She's Here!

Emily Hayoung Tadema

August 28, 2010

9:44pm

7 lbs, 3 oz

...continuation of the birth story...

I sat there waiting for the petocin to kick in. It took about 4 extra doses before the contractions finally came full force. They tried to get the epidural going right away, but that too didn't work right away. Normally you can feel the relief from the epidural within about 10 minutes, but after 30 minutes, I was still feeling the contractions FULL ON. The anethesiologist came in 3 more times to up my dosage before the epidural finally starting working. An hour and a half later, I was laughing again, content from not feeling any more pain. (I don't know HOW I managed to make it through contractions for 17 hours before getting an epidural with Boogs last time...crazy, I tell ya!)

By now, we had several visitors. Yobo's brother's family, cousins, my sister, BIL, dad and Boogs were all there. The doctor came in about 1.5 hours later to check my progress before he stepped into his emergency C-section. We kicked everyone out and after he checked, he said, "Okay, you're up!"

Since I had received so many doses of the epidural, I had NO sense of feeling. The doctor asked if I could feel when I'm having contractions. Nada. He said he'd coach me through the pushing. (*warning: might not be something you expect to hear coming from a girl, but hey, this is a birth story, not a fairytale) He asked if I remembered how it felt to be pushing when I needed to poop. I remembered, but again, couldn't feel, so I tried. After about 3 minutes of pushing, our little Peanut was born.

There are lots of other little details, but really - I don't think anyone cares to read about them. And if you really do wanna know, just ask - I have no problem disclosing all the not-so-glamorous details of being prego/labor that other people just *happen* to leave out because they "forget." (Let's just be clear. You don't "forget." You just suppress them from your memory and focus on the beautiful little being that you created. But by no means did I "forget" about all the not-so-glamorous parts of being prego/labor!)