A Baby Story: Jude Edition

The last few weeks of pregnancy with Jude were hard, mostly because I felt like I was in labor all of the time. I had regular contractions and got sent home from the hospital once for preterm labor, once for not being in sufficient amount of pain with my contractions.

Texting and playing with Iphones. It was a technologically enhanced birth.

Finally, after a night of annoying contractions, we went to the hospital at about 9:30. I knew I was having that baby that day because we had the same evil nurse as when I had Mimi. She has horrible bedside manner and doesn't tell me what's going on.

Right before I swooned and needed more drugs.

Still no pain. The nurse checked me and I was at a 2, which was more than I was when I checked in with Mimi. Dx and I did the walk around the maternity ward, mostly because I've always wanted to do the maternity ward walk. By around 11, they hooked me up to the IV and the contractions were actually hurting because I was at a 5. Next, I requested my much beloved stadol and an epidural, although I wanted the stadol to kick in for a while before the epidural. But, anesthesiologists get busy, so if he was available I'd better get that drip in place before they started the pitocin. I was really drugged and shaken during the epidural, I couldn't breathe and I was sweating and shaking violently. It was really scary. My leg didn't do the normal kicky thing when the guy put in the needle, so I was kinda worried that he'd messed up, but the pain went away so I thoughtI was in the clear.

At 12, my sisters Celia and Paige descended in a flurry of hilarious.

Paige "checking" my dialation

No bras in the delivery room!

They went through every closet and played with all the gadgets. They texted and took pictures, it was a total party. When Paige was doing my hair, however, I started to pass out. I don't know what happened exactly, but the nurse apparently turned off my epidural. The pitocin was in and working. When the doctor came in to break my water, I could FEEL EVERYTHING! I freaked out. All of the sudden, the contractions went crazy and I truely thought I was going to die. The anesthesiologist came back in and tried to explain to me that the epidural was fine and that it was too late to change it. I was in complete panic. I had to soothe this guy's ego while going through transition without any medication (stadol had worn off). While he was explaining, Dx held up the phone so Ellie could hear and she told him to demand Versed and another epidural. Everybody thought it was too late to get a new epidural and Celia and Paige had to coach me through 30 minutes of the worst pain I have ever felt. I was weeping. I think I transitioned without drugs. Finally, they dosed me with Versed and I felt much better. Then they gave me another epidural and we had to listen to the dumb guy explain why he hadn't screwed up the first one. But the second one worked!

The nurse checked me and said I was "complete" whatever that means. Hair and makeup resumed. (What, don't you have hair and makeup people at your births? You should!) Paige and Dx held my legs on one side, Celia on the other. Nobody looked at my business. I pushed the baby down for about 20 minutes, then the doctor showed up and rather than catching the baby (who was crowning) he grabbed my camera and started taking pictures from HIS vantage point! We all thought he was taking pictures of the baby coming out and were horrified. But they are actually kind of cool and show nothing disgusting.

One of the pics taken by the Doctor.

In about 10 minutes at 4:05pm, the baby was born. It was a love fest.

Baby Love

Then my crew helped the baby get cleaned up and passed him around to be cuddled and loved.

Baby Jude 8lbs 9.8oz

Shortly thereafter, everybody in my entire family and Dx's showed up or called. Jude must have been cuddled by 25 people in the first five hours of his life. And they wonder why my kids have no separation anxiety and will go to anybody!

I'm glad my sisters and husband were there. All in all, it was a positive experience, despite the unexpected pain and suffering. The recovery has been easier than the first and I am taking it as easy as one can with a toddler and a newborn. Mimi and Jude seem to like eachother and Dx and the fam are helping a lot. I like having two babies even more than I like having one.

Hooray for babies! Apparently I have "Irish twins" which means two babies within 18 months of eachother.