On June 10th at my OB's appointment my doctor gave me the option of inducing at 39 weeks because of my high blood pressure issues. My BP had been fine during the pregnancy but it could rear its head suddenly the closer we got to my due date. So we scheduled an induction for the morning of June 23rd -- The Husband's 27th birthday.
I had already talked to The Husband about the possibility of Lydia arriving on his birthday and he was fine with it. He said she would make a good birthday present.
Even though we now had The Date, the only people The Husband and I told were work-related. We weren't going to tell our family until she arrived. I'm a rogue, a rascal, a villain, a thief, a scoundrel and a mean, dirty, stinking, sniveling, sneaking, pimping, pocket-picking, thrice double-damned no-good son-of-a-bitch; I know.
And so we waited in silence for two solid weeks. The last weekend before the 23rd was LONG, but our friends unknowingly kept us amused with a barbecue dinner and a trip to the Dairy Queen. I watched the sun set behind Oak Mountain on the 22nd while eating my hot fudge sundae at the DQ. Tomorrow was the day.
We arrived at the hospital bright and early at 6:30 a.m. and were led to the delivery room, which was very nice indeed. I gowned myself up and climbed into the bed.
I got an IV and the labor drugs started to course through my veins. Soon after, my doctor came in and broke my water, which was the weirdest feeling. There was quite a lot of it and it just kept on coming out since the IV was constantly putting fluids in me. I felt kind of unsanitary.
Most of the day was just spent waiting. At 10:30 a.m. I went ahead and got the epidural. Getting that didn't hurt at all -- the worst part was the intense scrubbing the anesthesiologist performed on my back.
Around 2 p.m. I reached five centimeters. Soon after that I started running a fever so they hooked me up to antibiotics. Lydia didn't like the fever too much so they gave me some oxygen for a while.
At 5 p.m. I reached seven centimeters and my fever started to go down. I was starting to guess we would be well into the night before Lydia arrived. The time frame was starting to present a problem because people were trying to get in touch with us to wish The Husband a happy birthday. We were calling people back when we got a chance and were monitoring the answering machine at home, but we were about to hit crunch time soon when most people would try to call.
The contractions were getting more intense and even though I had the epidural, I could definitely feel them. They weren't painful, there was just a lot of pressure that got more intense. There was a point around this time that it went from intense pressure to pain very quickly. By the time the anesthesiologist arrived to give me a boost in my epidural, I was in tears.
At around 6:20 p.m. I was ready to start pushing. I got kinda scared at this point because THE TIME HAD ARRIVED and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to do this part. The nurse gave me some instructions that went in one ear and out the other, and we started to push. Even with the epidural the pressure and urge to push was incredibly intense. There were a few times when the nurses had me rest through a contraction and that was even harder than pushing.
My doctor arrived and her and the nurses felt Lydia would arrive by the 7:00 hour, but that time came and went. I had read that the time involved in pushing would fly by swiftly no matter how long it actually takes, but I definitely remember the time it took. Near the end, I would just about fall asleep between the contractions, muttering about how tired I was. What was really wearing me out was holding my breath so long. The Husband was excellent -- he constantly told me how good I was doing, how proud he was of me, and how much he loved me. He was wonderful.
A little after 8:00 p.m. Lydia was very close to arriving but we had to wait 15 minutes for my doctor, who had go perform a c-section first. That was a very long 15 minutes.
The doctor finally arrived and there was a whirlwind of activity around me as the nurses got ready for Lydia. By this time I just wanted to roll over and go to sleep -- I was so incredibly tired. Finally, at 8:26 p.m. after five hard pushes in a row, Lydia decided to arrive. I had pushed for two whole hours. She came three minutes before her Daddy's birth time of 8:29 p.m.
As soon as she was out I felt soooooo much better. They cleaned out her mouth and nose and put her on my chest, and there she was -- my little baby girl. I was shocked at how much hair she had. The Husband cut the cord and then they cleaned her up, weighed her, and brought her back over.
It was a wonderful overwhelming feeling to have her in my arms. The tiredness went away completely and I knew the entire experience had been absolutely worth it. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
We finally got to call our family and tell them about The Husband's birthday present. Never have I loved my husband more than when I saw him holding Lydia and I could tell he had fallen completely, irrevocably in love.
I feel wonderful and accomplished.
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