Saturday, February 23, 2008

Oh my goodness we have a baby!

For whatever reason, no matter how planned, organized and articulate i try to be, my life is one big silly disaster. well, not a disaster....just like the ride at all local fairs that spins you in all crazy directions so you feel like youre going to lose it and fly out, but somehow you manage to stay in---thats pretty much me in a nutshell. Anyway, all day friday i spent shopping and decorating for my baby shower in connecticut with my mom and little sister. we were out and about all day long and i was feeling fine. in the evening i started to get a little tired and was resting more than normal on the couch--directing my mom and danielle on how to set up everything....then i started to feel pretty cruddy. i called my midwife and she said she wanted to see me in the morning for a stress test, and to just get home soon. (it was about 5:30 pm) as i was thinking about driving home, and my cruddy feeling intensified my mom and dad suggested maybe going to the emergency room just to get checked out. i called my midwife back. i told her that these "pains" were probably braxton hicks and that i was just probably over reacting, but they didnt cease...there was no contraction-five minute break- contraction again...it was just full on achiness. My midwife agreed, and said to go get checked out immediately. I called Tom and told him to meet us in CT at the hospital, that it was probably nothing, but they were going to check me out for not feeling well. Tom left work in mass and headed down....My parents drove me to the emergency room in Torrington. I was in an evaluation room when the nurse was asking me questions and checking things...i just remember her giving me this crazed look and said "Youre SEVEN centimeters dialated! We need her in a delivery room!" They wheeled me into another room, hooked me up to everything, and thats when i asked--i am supposed to have a midwife and an epidural! she said, "we dont have midwives, we have doctor mashburn--HES really nice. and as for the epidural, i'll ask the doctor but i dont think thats in the cards for you at this point." I started to feel nauseas. I NEED AN EPIDURAL--i planned on it! Theres no way i can push a baby out with medication--i think at this point i was hallucinating a bit. i just remember my mom shoving ice chips in my mouth and me saying "where is tom. my husband, where is he?" take into consideration the speed of all this. id say i had been there for about an hour now, but it honestly felt like 15 minutes. The doctor came in, my water broke, Tom arrived, held my hand, the doctor said "sorry! no time for an epidural!" i said "i need to push" and that i did. The doctor continually referred to Brigham as a "little critter" as i was huffing and puffing--which i thought was pretty cute. By 9:44 pm Tom and I were parents to a ridiculously handsome little boy. Little he was. Because he was four weeks early he didnt have much meat on his bones. He was only five pounds and fourteen ounces. the doctor assured me that that was a great weight for his age. Oh, and he was 18 inches long. His head circumference was 13 inches. He is a maniac when it comes to eating, so i feel pretty confident that he'll chunk up pretty soon! We all stayed in the hospital for quite a few days (friday night until wednesday late morning) Because he was a preemie, his jaundice had to be monitered. it was a little higher than they wanted to see, so they had him under the special bililight incubator for a whole day. On Friday we went to our peditrician to have Brigham checked to make sure the jaundice was taking care of itself, and it turns out the number is going down. phew. ive been sort of a nervous wreck about all of that. My dad took some pretty cute pictures with his I phone when we were in the hospital, so he's figuring out how to put them on the computer, Tom and I are taking digital pictures--Im just waiting for him to get home tonight and hopefully figure out how to put them on the computer (im slightly behind in this technology-filled world) anyway, hopefully tonight or tomorrow i will be able to post a few pictures of my little man.