Evan's birth

I figure while I have a moment, I'll try and post this whole birth story. Jasmine is watching cartoons and Evan is sleeping pretty good for the first time today.

I woke up around 1am on the 20th feeling very crampy. I knew they were contractions but they weren't real strong and they were only lasting about 15 seconds or so, at least that I could feel. I found out once I got to the hospital that they were starting before I could even feel them and ending after I could feel them. I watched some tv with my daughter, talked to my mom and got some things together in case I was going to need to go to the hospital anytime soon. My husband left for work around 4am and by then I was having a contraction every 20 minutes or so and they still weren't very strong. An hour went by and I was talking to my brother and told him they were starting to get worse and closer together. I eventually decided to call my husband and tell him he needed to get the process going of getting off the line and coming home. It took him an hour and in that time, I was beginning to get very uncomfortable. Jasmine and I just sat watching tv during this time and I kept writing down when I would have a contraction. When my husband got here, they were ten minutes apart and within a half hour or so, we left for my mom's. When we got there, they were less than five minutes apart. I broke down and called my OB to find out when he would like me to come in. I had been putting off leaving my daughter for as long as possible and even after he told me to come in, I still was dragging my feet. I got to the hospital around 8am. There was no nurse at the desk and no triage nurse around. Someone who wasn't yet working, took us to a triage room and then the nurse came and hooked me up to the machines to see when I was having contractions and to keep an eye on Evan's heart rate. I was told it would be a little while before the OB (hospital, not my own) would be in to look at me because she was in a c-section. I don't know what the hell went wrong in that surgery but she never came. My triage nurse eventually took it upon herself (thank you woman!!!) to check me and send me to labor and delivery. At that time I was around 4cm and in a ton of pain. It's funny how when you're in labor it seems like you go from mild contractions to break some one's arm contractions. I'm fairly certain that my nurse was new, if not to nursing then at least to that hospital. There was another nurse that was telling her how to chart things and whatnot. They knew I was going to be getting an epidural so they wanted to get my IV started. When I told Julie, the new nurse, that I tend to have issues with needles, she got the other nurse to stick me. She was fast at it, thankfully and I never felt anything, not even the numbing medication. I still hadn't been given anything for pain at this time. They were trying to get an anesthesiologist in to give me my epidural but he was in c-sections for at least an hour. I was starting to feel a little panicked and thought for sure I was going to have to give birth without drugs as it felt like to me, he was going to be born any second with the pain I was in. Finally, they decided to give me some Nubain and I shit you not, the second all of that drug was in my IV, the anesthesiologist came in and said he had a moment and could give me the epidural. I really don't like the drug Nubain but was willing to take whatever they could give me for pain. I tend to... hallucinate pretty easily with drugs and Nubain is one of those that makes me bug out. There were several times in the four hours after I was given the drug that I thought there were bugs crawling on me and was certain that I had stopped breathing, despite the fact that I could hear myself breathing. At any rate, I was so high off the Nubain that my epidural was easy, besides the fact that I really couldn't focus on anything that anyone was saying to me. The guy was really cool as well, which was awesome considering the anesthesiologists that I've had in the past have been... not nice. And then there was immediate pain relief. No pain at all, whatsoever. Right before I got the epidural, my OB came in to check me and I was almost 6cm. That was around 10am, I want to say. I tried to sleep over the next few hours but it never happened. As I said, I was flipping out thinking I was some how suffocating and actually told the nurse that I felt funny. My husband was able to get a little bit of sleep but he felt bad sleeping if I was awake. I tried my best to pretend to be asleep. Eventually, I started feeling... uncomfortable. It was barely noticeable at first but was starting to get worse with every passing minute. I began pushing the button to give me more of the epidural but it wasn't doing anything. I told my nurse that it wasn't working and she began to get the anesthesiologist back. By this time, a new OB was on and came in to check me. I was at 9cm, almost 10 so he went to go get changed into scrubs. My nurse asked me if I was feeling pain or pressure and I lied. I knew if I said pressure, she wouldn't let me get more of the epidural and I would have to deliver with all at least some of my nerves feeling pain. My OB already didn't want me to have anymore drugs as he didn't believe I could push Evan out in a timely fashion if I was completely numb to feeling. The anesthesiologist got in the room and pushed more drugs into my back just in time for my OB to walk into the room and frown. ;) The next time the OB checked me, I was at 10cm and the head was down as far as it would go on it's own. He still didn't believe I could push without feeling anything, despite the fact that I did it with my daughter. We did a "practice" push and I did a good enough job that he could see the baby's hair. I wanted to stick my tongue out at him. I pushed for 15 minutes before he was born. I had similar bleeding problems this time as I did with Jasmine but not to the same extent. I was given two full bags of pitocin after he was born as well as a shot of some drug that makes me sick to my stomach. (I'm still feeling the effects of it today, over a week later) He stayed with us from the time he was born, 3:57pm, till about 7pm that night. My mom brought my daughter up to visit during that time. Jasmine was kind of iffy about the whole thing and just wanted to go back to my mom's house. That's about it. I'm sure I left out a few things here and there but you get the idea. ;)