7 Years Ago Today!

It's hard to imagine that 7 years ago I was enduring a long and painful labor. My time spent in that California hospital seems like a bad dream...and seems so long ago. See...I had it all planned. I was going to be induced by my Dr., enjoy my epidhural, give a few good pushes, and the baby would be out. Then I would lovingly, calmly nurse him, change him, and take him home. You can imagine my horror when we arrived at the hospital after a 45 minute drive to discover that there was no room for us. What?...no room....are you serious? We were told we would receive a phone call as soon as a bed was available. So...since we figured a bed would open up any minute, we headed to a near-by restaurant for a quick bite to eat while waiting for the phone call. It never came. Just in case we called the hospital before heading back the 45 minutes we had just driven. Nada! So...went home...went to bed. 2 a.m. the phone rings!...we were on our way....45 minutes later...at the hospital getting checked in. Pitocin started...walking started. Mean comments by my nurse...started! She kept acting bugged that I was being induced. She was bugged that I wasn't actually at a "3". "No way are you a 3....you're barely at a 1!" As things started progressing I started asking for an epidhural....nurses wouldn't let me have it. The Dr. finally came in sometime around 10 a.m. and asked me why I was trying to be so tough! He broke my water and told me to get the epidhural. Then the nice little Asian anesthesiologist appears. Barely speaks any English. When he starts to place the epidhural it sends a shock of pain throughout my whole body. I screech in pain. "oh..I sody...dat hut?"......uh...ya...hurt...much! So....he tries again. 3rd time was a charm, and soon my bottom half was feeling much larger than the room itself...but there was no pain.:) The timeframe of events is fuzzy, but Logan's heart rate started dropping. I had to keep switching from side-to-side to get it to go back up. This really aggravated the nurses...cause every time his heart rate would drop it would sound the alarm and they would come rushing in to tell me to switch sides! They ended up having to put fluid back in to keep his heart rate stabilized. Next...I think I progressed to about a "6"...and then my uterus stopped contracting...what...how does it just stop contracting? By 9 pm...I was exhausted and told Adam I didn't think there was any way I could push him out. My Doc then came in and suggested a C-section. A what?...I didn't read about that in the book! I was not prepared for it, but was relieved at the same time that I wouldn't have to push.

The nurse had me prepped and ready in just a few minutes. They wheeled me down the hall. I was shaking uncontrollably and remember being worried that would cause the Dr. to "slip" while making the incision. Afterward I saw the alien-looking thing they just pulled out of me...cone head and all. It was not a pretty sight. The next thing I remember was being in the "recovery" room. I remember telling the nurse I was going to throw up...so she placed a small little plastic thing in my face. I distinctly remember thinking there was no way I was going to puke in that! Also...I was still shaking. Silly little nurse mistook that as a sign that I was cold and kept putting blankets on me. I was sweating to death. Then there was the boy next door moaning and groaning how much it hurt! I swear.......

Then...Adam was trying to show me pictures of our cute little guy while they were wheeling me down the hall...I was doped up on Morphine and didn't even want to look at them. And then...the bed-pusher guy told me to take in a deep breath on the count of 3 and relax. I remember feeling so confused and not knowing what they were doing. When they got to 3 they slid me onto another bed....and I was wide awake...in pain! Oh ya...and then there's the aspect of "shared" hospital rooms....not pleasant. And the nurse grabbing my boob and showing me how to nurse....and the shared shower down the hall....the pull-chord in the bathroom...that I was later informed was "only for emergencies!" What did these people think this was. The moment that took the cake was waking up in the middle of the night and paging my nurse to come turn my lights off (because I couldn't get out of bed on my own)...and her reply: "Did you just not know where the switch was?" Seriously....are you freaking kidding me! Get me out of here!!!!

The next morning I called Adam at 6 am pleading to come and get me. (no worries...we had to wait for Logan to "pee" before we could go home...took the little buger all afternoon!)

However.....

This is what I got out of all of that!....totally 100% worth every second of it! Hard to believe that this......

....has grown into this! What a happy and special 7-year-old we've got! Soooo grateful to be me!