodness! I hold him and kiss his head. He's finally here and he's real. It was hard to believe!

Brian cuts the cord and after a few minutes they take him to clean him up and eventually hand him back to me.

And all of sudden, Brian and I are parents. :)