i went into labor at 3am on monday. waited to wake the folks til 5:30 and finally went in at around 7:30 am.. i was at about 3cm but they had trouble measuring because i was 100% effaced. that exam was one of the most painful things ive ever felt. anyway, they finally got me a room at 11:45 am and i was unchanged. at which point i said i wanted an epidural. the anesthesiologists was awesome. super nice guy. anyway. he put it in, no problem, first test dose, no problem.. 2nd.. i start feeling dizzy. then dizzier etc pressure dropped to 60/30... oops. my folks were freaked but doc was calm and all over it so i wasnt worried. apparently it was because i was dehydrated. dropped about 3 more times but never as significantly and never again after the very beginning. anyway i spent the after noon hanging out on fb etc etc. the boy had dropped his heart rate when my pressure dropped but then after that it was pretty high so they didnt wanna give me pit... but as it turns out, i was having contractions every 2-3 minutes anyway. they checked me again at about 4 something when i was having pain again, and i was at 8cm. my doc wasnt available til after 5:30 but... it was all good. got to complete maybe an hour later and they had me push in the labor room to +2 station. i also had a few ice chips at this point (first thing i had since 5 am)... bad idea, puked the whole way to the or.. but once they got me dosed up again on the epidural i was fine. pushed for 30 min in the or (for a total of 45 min) and had Lila at 7:19 pm. 19.5 inches 5 lbs 7 oz. The boy was head down but... sunnyside up. Had a horrible time getting him under the pubic bone. I thnk the fact i stayed in such good shape really helped me here. I had to keep getting them to topup the epidural because i couldnt cope with the pain at all. Theyd have me push 3 times with each contraction and Id push 1 time then couldnt keep going, the pain was just too insane. Once the epidural was topped up, figured out where/how to push was harder but at least i could do it. Slept between contractions. Took over 2 more hours to push him out, and they had to use the vacuum. I knew if i didnt give it everything i was getting both a long labor and a section... luckily he was a trooper and kept his heart rate good etc. Oliver was born at 9:50 pm 20 inches, 6 lbs 3 oz. Both passed their hearing tests and had low to intermediate bili... so we got to go home wednesday. been pumping but still have colostrum so im only getting maybe a cc at a time. they nursed all night (was having good luck getting them to latch but theyd then they wouldnt suck). got a 2nd degree perineal tear and "skid marks" but other than that ive been fine.. only been taking motrin for it.. and ive picked up all the swelling i didnt get during pregnancy from all the fluids they pumped into me.. only lost 13lbs (weighed myself when i came home but... i wasnt weighed at the hospital and i dont know how high it went with all the fluids). so we will see...
