Labor was hard. I had to stay the night at the hospital the night before and I had Curtis stay the night too so I wasn't alone. Bad decision. He snores and usually that's not a problem because I just re-adjust his head or something. Since he was across the room and I was hooked up to monitors (which also caused grief for sleep) I couldn't do a lot. At 3 o'clock I finally asked for a sleeping pill and woke up at 6. At 7:30 they (the nurses at the hospital) broke my water and at 8 they started me on pitocin. Twila was posterior and so it was all back labor and killed. Pretty quick I was having contractions a minute long every other minute and they still kept cranking up the dosage. Luckily mom was there to rub my back; we went through a bottle and a half of lotion.
Around noon they checked me and I had only gone from a 2 to a 4. My pain threshold had reached it's limit and so I got the epidural. That was a huge relief and my body was able to relax and rest some. I woke up a little after 1 and they were putting me on oxygen. Twila's heart rate was starting to drop and they thought that oxygen might help. They want baby's in the 120 to 150 range. At some point around that time her heart rate dropped to 60. They called my doctor, and turned off the pitocin. Then they put something in my IV that made my heartbeat race and stopped contractions. Then Dr. Barton shows up and checks me. In that hour and a half I have gone from a 4 to a 10. No wonder Twila's heartbeat was up the wazoo.
He says we can start pushing, but I am no longer having contractions because they stopped them. So they put me back on pitocin and have me start pushing. Then her heart rate went up to 180 (which is too high). I think she wasn't even in the birth canal, so Dr. Barton said that they would have to try forecepts, and if that didn't work he would do a c-section. I don't know why, maybe it was all the drugs or the intensity of the moment, or the lack of sleep, but I remember tears running down my cheek. I was truly scared.
On July 9th at 2:05pm Twila graced us with her presence. She was 9 lbs and 20.5 inches. Once Dr. Barton had pulled her out, he placed her in my arms and she looked up at me with blue eyes. She was so beautiful and seems so unreal to be blesses with such an angel; in the very first moment I spoke to her she stopped screaming and listened. Nothing could have prepared me for the incredible connection between a baby and their mother. They come so trusting and even though you don't have all the experience, they put all their trust in you. It's just the most incredible moment.
The rest of the day didn't go to uneventful either. I was so exhausted and I didn't get much to eat or very much rest. At seven they wanted to move me out of the labor and delivery room. So they were going to have me take a shower. I got up and they helped walk me to the bathroom, but once I got their I was really dizzy. At that point the nurse had me sit on the toilet seat so she could go get a wheel chair and I could recover. When she got back we only had to walk like 5 feet to the door, but on the way there I passed out. I remember waking up to the awful aroma of ammonia. I was surrounded by nurses. Curtis was holding Twila right outside the door acting concerned. All of the nurses helped me to the wheel chair and rushed me to the Mother baby ward having me smell more packets of ammonia on the way.
Apparently I lost a lot more blood than I should have, but no one bothered to tell me. Otherwise I probably would have taken it easy and forgotten the shower. I thought you were supposed to be dizzy. I mean after all you just had a baby. Because I was anemic they gave me the option of a blood transfusion, but I vetoed that one. I had to stay two nights after having Twila and I would say it probably took me about 2 months, iron pills daily, and a lot of orange juice and iron rich foods to feel like my body was getting back to normal and not so tired easily.
So when push comes to shove, despite the craziness with pregnancy and labor, Twila is a really easy keep now. She is also such an incomprehensibly wonderful addition to my life, and I would make all those sacrifices all over again to get her here. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for the blessing of Twila in our family.
