Recovering...

SO...
It's been a real long time. For a while I just stopped because there was nothing to write but that I was still pregnant and not very happy about it.

On Mother's Day I went into labor. I started having contractions in the morning but didn't really pay much attention because I had been having all those pre-labor contractions before without them doing jack. By the end of church though they were getting stronger and seemed to be have a peak and ebb. So after lunch I started timing them.

I timed them for an hour and they were between 8 and 6 minutes apart and lasting about a minute long. So we decided to go into the birthing center and get checked to see if anything was happening. Much to my surprise I was 60% effaced and 1 centimeter dilated. I was pretty cynical at that point that I was ever going to actually go into labor. They left it up to me as to whether I wanted to go home and labor for a while there or get admitted. Since I couldn't eat or anything after I got admitted and they didn't know how long it was going to take for me progress I decided to go home.

Well, we went home and had dinner but I just was getting more and more uncomfortable. I tried laying down. leaning over the bed with my back against the wall, but not much was helping to ease the pain. Only about an hour had past but the contractions started coming a lot faster (between 5 and 3 minutes) and they didn't ever really go away. Someone told me that in between contractions you feel like you can play basketball, but that never happened. We decided to go back because I didn't think I could go much more before I would be super uncomfortable for even the short 10 minute car ride. When we got there they checked me again and said that was almost to three centimeters and again it was up to me whether I wanted to be admitted. I kind of was surprised at that considering it had only been an hour. But I guess some women stay at 2 centimeters for a long time.

I decided that I wanted to stay at the hospital. My parents showed up and Keauri came down from Vernonia. I progressed quickly from 3 to 6 in about 2 hours and the from 6 to complete in about 2 hours. The labor was very intense and barely gave me time to rest. I can't believe those stories about women who SLEEP between contractions. I barely had time to relax my body. I tried using the soaking tub and the shower. Evan as super supportive as well as my parents and Keauri. The only time Evan left or had to take a break was when he got light-headed from trying to help me breath and when the put in my epidural.

I was really surprised my dad stayed through the whole thing. The only time he left was when I was getting into a new gown after the bath and shower and when I was getting my cervix checked. I threw up several times throughout. I guess that was just the way things were going to be, vomit at the beginning and at the end.

Sometime in-between 6 and 10 centimeters I decided I needed an epidural. I had tried the IV pain killer and that hadn't really done much. If I had known how long it was going to take to get everything ready I would have asked for one sooner. It took about a 1/2 hour to push the IV fluids and get Dr. Demaster there and set up. Just as he was finishing up I felt the urge to push so they checked me again and I was complete. But Dr. Neeld decided to let me rest for a while before backing off the meds and letting me push. That was good because it would have taken a lot longer if he hadn't let me do that. After I started I pushed for about 20 minutes and there he was! My beautiful boy!

Now we are home and it has been interesting. On Tuesday night, the first night at home I had a bit of a breakdown. But Evan and Keauri were here and helped and now we are doing okay. I am still learning how to breast-feed right and we are trying to get him to sleep more at night and less during the day. Last night was an experience. We had a bat fly into our room. I think the cat caught it and brought it in and then let it go. Evan got it out the back door early this morning when he got up for work.

He has been growing and changing so much and he is only about 2 weeks old! Evan is going to take next week off as a friend from out of state is coming in for a visit. It will be lots of fun! But I hear Liam getting ready to wake up so I should go and see if he is hungry. Also, fix myself some lunch while I have the chance.