It’s been a crazy/exciting/tiring 6 weeks, and I just haven’t thought to update my blog!
Where to start?!
March 16th was my last day at work. I still had a week before my due date, and was planning on having a relaxing weekend cleaning and preparing for Miss Carsyn… Wellllll, she had other plans!!
After school, I decided to go by Speakeasy (my used to be local drinking spot) with a coworker. She and I (along with a handlful of other people) had plans for dinner that evening–mexican of course! Rebecca and I had a great time just talking and catching up, and eventually Travis and Joe met us up at Speaks, and everyone was enjoying drinks (water for me!) and having a good ole time! I was hungry and couldn’t wait until dinner so I ordered jalapeno poppers (joking that hopefully the spicy food would bring on contractions!). Before long, we realized that it was almost time to meet everyone else for dinner, so we just went straight there.
There were about 10 of us at dinner, and it was so nice to relax knowing that work was behind me, and that I could enjoy my friends’ company and then have a few days to get ready for baby. During dinner I noticed that my feet were getting really swollen and that my back hurt –but that wasn’t unusual for me the last week of pregnancy, so I ignored it.
At about 8pm (which was late for me! especially right after a long day of work!) Travis and I headed home in time to catch the Duke basketball game. The game was so stressful, and I even joked with Travis that this would put me into labor (little did I know that I already was!! haha) Laying on the couch I mentioned to Travis that he would have to rub my back after the game because it hurt really bad. I told him about the pain in my back I had had during the day–sometimes stoping me in my track to just breath. But of course I paid no attention to it! I was due in 2 weeks, and am on my feet all day! (Now I know that those were contractions-I was having back labor!)
Right after the game ended, I got up to use the restroom. Right as I was about to get up, I felt a pop like a rubberband snapping and then it started! (How neat and clean… Good timing Miss Carsyn–you knew your mama so well already! ;o) I screamed from the bathroom to Travis that I thought my water had broken, and we both just kinda stood there (well, I was sitting) not really knowing what to do…
After scurring around the house, making phone calls and texts for about half an hour, we headed on to the hospital. When we got there, there wasn’t the urgency that we expected. I sat in the waiting room for about 10 minutes, filled out paperwork, and was finally taken back into a room where they hooked me up to monitor to see if I was having contractions. The nurse asked if I felt that contraction, and I said ‘no, but my back sure hurts!’ and she replied ‘that’s a contraction!’ …and the back pain would only get worse…cheers!
I was finally moved to the labor and delivery room around midnight and both of our parents arrived to check the progress (which was pretty non-existent!) Travis was able to sleep that night, but I couldn’t because of the contractions every 4 or 5 minutes. They weren’t unbearable yet, but just enough to have to stop and breath through them. I wasn’t dilating very quickly at all, so I was started on pitocin. Boy did that speed things up!! Within an hour my contractions would be at what I would call an 8 on the pain scale of 1-10… That’s when I asked for the epidural… and good thing I did because I wouldn’t get it for another hour and a half!!
Once I finally got the epidural (which was a very odd feeling–I mean someone sticking a needle into your spine isn’t supposed to be comfortable, right?!) everything was much better! I got a little scare after the epidural because the whole left side of my face went numb!! But according to the nurse, that is common with epidurals, and it quickly went away.
At a little after 1 pm, I was feeling the urge to push and Dr. Taavon came to check to see how dilated I was, and I was at 10 cm! He kicked the parents out of the room and said we were going to ‘try to see if we could push’. Well, about 15 minutes and 6 pushes later… Miss Carsyn was born (at 1:32 pm). She was perfect! 7lbs 3oz and 20 1/2 inches long. We were in the room for about another hour for them to clean her up and get her and me situated… I know for our parents that was the longest hour!! But before she went to the nursery to get her first bath, we were able to invite our parents back into the room to see Carsyn.
Travis went with Carsyn to give her her first bath, and the grandparents when to the waiting room to watch through the glass…. Aaaand, that left me all by myself!! LOL. A little shell shocked from all that I went through, and then to be completely alone! I was given a menu to order food, and boy was that a good thing because I hadn’t eaten in about 17 hours!! (unless you count 2 jellos, a popsicle, and a couple cranberry juices!)
All in all, my labor and delivery experience was not too bad. If I knew it would be that easy again, I would do it again in a heartbeat! ;o)
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smangy 