Saturday, February 23, 2013
My Little Valentine
It seems like it was ages and ages ago that I sent Marty this picture via text message:
Various online due date calculators put the due date on February 14. And for the entire pregnancy, while I told people that the due date was Valentine's day, I didn't really anticipate that our baby would be one of the 5% of babies who are actually born on their (estimated) due date.
On February 13, when I was at work, I had several people ask me what I was still doing there. I also had several people say to me, "When are you due?" and were surprised when I answered, "Tomorrow." I had contractions throughout the day on the 13th, as I'd been having for the several weeks before. Sure, they were getting stronger, but they weren't particularly regular, and I was still able to function.
Mom and Dad arrived that night at 10:30pm, and by that point, I was anticipating going in to work the next day with Marty taking Mom and Dad to see the Grand Canyon. It didn't seem like Baby would be arriving right away. So we all went to bed.
Except I couldn't sleep. It wasn't contractions that were keeping me up, it was general discomfort. I was getting increasingly frustrated--how could I function at work if I couldn't get any sleep? At 4am things changed. All of a sudden my contractions changed dramatically--becoming very painful and very regular at 3 minutes apart. I knew it was the real deal. At 5am I worked on waking up Marty--it took a couple rounds, but eventually he got up.
I didn't want to wake Mom and Dad since they'd traveled all the previous day and then we'd kept them up late visiting. I left this note on the counter:
Over the next several hours there were times that time seemed to stand still and others when time sped up. Marty went home and guided Mom and Dad back to the hospital around 8am. At 6cm dilated, Marty spoke up and asked when the anesthesiologist would be arriving (thank you Marty!). The nurses looked at each other and seemed a little puzzled--apparently the profile they had for me said no drugs. I assured them that I really wanted an epidural. Really.
The difficulty of trying to stay perfectly still for the anesthesiologist while having hard contractions right on top of each other never occurred to me until I was in that position. I did some serious squeezing on the nurse's hand.
I wish I could say the delivery all went smoothly from then on. Unfortunately, the word that was used again and again to describe it is "difficult". Depending on how I was positioned, Baby really didn't like some of the contractions. And Baby really, really didn't like me pushing. Emergency C-Section paperwork was started just in case. My Labor & Delivery room now had lots of people in it--a team of nurses and techs for me and a team of nurses and techs for Baby.
It was my doctor's day off (of course!), so one of her partners whom I'd never met came for the delivery. Not too long after the doctor arrived (or so it seemed to me), Baby George was born.
Introducing George James, born February 14, 2013 at 12:55pm. Weighing 6lbs 14oz. Length: 19.5 inches.
We are over the moon in love with our Little Valentine.
Various online due date calculators put the due date on February 14. And for the entire pregnancy, while I told people that the due date was Valentine's day, I didn't really anticipate that our baby would be one of the 5% of babies who are actually born on their (estimated) due date.
On February 13, when I was at work, I had several people ask me what I was still doing there. I also had several people say to me, "When are you due?" and were surprised when I answered, "Tomorrow." I had contractions throughout the day on the 13th, as I'd been having for the several weeks before. Sure, they were getting stronger, but they weren't particularly regular, and I was still able to function.
Mom and Dad arrived that night at 10:30pm, and by that point, I was anticipating going in to work the next day with Marty taking Mom and Dad to see the Grand Canyon. It didn't seem like Baby would be arriving right away. So we all went to bed.
Except I couldn't sleep. It wasn't contractions that were keeping me up, it was general discomfort. I was getting increasingly frustrated--how could I function at work if I couldn't get any sleep? At 4am things changed. All of a sudden my contractions changed dramatically--becoming very painful and very regular at 3 minutes apart. I knew it was the real deal. At 5am I worked on waking up Marty--it took a couple rounds, but eventually he got up.
I didn't want to wake Mom and Dad since they'd traveled all the previous day and then we'd kept them up late visiting. I left this note on the counter:
The difficulty of trying to stay perfectly still for the anesthesiologist while having hard contractions right on top of each other never occurred to me until I was in that position. I did some serious squeezing on the nurse's hand.
I wish I could say the delivery all went smoothly from then on. Unfortunately, the word that was used again and again to describe it is "difficult". Depending on how I was positioned, Baby really didn't like some of the contractions. And Baby really, really didn't like me pushing. Emergency C-Section paperwork was started just in case. My Labor & Delivery room now had lots of people in it--a team of nurses and techs for me and a team of nurses and techs for Baby.
It was my doctor's day off (of course!), so one of her partners whom I'd never met came for the delivery. Not too long after the doctor arrived (or so it seemed to me), Baby George was born.
Introducing George James, born February 14, 2013 at 12:55pm. Weighing 6lbs 14oz. Length: 19.5 inches.
We are over the moon in love with our Little Valentine.
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