I remember A LOT about the birth of my little Atlas Konrad, but I remember very little at the same time. The thing I remember the most is yelling at Adam to 'slow down' as he drove to the hospital (good thing he didn't) and as they wheeled me into L & D, me saying 'Please call an Anesthesiologist NOW!'. FYI, you need a lot of IV fluids before they'll call the nurse anesthetist.
It all started around 5 when I woke up for the 120th time to go to the bathroom and I decided to go downstairs so Adam didn't wake up again. I fell asleep on the couch from about 5 until 6AM. I woke up a little uncomfortable. I figured I was laying in the wrong direction or something - it wasn't contractions or anything, just uncomfortable. I play around on Facebook for a few minutes and Adam comes down around 6:25, I say "Well, this is probably going to be a bad weekend, but a GREAT Monday for you, because I feel different." (Because Adam REALLY didn't want to go to work on Monday, so he wanted the baby soon.) As I was getting off the couch to go to the bathroom (again, time # 121 for the night), BAM! Monster contraction, so he looks at me, and asks if he has time to take a shower. I say "Of course" thinking this birth would be more like our experience with Ares. Oh. How wrong I could be.
He jumps in the shower, I use the bathroom, and head upstairs to change. I get two contractions while he's in the shower. They're both pretty intense. Ares wakes up on his own and comes into the room, I tell him to put shoes on and we're going to grandma's as I yell to Adam to hurry up (at this point it's only 6:40). I call my mom a minute later, (Call logged at 6:41 am) telling her that we're heading to the hospital. "Mom, can we drop Ares off now, because ow, ow, ow, ow ow ow ow ow... we're going to the hospital now." She asks if we want to meet her at her house, the hospital or at McDonalds off the exit. I turn to ask Adam. "Do you want to just drop him off or meet mom at... ow ow ow ow ow ow" Mom decides to meet us at McDonalds
We drop him off quickly and get back on the road. I called my mom about 10 minutes into the trip (call logged at 7:11) to see where we need to park once we're there. I believe we were near Chagrin Rd at that point, about 10 minutes from the hospital. I have a contraction while on the phone, it's my FOURTH since dropping Ares off. Once at the hospital, we got a great parking spot and I started walking to the maternity area while Adam grabs the things out of the car and quickly catches up to me (I've had 3 contractions while walking the 150 feet, where some nurses waiting to get off of their shift get me a wheelchair and wheel me the rest of the way. At this point, it's probably 7:25. I give my name, SS#, Adam gives my DOB and doctors name and they decide to skip admitting me and take me straight to a L and D room (The entire way I'm asking for an anesthesiologist.)
Apparently, the BAM! Massive contraction I had was actually my water breaking, but no gush. The doctor checks me - 4 cm. I have a handful more contractions while they are putting the IV into my arm, ask me a bunch of questions, of which I'm sure I only hear/answer 10% as I'm crying in pain. Since I was at 4cm, the doctor gives the OK to call the anesthesiologists in. I hear that they're down the hallway and on their way. Once they get there (less than 10 minutes) the doctor checks me again - I'm 7-8 cm. There's a slight disagreement as to who has - something needed, the L&D room or the anesthesiologist, and in the minute they figured that out, they checked me again, 9 CM. I cried. I should have known things were progressing fast, I really only had contractions that were less than 2 minutes apart, AND, the doctor that first checked me, NEVER left the room. With Ares, the doctors came in and out often, and were mostly out until the delivery.
Apparently this is when the room (not me) realized that there would be no epidural. Let's pause now, for a moment of silence for my sanity. They told me I had the option of sitting up (still) for 10 minutes to get the epidural or to just start pushing. I was afraid that I'd be in labor for another hour, so I chose epidural. (This is when the nurse behind me turned to Adam and mouthed "There's no way.") I tried to sit up so they can put it in, and that's when I realized that this baby was coming NOW. I laid down and they had me start pushing when I was contracting. 4 or 5 contractions later (maybe 10 minutes - probably less than that) we had our little Atlas Konrad.
Of course, I wish my placenta wanted to come out that quickly/easily. That part was traumatizing - and almost landed me in the O-R.
Ares is a very proud big brother. He calls Atlas "My baby" and is VERY protective of him. Once, a doctor came by, and Atlas was crying, Ares yelled at her for not being gentle.
Things I've learned:
- Your water can break without having any type of contraction first.
- Any plans you may have made can be thrown out the window. (If I were at work when this happened, I planned on driving home, meeting Adam at home and driving to the hospital together. I laugh at that plan now, I'd have had a kid in the parking lot or an ambulance, haha)
- Epidurals really are the worlds greatest things. Not over-rated at all, and I'd tell people who wanted to do a natural child birth on purpose that they need some serious help.
- You think you're done after delivering the baby, but there's that damned placenta that's sometimes too attached. There's only one way for the doctor to find out where it's at and how attached it is, and it.is.painful!
- The most satisfying feeling EVER is that first shower. OMG-HEAVEN
- I hope there really is a thing called 'baby-nesia' and that I forget how painful this experience was.
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