Saturday, January 12, 2008

A Baby Story: Part II

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

5:45 am: Woke up. Packed bags, ate breakfast, loaded car. Got ready to go to the hospital.

6:20: Dropped Leah off at sitter and headed to the hospital.

8:00: Hooked up to IV and pitocin. I was actually quite anxious and was anticipating that the pitocin would kick in really hard and fast and that it would be torture. It actually wasn't bad at all and was very gradual. My nurse Jill was really nice. This time they let me drink clear liquids the entire time, and it was much more tolerable than starving.

11:00: Doctor visited to check on me and broke my water.

12:00: Anesthesiologist came and we chatted about why my first epidural experience was so traumatic. He listened! He walked me through the process and it wasn't bad at all. I asked for a slightly smaller dose than normal--I wanted to take the edge off the pain but still be able to know when I was contracting. It worked very well to do it this way. I could wiggle my toes the entire time and the contractions felt like Braxton Hicks but were very manageable. It also meant that I wasn't numb for nearly as long afterward.

3:00: 7 cm. Still waiting. "Transition" was kind of scary--I got really dizzy and light-headed, jittery, and started crying for no reason. It was a strange feeling.

4:30: 10 cm. Time to go! We waited about 30 minutes for the doctor to come from another surgery. I pushed for only 15 minutes, and the baby was born at 5:13pm! Chris was a terrific coach. Overall, it was a very good experience!

6:30: Ate dinner. Voraciously.

7:00: Leah came to visit. We took our first family picture with the new baby.

I couldn't help but compare and contrast this experience with the first time I did it.

Baby: Leah Helen / Samuel Joseph
Birth day and time: Friday, 9:25 pm / Tuesday, 5:13pm
Baby's length: 19.5 inches /19.5 inches
Baby's weight: 7 lbs 4 oz / 7 lbs 9 oz
Baby's entrance was: 3 days late / 6 days early
Time at the hospital until baby was born: 12 hours / 11 hours
Hospital: Timpanogos /Orem Community
Doctor: Young /Young
Craving after delivery: Arby's beef 'n cheddar / French Silk Pie
Distracting comedy during labor: Bruce Almighty / Happy Gilmore
Stuck in my head all day: Annoying Christmas jingle from TV commercial / Honey tree song from Winnie the Pooh

2 comments:

cutie pie said...

I wish I remembered all the details like that. You'll be so glad you wrote those down in the future. Thanks for sharing and glad to hear it went smoothly. P.S. You're so lucky that you got to have dinner. My kids came in the middle of the night when dinner was over and I had to wait until breakfast.

Eric & Gretchen said...

Jenny,
Sounds like things went well. I use to work at Orem Community Hospital before I worked for Dr. Young. I love OCH and am glad that you had a great experience.
Also, we are having our second in April and I am seriously considering buying a second crib too. What is the age difference of your kids? I think Gretta will be ready for a big kids bed, but I am not sure I am ready to keep putting back into bed everytime she gets out.