As most of you know Baby R, better known now as Antonio made his arrival 13 days ago. He is so amazing! The birth went well, a bit different than we wanted but all went well. Of course my last work day prior to my maternity leave was that Friday, the day it all began. We were not ready; we thought we had a week or at least the weekend to finish getting ready. Oh well.
Thursday night we went to bed as usual and I felt normal. However, I woke up in the middle of the night (around 3 am)needing to use the bathroom (nothing unusual about that either) and I noticed an unusually full bladder. I got back into bed and felt a bit of cramping but didn't think much about it, just thought maybe I moved funny. Sure enough I had to get up again about 5 am to pee again and again a very full bladder and now noticed mucusy, bloody discharge as well. I thought it was a bit odd but in my very sleepy state didn't think much about it. Then got back into bed and felt more cramping but a bit stronger so my mind started wondering. Then about 10- 15 min later another. My alarm was due to go off at 6 so it was only about a half hour until 6. So I laid there wondering what was going on. I wondered "is this what I think it is?". I concluded the mucusy discharge was my mucus plug. My alarm went off and Albert woke up. I told him what was happening and was instantly awake. I told him it was just the beginning and it could still be a long while before anything really happens.
I called into work and told them not to expect me since I concluded I was having actual contractions. I started noting the time and pain level between 1 and 10 of each contraction. They were pretty irregular. I knew not to even think about going in until they were 5 min apart for an hour. I wasn't even close so I sent Albert to work knowing he was only about 10 min away if I needed him. Well he was only gone for about 2.5 hours before I called him to come get me and take me in. We went in and got admitted to the triage about noon. Sure enough I was in labor and dilated 5 cm! Wow! They got a room ready for me and had the epidural waiting for me! : ) Once I got that life was good; I really didn't feel contractions after that. I had called my parents prior to calling Albert so they were already in route and met us at the hospital.
The doctor came in and checked me and yes, 5 cm! I couldn't believe it! A few hours later he came in again, only 6 cm. Then he came in about 6 and checked 7 cm but the contractions were good and strong so he thought that by the end of the night Baby R wold greet us. Well he had a different idea. About 10 the dr came in and I was only 8 cm, then he came in about midnight and I was 8.5 and he said he'd give me an hour or so to see if I would progress. The dr. came in about 2 and sure enough I was still only about 8.5 cm. I was not dilating like I should. So he wondered if I'd be up to having a c-section. At that point I just wanted him out so I said sure. I asked how soon baby would be out and he thought about an hour. WOW!!! So off I went to get prepped in the OR and about an hour later out he came. It was amazing, Albert got to see them actually pull him out of me and he was able to cut the cord. Shortly after weighing/measuring and cleaning him up Albert brought him over to me.....what an amazing moment!
They then took me to the recovery room with Albert and baby Anotnio where the gave me drugs to help with the VERY, VERY strong pain. At the time I swore I was dying, I was in so much pain. Finally the pain started subsiding and they took me to my new room where my mom was resting and waiting for us to arrive. Albert introduced her to her new grandson where of course a few happy tears were shed. : ) I had lost a lot of blood during the operation which made me anemic. Of course that then made/has made recovery a lot slower. We stayed at the hospital for 4 days because of it.
Monday morning the nurse noticed Antonio was still breathing a bit fast and had a pediatrician check him out. She felt it would be a good idea to take him downstairs to the NICU which of course freaked an already emotional me out. Albert went down with Antonio to the NICU which was hard. Turns out his breathing is fine but they found a little infection and gave him antibiotics to get rid of it. However, because they did they had to keep him for 48 hours. That made it so we were discharged the day before Antonio could be. Tuesday was a hard day. We were discharged around 3 but went down and stayed with him until about 9. It was the hardest thing I've had to do, leaving my new baby at the hospital. The next morning Albert went to get him and bring him home. I was to weak to go. About noon they got home and it was a very happy reunion.
My mom stayed with us for about a week to help with EVERYTHING thankfully. Without her we would have had a lot of trouble adjusting. I am still in some pain and have trouble getting around. I still cannot pick Antonio up and carry him around, which is so frustrating. Basically, I can't do anything that would use my stomach muscles, let me tell you...we use those muscles to do just about everything! It's been rough. I know I will feel better once I can pick him up and carry him around. I can't drive for awhile either so Antonio and I are pretty much tied to the couch; I am getting a bit of cabin fever too! : ( I will be starting a new blog for Antonio and once I do I will send out an email and put a link here too. So check back in a few days! Until then we could use some "get well" vibes sent our way.
