In my last post I wrote about the trials of pregnancy. Well my journey came to an end two weeks ago, and a new adventure began.

Throughout most of my pregnancy when I would go to my monthly, then bi-weekly, then weekly appointments one of the things they would do was to test my pee. Gross detail I know, but hey it’s the truth.

In this test they were looking for signs of distress or infection in me or in baby. One of the tests would look for the amount of protein in the urine.

Most of the time I was testing at Plus One Protein. They attribute this to dehydration, which due to all the vomiting I was suffering from it made sense that this was my test result. I worked really hard to get this issue under control and for a few weeks I was successful.

Then, pop! I tested Plus Two Protein. This meant my levels were elevated enough that I had to do some additional testing, including blood work (blech!).
The first time this happened, the additional tests showed that all was good and had nothing to worry about.

A week later when I was at 37 weeks, I tested Plus 2 again, then again at 38 weeks.
At that point I had also started experiencing swelling, some headaches and my blood pressure began to become elevated with even the slightest of activity. I had also started working half days to try to alleviate the swelling and headaches.
My doctor decided to repeat the additional testing, and this time I failed.

Going into the testing I had a few options. The tests were looking for preeclampsia.
This is a scary thing for pregnant women. I was lucky that if I did test positive, that my baby was already full term.

The only “cure” for preeclampsia is to deliver the baby. This wouldn’t be a big deal for me, as Little Miss was fully cooked, but some women aren’t so lucky.

If I passed the tests, I was going to go on full time bed rest until closer to, or just after Christmas. It would have meant only missing 4 days of work, since I was in the last week before Christmas break.

Failing the tests meant I was going straight to the hospital to be induced.

While I was excited about having my baby, and Troy was beyond excited about the concept, I didn’t want to be induced. I wanted to be able to wait for labor to come naturally. I had ideas about feeling things change, knowing it was time, going through pre-labor at home, driving to the hospital at the right time etc.

These things were not to be.

Tuesday, December 15th my doctor called me at 9:30 A.M.
She informed me that I had indeed failed the test. While my blood tests came back normal (a very good thing) my urine test was well over 300. This meant my kidneys were not processing things 100% the way they should and that I had indeed developed preeclampsia. My case was mild, but it did mean that I needed to head to the hospital to be induced.

Troy was out walking the dog when I received this phone call. When he came in I was standing at the top of the stairs and said,
“Well Dr. Jenkins called, and we’re going to have a baby today.”
He was so excited.
It took us about an hour to gather everything up and head to the hospital. As time to leave got closer I began to feel more nervous about what was going to happen over the next few hours, I started to feel nauseated, so I told Troy I was going to have to drive, or risk barfing in the car.

It makes for a good one liner, to tell people I drove myself to the hospital the day the baby was born.

When we arrived at the hospital my Mom, who was going to be with us in Labor and Delivery, met us in the parking lot.   We checked in and were shown to the labor and delivery room.

I changed into my hospital gown, and the first of many medical professionals came in. This gal started my multi-port IV. I was immediately hooked up to a bag of Magnesium Sulfate, and then a little later they added pitocin.
Around 12:30-1 some one came in and used a special hook to break my water.
That was gross.
I expected the initial gush of liquid, but not that it would continue to gush periodically through the entire process. Ick.

About 30 minutes after they broke my water, I began to feel the contractions. At first they weren’t too horrible. I had heard from friends, and in my birthing classes that an induced labor would hurt a little more because the pitocin caused the contractions to come a little harder and faster than natural contractions would necessarily be.

These really weren’t so bad, which I later learned was most likely due to the fact that Magnesium Sulfate is the drug they give women to stop or slowdown pre-term labor. So my two bags of drugs were essentially working against each other, yet still working, and really seemingly working to my advantage.

I hung in until about 4pm and then asked for my epidural. I know some people believe that you should have a baby with no drug assistance. Others strongly feel that there is no reason not to have pain medication. I have always felt to each his own, and me, I am a gimme the drugs girl.
The best comparison I have ever heard was this:
You wouldn’t go to a dentist and have a root canal with out pain medication, you wouldn’t have your appendix taken out with out pain medication, so why do it to your self when having a baby?

I will, however admit that I was fearful of receiving the actual epidural. I am a tad jumpy when it comes to needles. I don’t have an issue getting a shot; it is more an aversion to having blood drawn. I have had a few bad experiences and it just makes me nervous. The idea of a needle going into my spinal cord…nerves go into over drive.

The anesthesiologist and the CRN came in.
My Labor nurse instructed me to sit on the edge of the bed with my legs dangling over the side. Troy was instructed to sit down in a chair, as was mom. They told Troy he could pull his chair close to the bed, but they didn’t really let him get as close to me as he would have liked.

The nurse told me to hang my head, tuck my chin to my chest and let my arms hang loose. This was all well in good, but it made me feel very unstable, like I was going to fall off the bed.

The CRN was the one putting in my actual epidural, and the anesthesiologist was standing off to the side. I never saw him, but I could hear him, and at first I was really very intimidated and fearful of him.
Remember, that I am having contractions through all of this, I am trying to hold still, and I am nervous about this whole process.

Getting the epidural didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t the most pleasant experience.

The CRN kept hitting the needle on my spine bones. Which didn’t hurt, but felt wrong. This feeling would make me kind of involuntarily shudder/jump away from the CRN. These movements made everyone in the room react.

The nurse would urge me to hold still, Troy wanted to stand up to get closer to me to help support me, and would be told to sit back down, and the anesthesiologist would yell at me that if I didn’t hold still I wouldn’t be able to get the epidural.

Eventually the CRN did get the needle in the right spot, inserted the flexible tubing and the medicine began to flow.

Almost immediately I began to feel relief and was happy to be past a labor milestone that I had been so nervous about.

For the next two and a half hours time flew by and I was pretty comfortable. I was able to be chatty with my mom and Troy. They were watching the monitors and keeping tabs on the length and duration of the contractions, as I couldn’t really feel them anymore.

Around 6:15, things began to change. Suddenly the left side of my body felt really heavy and numb, but the right side didn’t. I began to feel very sharp pain in the lower front of my right abdomen. It was a pain that would come on slowly, intensify and then slowly release again. I knew something was wrong.

I was feeling full on active labor contractions, but only on the right side and I knew this wasn’t right. We talked with my L&D nurse, who started to check things by poking me with a straightened paper clip. When she poked me on the left, or high on my right side I couldn’t feel anything, but I was able to clearly tell them exactly when a sharp pain was coming, peaking and then stopping, and my timing was perfect with the monitor that was recording my contractions.

The L&D nurse called the CRN back into the room. She augmented my epidural with another dose of meds. But a few minutes later I was still hurting, and the pain was getting more intense.

This time they called the anesthesiologist in. I was nervous about him coming in, as he was the one who had intimidated me before when he was in the room.

By the time he arrived the nurse already had me sitting up on the side of the bed. This time Troy sat down in a chair right up next to the bed and had his hands on my waist. I leaned over and put my forehead on his and just tried to focus on him.
I never actually saw the anesthesiologist, as I had my back to the door, but I recognized his voice the minute he walked in.

Later Mom would tell me that when he walked in he had a swagger about him that mom has seen in many doctors. The look and swagger that suggests, that he knows everything and that we know nothing and he can’t wait to show us up, or prove us wrong.

He definitely changed his thought process quickly, and mom was sure to call him on it. (Everyone says I get my attitude from my dad, but really it is mom, from dad I get the lack of filter and I share the attitude more readily, but trust me, mom is the one with the ‘tude. Especially when she knows she right.. just like me)

The anesthesiologist came in the room with a bag of ice in his hands. His plan was to lay it on my back and ask me what I could and could not feel.
He started with my left side; he asked, “Do you feel that?”
I responded, “No, are you doing something?”
Then he did the same thing to my right side and immediately I said, “oh! That is cold”

Right then, the swagger melted from his face. He began to try to wriggle the flexible tubing that was already inserted. He wasn’t able to manipulate it the way he wanted, and Troy saw him give a kind of “knowing look” to the L&D nurse.

At this point Troy was ready to blow his cool with everyone in the room. He hadn’t been happy with the way the staff had acted when I got my epidural the first time, and was less impressed with the attitude the anesthesiologist came in with this second time. The passing look between the nurse and the anesthesiologist was almost too much for him to bear.

The anesthesiologist said I needed to lie down on my side, and thankfully that was enough to loosen the tubing, and he was able to take out the first epidural, and replace it.

He did it so quickly and smooth, that I didn’t feel anything.
When the anesthesiologist was done, he said, “well that should fix it, it had slipped, and really needed to be redone.”

Mom responded, “ I know, and I know you didn’t think that when you walked in. I spent to many years with you doctors. I know how you are. “  (See what I mean about the ‘tude. Don’t mess with a momma bear.)

At this point things began to progress quickly. I felt loads better, and really I was more comfortable than I had been even when the first epidural was working.

Now I began to feel an immense pressure in my vaginal are, which when the nurse asked me where the pressure was, I replied, “ in my delivery Zone”.

I expressed this to the L&D nurse, and she asked me if it was painful, I said a little yes, but it was a lot of pressure with some pain. Again they augmented my epidural and while I still felt the pressure, I felt no pain.  I was pain free to the point that a few contractions went by completely with out my notice.

At 7:00 the L&D nurse informed me that Dr. Jenkins was finishing with her last office appointment and then would be heading to the hospital.

This made Troy really nervous, but as I was a little distracted by my situation I just kind of went with it. At 7:15 the L&D nurse told me it was time to push.

She changed the shape of the bed I was laying in, lowering the part under my behind, lifting up leg supports that held me up under my thighs and calves, and then sat the back of the bed up so I was in more of an upright position. They also pulled up some handles that were right next to my hands and told me to hold them, and to pull on them like I would if I was rowing a boat.

This made me laugh, while I knew instantly what they wanted me to do, I wanted to look at them and say, “do I look like someone who rows a boat?”

The act of pushing was actually done in sets of three. When a contraction started they had me take a deep breath in and out, then take another breath and hold it in for a count of ten. During this count of ten I was to bear down and push.
I was instructed to do this three times with in one contraction. I did this twice before Dr. Jenkins arrived.
Once she came in things seemed to just go in a whirlwind. Everything happened so fast. I pushed four more sets of three, for a total of six sets, or 18 pushes, and out came my baby girl.

During the pushing Troy was standing next to my head, but since I was in such a sitting position, he was really more by my side, and mom was standing right behind him.

Initially Dr. Jenkins asked me if I wanted the mirror that was in the ceiling tilted down so that I could see what was happening, and I said no, but every time I would push the oohs and ahhs that Mom and Troy were expressing, and the way they were cheering me on made me want to see what was going on, so I then asked if the mirror could be tilted down, and I am so happy that I did.

It may seem gross, or weird because it is a big bloody mess, and your body is contorted in a way that seems unnatural, plus, I mean who really spends a lot of time using a mirror to look at their own whooie when not pregnant or delivering a baby.

But I swear to you as a non-crunchy-granola-dirty-hippie-epidural accepting-not-breast-feeding girl, it was the most incredible and amazing thing I have ever seen. I highly recommend it, and most people are shocked to hear me say it, but I swear to you it was awesome!

Once baby girl came out they wrapped her in a blanket and laid her on my chest. She was gooey and covered in vernix and other bits of blood and amniotic fluid. Her eyes were bright and wide open. I was in such amazement all I could do was look at her and say hi over and over and over again.

After a few minutes of me holding her, and Troy getting to take some pictures, they took her to the in room carriage to clean her off more and give her the Apgar screening. They had her for about 5 minutes then when she was 99% clean they gave her back to me so I could hold her next to my skin. At this point we finally shared her name. Amelia Jean McLaughlin Carlson was in the world. Troy ran out to the waiting room to announce to Kathy, Bruce, Michael, Natalie and My dad that she was here and I was fine and that everything was great.  Mom snapped more pictures and when Troy came back into the room she went out to share the pictures on her camera.

Once things had settled down more, I was able to have some visitors. Kathy and Bruce came in and were so excited! Dad was excited, and mushy with tears, Michael and Natalie were just in awe of the whole thing.

After everyone left, and I was moved to a post partum room. I was told that I had to keep my IV of Magnesium Sulfate in for the next 12 hours and in addition to that I was given some pretty strong pain medication that completely knocked me out. The blood pressure monitor on my arm was set to check my pressure every hour, and I never felt it once. I was given 10mg of the same drug that Rush Limbaugh was addicted to and abused, and I seriously do not know how that man functioned while on these drugs.

The next morning I was released from my IV prison. At 10:00 am I was moved up to the fifth floor for the rest of my hospital stay. This was nice because now we were on the same floor as the baby nursery where Amelia had spent her first night.  The rest of our baby adventure at the hospital was pretty smooth. Kathy & Bruce, Steve & Ruth, Michael & Natalie, Mom & Dad, Carolyn, and Shannan visited us.
Everyone ooohed and awed over our little girl.

Thursday morning we were given the go ahead to head home. I think we were both a little nervous about it. While part of me wanted to go home, part of me was okay with staying in the hospital where at the drop of a hat someone else would come and help us with anything we needed or wanted for us or for baby.

We gathered all of our stuff, dressed and bundled our sweet girl, and were wheeled out of the hospital.

I had been pregnant for 38 weeks and 4 days. I threw up for the majority of that time. I lost 20 pounds in the process and still at my largest weight never made it back to my pre-pregnancy weight.
I had dealt with aches and pains, swelling and headaches, stress and worry, but it was one of the most interesting and exciting times in my life. I loved knowing I had this amazing experience going on inside of me. I loved watching my belly grow (once it finally did) and I loved watching it move around as my daughter shifted around inside. Having ultrasounds done, hearing her heartbeat during routine doctor visits, getting her nursery ready, and going to showers, all of it was a once in a life time experience.

Even if we do decide to have another child, the adventure will be completely different from this first experience of bringing Millie into the world.