Giving Birth.

So I am now officially a mommy. It has been one week since I gave birth to my little guy. One week since I slept for more than 4 hours at a time, and one week since I had some control of my life:) Babies change everything. So here is my birth story-

I went into the hospital around 4pm on Sunday afternoon, the 24th. About an hour later they put this little tampon looing thing called cervidel (sp?) into my you know what. That night I just chilled with Ryan and watched the Oscars and ate Subway. The nurses said they wouldn't be surprised if I would go into labor on my own because I was dialated 3 cm. Well I didn't, and at 5 am in the morning they took the cervidel out and started the pitocin drip shortly after. I was feeling pretty good at that point, I wasn't feeling anything, I was relaxed and I was ready to get this thing started. At around 9am I really started to feel my contractions- they were awful, long, and happened ever 1 1/2 minutes to 2 minutes. I felt like death. So by then almost at 4 cm dialated they gave me my epidural. Now I don't know why anyone would want to have a "natural" labor. They are crazy. The epidural procedure wasn't bad at all and after that I didn't feel a contraction for the rest of my labor. It was awesome. I slept pretty much on and off for the next few hours.

By 12pm I was 8 cm dialated and I was still feeling good and relaxed. By 2 pm I was fully dialated. I was so ready by then to just see my boy. But my Dr. wanted me to wait to push till the pitocin pretty much moved the baby down so it would be easier to push. At around 4:30pm - which by the way was way too long to wait, my nurse told me it was time- YAY! So we sent my parents out of the room and proceeded to push- by the way- my Dr. was still not there- So I pushed. And there he was- 3 contractions laters he was out- and my Dr. ran into the room just as he came out. Who would have known what a good pusher I was:) And by the way- I didn't feel that part too much- just a little pressure. God Bless Epidurals!

I got to hold Finley and Ryan cut the cord. Then it started to go down hill. After about 5 minutes I looked down to see my Dr.'s face become serious , so I asked what w as wrong. She replied that I was bleeding more than she liked. To make a very long 2 hour process short- My uterus wasn't shrinking back to it's original size and I was bleeding - alot. I lost 3/5 of my blood and endured lots of needles, medications and painful massaging of my uterus. I almost had to get a hysterectomy and almost in all reality could have died. But with the help of 2 Dr.'s and numerous nurses they finally stopped the bleeding. By then my blood pressure had almost dropped out, my veins in my arms were blown, and I was too weak to even hold my precious son. My poor husband who almost lost his wife was on baby duty for the first hours, and he did great! Because I was too weak I was unable to breastfeed Finley and because they had to scrape out my uterus I have chosen to bottlefed instead. It wasn't a memory that I will cherish. I am however very thankful that I am still around and that I get to hang out with my family for the next 50 or so years.