February 23, 2014

details, as promised

I had a routine OB appointment on February 5th, which due to sudden and unexpected high blood pressure led to a non-stress test, which led to monitored triage in Labor and Delivery, which led to being admitted and induced within a matter of hours. Not exactly how I thought that day would go. I had so many tasks and errands I was going to accomplish right after my appointment, and Phil and I were planning a last hurrah for the weekend, but we had to let those plans go. It all happened so fast it was hard to wrap my brain around it. I was on pitocin for several hours but that night around 9:00pm they decided to turn it off so I could sleep, and start it again in the morning. Except about 15 minutes later my water broke, and then I was in labor for reals. For 22 hours.

I had to be on the monitors the whole time and have an IV in my hand, both of which I hate passionately and made me much more uncomfortbale than I felt was necessary. My contractions were terrible but maddeningly irregular and my progress was slow and I had terrible back labor and was in so much pain I felt like I was going to lose my everloving mind. I finally had an epidural on Thursday afternoon, which was very scary for me, but in the end not as scary as the thought of even one more minute of that pain. After that it was not so bad, they put me back on pitocin to help things along and by 7:45pm I was ready to go. I am a champion pusher apparently and 29 minutes later I had my slippery son on my chest and we were blinking at each other, exhausted and bewildered but together at last.

His name is Hunter Atlas and I love him more than anything.
Born 02/06/2014 at 8:14pm; 7 lbs, 9 oz; 21 3/4 inches long.

Phil was excellent throughout the labor and birth, just like I told everyone he would be.  It's a huge adjustment, being a new family of three, but we are doing well.

1 comment: