Danielle's side of the story

Danielle here. Finally.

I can't seem to find the time (or energy) to sit down and write my side of the story (labor fun, spit up, midnight freak outs, etc) so I decided to write it over the course of several weeks. Pathetic.

I've had enough people asking about the labor part that I figured I should just write it down and direct them here.

I know that Wonderful Husband (WH) kept you all posted (a little TOO posted, in my opinion) about how things occurred the weekend of April 26th with his up-to-the-minute reports via text and posting reports via blog (he's such a tech geek). My times and dates may be off (who can keep track when writhing in pain for days on end?) but I figure I should at least try to give my side of the story too. If you've heard this before feel free to skip this entry and look through the cute Isaac photos once again. (They are pretty cute, if I do say so myself.)

So the short story is this:

Thursday, April 24th - By the afternoon I was having contractions on and off, sometimes 5 mins apart, sometimes 45 mins apart, but always uncomfortable and painful but never horribly painful, just unfun…

By Thursday night at 11pm WH sent me to bed b/c, even though I was HOPING that the contractions would get regular, WH was more realistic and knew they probably wouldn't and also knew that I better get some sleep. So overnight the contractions eventually slowed down and I slept, kind of.

Friday, April 25th - WH went to work and by Friday afternoon I started having more contractions, this time a bit more painful but no more regular. I was supposed to go to a going away party at WH's office but decided it wouldn't be such a good idea. WH went, came home a bit drunk (although I had no idea, he hid it well) and helped me through another evening of irregular contractions. Seriously, this was getting annoying. So Friday night I only got about 45 minutes of sleep at one stretch (that was the longest).

Saturday, April 26th-At 2:30am I finally gave up and moved to the couch. At 5:30am I woke up the WH from a sound sleep b/c I couldn't deal with the contractions alone anymore. This only lasted a few hours, and, needless to say, they were once again very irregular. And very much in my back and the pain didn't just come and go with the contractions, it stayed. I tried lying on the floor, I tried stretching, I tried funny breathing, I tried walking, we tried all the things they taught us in class and in the book but little worked other then just breathing through it and screaming a bit when necessary. Eventually, as the others all did, they died down. I ate, I showered, I felt lots better but STILL had contractions! Seriously, this did NOT seem anything like what they warned us about in class.

Our yummy brunch baby shower was still set for Sunday and we were still planning on having it...until I talked to my friend Jen, who has a bit more sense then I. She said "Seriously, Danielle, even if you think you can have all these people at your house do you really think we want to be around while you are writhing in pain on the floor while trying to make nice over French toast?!" (or something like that)
So the phone calls began and the shower was canceled, which was a good thing b/c by late afternoon, after hours of cleaning and rearranging the art on the walls (between contractions, I know, what were we thinking) I was really in pain. And it just kept getting worse. Eventually I couldn't do anything other then roll onto the floor while WH tried hard to massage my back. My back was in bad shape. It was beginning to feel like a horse climbed in my belly and started stomping on my spine. It was bad. Really bad. We heard a little about “back labor” (none of these things in this link helped, btw) but had no idea how bad it could be. I was starting to think I was a HUGE wimp b/c these contractions which were, you guessed it, STILL irregular, were making me cry, scream, feel like I was going to pass out, and all these things that shouldn’t have happened until after those damn contractions were at least REGULAR!

From here on our I think that WH had it right. I can't remember much except for the doctor on call sending us to the hospital, only being 2 cm dilated, getting sent home with a leg shot up with morphine and some sleepy drug (2 things I wasn't planning on taking), then going back to the hospital again, getting sent home AGAIN (with the other leg shot full of morphine and sleepy drugs) after I threw a bit of a fit on the phone with the doctor on call, and then 45 minutes after being home my water broke and we headed back in.

Sunday, April 27th -That's most of what I remember. There was an epidural, my regular doctor, Dr. Levine, came on duty, contractions were big but I didn't feel much, Tiny's heart beat slowed down a bunch which freaked me out quite a bit as it did the doctor and nurses, but eventually I was told just to PUSH and so I did. The nurses and pediatric doctors got Tiny right away, checked him out and declared him A-OK (as long as he cried hard in the next hour, which he did). I had forgotten about this whole placenta thing, which I had successfully avoided seeing in videos and pictures for the past nine months. Dr. Levine fixed that by suddenly saying “Look, it’s the placenta!” and I then yelled “EW! NO!” and he, and all the other people in the room, laughed and laughed. “I guess you won't be bringing it home with you! Maybe next time I should ask if they want to see it. ” said Dr. Levine. EW! WHY would you want to take it home?! ICK!

So, a few minutes afte he was born I was finally allowed to hold Tiny (he had no real name for about 24 hours so he was still Tiny - and aptly named I might add). He was pretty damn cute and I was pretty damn happy that he was A-OK and had his eyes open and all his digits. His weird shaped head freaked me out, and I was nervous about his heart rate for days afterwards, but I was happy, and I was finished.

THE END.