One year ago.....

Here is my story of what happened one year ago... you may need to take a bathroom break or two.


My due date was July 24th. I thought Ileigh may be early since Austin was born 2 weeks early.. but my sister keeps telling me I just miscalculated with him. (thanks sis). I was hoping she may be born on the 4th, but no luck. I started thinking she may be late after all.
My dr was to go on vacation for 4 days.. July 12 through July 16. I asked her several questions about what to do if she was gone when I went into labor.. and she laughed it off and said I would NOT go into labor in those four days. Later, she apologized.
I had a scheduled appt. the morning of July 13th and dh took the day off to go with me. I saw the other dr, and liked her better than my own, since she offered to strip my membranes. My usual dr. would have NEVER done something so UNnatural. hee hee. She said I was already 2 cm dialated although I didn't have much cramping. As I left the office at 10am, I already felt cramps.
We ate out at IHOP. I was excited for more cramping but I would have one bad episode and then nothing for a half and hour so I figured they would fade away. We went bassinette shopping after breakfast. We went to a few stores and by the time we found the one we wanted, I was hurting and tired of walking. We took it home, and I proceeded to put it together.
My contractions got stronger, and I started timing them. I still have the scribbles of times and how painful they were written all over the bassinette instructions. LOL. At about 6 pm, I called the dr. She happily said, OKay, go on in and I will meet you there! YAY.
We got to Good Sam Hospital and went to triage. The weather was warm, but storm clouds were forming. I seriously believe this brings more people to the hospital and definetely brings on labor for a lot of people. Figures.. triage was PACKED. Thats what I get for laboring at home for so long. They didn't have a room to put me in upstairs! I was pretty upset thinking about having my baby in the cruddy curtained off rooms of triage.
I call my mom to come down to the hospital, she was my picture taker and birth coach. HA! She tells me she is tired and going to bed. She will call me in the morning. I was peeved! Contractions hurt BAD. I gave my nurse (Lorra), my birthplan. Some of what it said was a)no students or unnecessary viewers allowed b)no internal monitors on the baby and c) No episiotomy.
Students continued to come into my room until I cried. I told the nurse I was very sorry, but NO extra people! It was 8 pm, dh went to move the car, I was crying in triage, Austin was listening to his walkman, my mom wouldn't come see me, they didn't have a room, and I was ready for my epidural. :cry
I finally got a room at 9pm and 6cm. I asked for an epidural right away. I got one at about 10:30. The guy was such a jerk. I could tell right away because the nurse whipped me out of bed real quick and got me into position. Then the jerk proceeded to treat me like a loaf of bread while the nurse pleaded for me to stay still. I think she was afraid SHE would get yelled at. He did the epidural. Twice. I would like to add that I have such a boney back. I have been told I have the perfect easy spine for epidurals. sheesh.
Then I had dh call my friend, shannon, who eagerly wanted to be there with me. I decided to have her take photos and video. By this time, there is a huge storm outside and I can see an awesome lightning storm out my window. It was pretty cool.
At 11:15 my dr. comes in and asks if I want my water broken. I say no, because I want Ileigh born on the 14th because my father died on the 14th and at this point I thought it was meant to be. I still was feeling emense pain with the epidural which did not happen when I had Austin. I turn it up and I was extremely itchy and shaking. No fun.
At 11:30 my water broke on it's own. I felt a lot of pain and pressure. At 12:38 I was fully dialated and started to push. I pushed through 3 contractions and she was born at 12:47 am.
As soon as she came out the dr. said, whoa she is big! I asked her to guess and she said 8 lbs. They put her on my chest and she didn't cry. I wasn't worried because I could see she was breathing and looking around. After a minute, they took her to the baby table and the nurse started jiggling her to get her crying. She still refused, so she yelled out the door for LaTasha to come in. This big, mean, nurse flicked her feet as hard as she could until tears started.:cry
Then I breastfed. Unfortunately they forgot to turn off my epidural and I was numb for the next 8 hours. They had to wheel my whole bed to recovery.
The first night in the hospital, they did not let us sleep. They kept irritated me by coming in for one reason or another and to give Ileigh the cruelest bath I have ever witnessed. They would not even dim the lights for us. The next day we had visitors all day. That evening, they had such an overflow of babies being born (16 in 4 hours), that we had to share our normally private room. Ileigh cried all night while dh slept. The following day, we went home to find out our roof had leaked and the front door was swollen shut. What a week!