Best Laid Plans...

Well, as I am pretty much back at work and the muffin is sleeping yet stirring, I thought I'd fill you in on the whole delivery thing.

I was due on April 10th, and I was kinda hoping he'd be a bit late because I still had so much to do. My mother-in-law threw me a fantastic baby shower - I was really flattered - but it was March 19th. That's cutting it a bit close for me, but for whatever reasons, that's when she decided to do it.

After I discontinued the baby aspirin in the 36th week, I started having elevated blood pressure readings at the doctors. My legs and feet were swollen, and I could only wear pants, as I was extremely limited on footwear. A friend send me some great comfy maternity dresses, but I couldn't wear appropriate shoes, so I stuck to my jeans and black pants. No problem.

My OB kept an eye on the blood pressure, but then I started to register protein in my urine. On March 22nd, my OB ordered a 24 hour urine collection. I saw him on the 31st, and he was still waiting for the results. If he didn't like them, he wanted to induce me right away.

When Friday evening came and went, we figured no news was good news. Saturday, April 1st Mr. Right & I planned to run some errands then come back and work - I had a case due on Monday and he had some projects for work that needed completing as well. The next day we planned on going to Babies R Us to pick up some stuff we still needed. About 9:30 a.m. we received the call from my OB: unfortunately, the levels of protein weren't good. The hospital could take me for an induction at 12 noon. this was not an April Fool's joke. Ummmmm...

Okaaaaay... not really prepared for this, but what are you going to do? We ran around a little frantically to try to get things in order. My bag had been mostly packed except for the daily toiletries, but I still felt tremendously unprepared. We drove to the hospital excited and nervous; couldn't belive this was happening! Little sad I wouldn'tstart having contractions on my own and have to tell Mr. R "Honey, it's time." But, again, what are you going to do?

I'm going to quickly go though my "birth plan" and tell you what I was kinda hoping for in a delivery. I wanted to be able to walk around, and use the jacuzzi if available (just for relaxation, not delivery. I wanted to feel the contractions, but wanted an epidural before it was too late. I wanted Mr. Right in the labor & delivery room, I was hoping to avoid an episiotomy (we started doing the perineal massage, which was actually pretty painful in and of itself, but helpful). I wanteda mirror so I could see the Bee enter the world. We wanted for Mr. R to cut his cord, for them to lay the Bee on me for that skin-to-skin contact and for him to nurse as soon as all the necessary stuff was out of the way. Formula: not an option. Breast milk only for my boy! So that pretty much sums up what I thought my delivery would be like, although we were open and flexible. Bottom line: we really just wanted a healthy mother and healthy child.

We did get our bottom line, but the path getting there was a bit more circuitious: They gave me pitocin to induce me, but also gave me magnesium to prevent seizures and keep my blood pressure down. I asked the nurse how it would make me feel, and she responded with: "the worst you've ever felt in your life." I actually thought she was joking. The magnesium relxed my muscles. The pitocin caused the muscles of my uterus to contract, so it was quite a balancing act.

For a while, I couldn't even tell I was having contractions. We had to check the fetal monitor strips to find out. My in-laws were in the room, as well as my Dad & his partner. Nothing was going on, so it was a nice visit. by around 8 pm, nothing much was developing, and I think everyone was getting a little bored and hungry, so they all left. I asked my OB if Icould walk around and was told no. I said " I thought walking was good for-" "Not for you." Again, apparently v. important to keep the blood pressure from rising. Jacuzzi was also out. I was dilating rediculously slowly. When I was about 3 cm, the pain started to really kick in. After talking with my doc, we decided to wait until 4 cm for the epidural. I am a huge baby when it comes to pain. I went through a labor once before with nothing but morphine, which just made me sleepy, so I was definitely going with the epidural. After reading Suz's account I was a little nervous, but the doctor did a great job and it went off without a hitch. Except that my blood pressure plumeted to 55/20, and I nearly passed out. Mr. Right was a little panicky, but the nurses treated me calmly and cooly and had the situation remedied within a minute.

Muffin is now starting to get antsy, so I'm off like a herd of dirty turtles. More to come, which is good as this is pretty lengthy anyway. : )