Heartbeats and Headaches
Back again I see.
Well here it is; the good, the bad, and that weird that was my pre-birth experience. I say pre-birth as opposed to just birth story because this is about more than just my birth story. Oh yes, before we get to the big top in this 3-ring circus first lets take a look at stage left.
So, after that first ultrasound the first phone call I made (besides friends and family of course) was to my OB's office. Now you would think a woman who's had no prenatal care for the first two trimesters would get an appointment right away right? NOPE! I called three different days in a row, told three different people I needed to get in to see my doctor asap, that I was roughly about 30 weeks along and could we get this ball rolling please? Apparently I was talking to a blank wall those three times because finally, fed up before I even got into the office, my mom pulled out her trump card.
You see, my OB is really great, I've been going to her since I started getting those lovely yearly visits 10 years ago and so has my mom. Last year when my mom was battling breast cancer our doctor gave my mom her personal phone number so she could call anytime with questions and concerns. So enter this craziness and my mom, on Superbowl Sunday no less, called her and explained the situation. The next day I get a call from my OB's office asking if I can come in tomorrow morning to get caught up on everything I had missed up to that point in my pregnancy. After finally telling my store manager that I was pregnant (and the shock and excitement that ensued) and hey, could we switch shifts for tomorrow so I can go see my doctor, I was ready to drive into New Brunswick at 7:30 am to finally get some stuff done.
Now there were three major things they needed to do at this appointment; 1) do an ultrasound to make sure the baby was healthy and looked good, 2) consultation with the nurses to go over all relevant information for my care going forward and some family background (so they'd know if I or the baby were are risk for anything) and 3) meeting with my doctor and getting poked and prodded so everything looked good on my side.
First thing was the ultrasound, yay more jelly doughnut simulation! The tech this time was a really nice Eastern European lady (at least that's what I got from her accent) who went through taking all the measurements and showing me his heart (and heartbeat), brain, and all that other good stuff. She asked me if I wanted to know the baby's gender to which I enthusiastically replied yes. It's a boy! Now I'm not gonna lie, I was pulling for a girl, so you'd think learning I was having a boy would make me disappointed right? Well that's what I thought too, but the minute I saw him I fell instantly in love. It's not something I can explain, nor do I care to, I think it was just my brain literally not caring what gender he was just so long as he was healthy, which he definitely was.
When I got to see my doctor I'll never forget her walking into the exam room, looking at me and saying "So what's going on here?". She was just as surprised as I was at having gone so long with so few symptoms but she was happy to report the baby looked good, she even put the doppler on my stomach and I got to hear his heartbeat again which helped me breathe a sigh of relief knowing that, despite everything, my little boy was doing just fine. I just needed to get some blood work done to test for a few things (gestational diabetes being the big one) so downstairs I went.
Thankfully, the rest of my prenatal care was happily uneventful. Go in, pee in a cup, talk to the doctor (possibly after getting poked some more), and off on my merry way I went. I've said this to pretty much everyone, but I didn't think the due date my doctor's office gave me was accurate. Unfortunately, it was what they had to go off of even knowing there was probably a couple weeks margin of error. So here comes my 40 week checkup and they check little man's heart rate in a non-stress test, everything still looks good so yay! Well now my doctor brings up the dreaded "i" word- induction. My hospital's policy is that if the baby hasn't come on their own within 9 days of the due date they induce. Ok great, well that would put him even by my math at 40 weeks so, begrudgingly, I set up the appointment for April 2nd if he hadn't come on his own first.
At this point I'm guessing you can see where this story is going. April 2nd, little man is still not budging so at 6 that night Mom and I drive to the hospital and get me checked in. Now I have to say my labor and delivery nurses were the absolute best. My nighttime nurse was a lovely older black lady named Patricia who was the Jamaican grandmother I never knew I needed. She got me all set up, IV and all and was just a nice person to talk to whenever she came in to check on me. A little later on the physician's assistant (PA from here on) came in to check on me and I was already 2 cm dilated so yay progress! They put...something I honestly don't know what, in to help soften my cervix and started pitocin (the hormone released to start labor, just the artificial version of it in this case, yay science?).
Then came the waiting game, you would think the woman going through labor wouldn't sleep well right? Well, why I didn't sleep great (it is a hospital after all) I did sleep decently. Patricia was nice and let me be all night so the next morning the PA comes in to check me again and now I'm 4 cm dilated! Now Patricia's shift was up so enter my afternoon nurse, Jeanette. When I tell you this woman must have been personally sent by God himself I am not joking, she was that good. She was super nice, funny, and listened to everything I said and helped me stay calm.
Anyway, fast forward an hour or two (when you're in labor you lose track of time) I was still at 4 cm but he was low so they wanted to break my water. One epidural and water breaking party later and now comes the main show. By this point my mom and sister (the one who went with me to the first ultrasound appointment) were there with me and ooh boy am I glad they were cause the contractions at that point were no joke! My hips literally felt like they were popping out of their sockets it was bad, cold towel across my forehead and heavy breathing bad. I didn't scream or yell or curse anyone out like they do in the movies but, yeah, it was bad. But, it made time go by super quickly cause the next thing I know my sister is telling me it's been 2 hours and Jeanette's checking on me again. This time she suggests using this thing called a peanut ball which is just what it sounds like, an exercise ball shaped like a peanut that goes between your knees and is meant to help open up your pelvis.
So sure, why not I'll give it a try. Oh my lanta that thing is a marvelous medical miracle! 30 minutes later Jeanette checks on me again and my son? Yeah he's practically crowning. Enter the nurses, PA, and doctor while I'm getting the TL;DR on how to push and some mental preparing for my mom, sister, and now aunt who's come to join the party. Three, yes three, pushes later and at 5:09pm my little man is born happy and healthy.
So that's how I went from being a mom-to-be to an actual mom. Now comes the hard, fun, and totally unpredictable part of all this, actually raising this tiny human I created.
Oh this should be interesting...
Well here it is; the good, the bad, and that weird that was my pre-birth experience. I say pre-birth as opposed to just birth story because this is about more than just my birth story. Oh yes, before we get to the big top in this 3-ring circus first lets take a look at stage left.
So, after that first ultrasound the first phone call I made (besides friends and family of course) was to my OB's office. Now you would think a woman who's had no prenatal care for the first two trimesters would get an appointment right away right? NOPE! I called three different days in a row, told three different people I needed to get in to see my doctor asap, that I was roughly about 30 weeks along and could we get this ball rolling please? Apparently I was talking to a blank wall those three times because finally, fed up before I even got into the office, my mom pulled out her trump card.
You see, my OB is really great, I've been going to her since I started getting those lovely yearly visits 10 years ago and so has my mom. Last year when my mom was battling breast cancer our doctor gave my mom her personal phone number so she could call anytime with questions and concerns. So enter this craziness and my mom, on Superbowl Sunday no less, called her and explained the situation. The next day I get a call from my OB's office asking if I can come in tomorrow morning to get caught up on everything I had missed up to that point in my pregnancy. After finally telling my store manager that I was pregnant (and the shock and excitement that ensued) and hey, could we switch shifts for tomorrow so I can go see my doctor, I was ready to drive into New Brunswick at 7:30 am to finally get some stuff done.
Now there were three major things they needed to do at this appointment; 1) do an ultrasound to make sure the baby was healthy and looked good, 2) consultation with the nurses to go over all relevant information for my care going forward and some family background (so they'd know if I or the baby were are risk for anything) and 3) meeting with my doctor and getting poked and prodded so everything looked good on my side.
First thing was the ultrasound, yay more jelly doughnut simulation! The tech this time was a really nice Eastern European lady (at least that's what I got from her accent) who went through taking all the measurements and showing me his heart (and heartbeat), brain, and all that other good stuff. She asked me if I wanted to know the baby's gender to which I enthusiastically replied yes. It's a boy! Now I'm not gonna lie, I was pulling for a girl, so you'd think learning I was having a boy would make me disappointed right? Well that's what I thought too, but the minute I saw him I fell instantly in love. It's not something I can explain, nor do I care to, I think it was just my brain literally not caring what gender he was just so long as he was healthy, which he definitely was.
When I got to see my doctor I'll never forget her walking into the exam room, looking at me and saying "So what's going on here?". She was just as surprised as I was at having gone so long with so few symptoms but she was happy to report the baby looked good, she even put the doppler on my stomach and I got to hear his heartbeat again which helped me breathe a sigh of relief knowing that, despite everything, my little boy was doing just fine. I just needed to get some blood work done to test for a few things (gestational diabetes being the big one) so downstairs I went.
Thankfully, the rest of my prenatal care was happily uneventful. Go in, pee in a cup, talk to the doctor (possibly after getting poked some more), and off on my merry way I went. I've said this to pretty much everyone, but I didn't think the due date my doctor's office gave me was accurate. Unfortunately, it was what they had to go off of even knowing there was probably a couple weeks margin of error. So here comes my 40 week checkup and they check little man's heart rate in a non-stress test, everything still looks good so yay! Well now my doctor brings up the dreaded "i" word- induction. My hospital's policy is that if the baby hasn't come on their own within 9 days of the due date they induce. Ok great, well that would put him even by my math at 40 weeks so, begrudgingly, I set up the appointment for April 2nd if he hadn't come on his own first.
At this point I'm guessing you can see where this story is going. April 2nd, little man is still not budging so at 6 that night Mom and I drive to the hospital and get me checked in. Now I have to say my labor and delivery nurses were the absolute best. My nighttime nurse was a lovely older black lady named Patricia who was the Jamaican grandmother I never knew I needed. She got me all set up, IV and all and was just a nice person to talk to whenever she came in to check on me. A little later on the physician's assistant (PA from here on) came in to check on me and I was already 2 cm dilated so yay progress! They put...something I honestly don't know what, in to help soften my cervix and started pitocin (the hormone released to start labor, just the artificial version of it in this case, yay science?).
Then came the waiting game, you would think the woman going through labor wouldn't sleep well right? Well, why I didn't sleep great (it is a hospital after all) I did sleep decently. Patricia was nice and let me be all night so the next morning the PA comes in to check me again and now I'm 4 cm dilated! Now Patricia's shift was up so enter my afternoon nurse, Jeanette. When I tell you this woman must have been personally sent by God himself I am not joking, she was that good. She was super nice, funny, and listened to everything I said and helped me stay calm.
Anyway, fast forward an hour or two (when you're in labor you lose track of time) I was still at 4 cm but he was low so they wanted to break my water. One epidural and water breaking party later and now comes the main show. By this point my mom and sister (the one who went with me to the first ultrasound appointment) were there with me and ooh boy am I glad they were cause the contractions at that point were no joke! My hips literally felt like they were popping out of their sockets it was bad, cold towel across my forehead and heavy breathing bad. I didn't scream or yell or curse anyone out like they do in the movies but, yeah, it was bad. But, it made time go by super quickly cause the next thing I know my sister is telling me it's been 2 hours and Jeanette's checking on me again. This time she suggests using this thing called a peanut ball which is just what it sounds like, an exercise ball shaped like a peanut that goes between your knees and is meant to help open up your pelvis.
So sure, why not I'll give it a try. Oh my lanta that thing is a marvelous medical miracle! 30 minutes later Jeanette checks on me again and my son? Yeah he's practically crowning. Enter the nurses, PA, and doctor while I'm getting the TL;DR on how to push and some mental preparing for my mom, sister, and now aunt who's come to join the party. Three, yes three, pushes later and at 5:09pm my little man is born happy and healthy.
So that's how I went from being a mom-to-be to an actual mom. Now comes the hard, fun, and totally unpredictable part of all this, actually raising this tiny human I created.
Oh this should be interesting...
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