i'm having a baby!!

van on february 13th

the first time brad saw van

right after delivery

me after the epidural with anesthestist sarah and nurse donna

me before the epidural

i thought i would blog my labor while it's still somewhat fresh in my mind...

well to begin with on tuesday, february 10th i had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. last week i was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. i had horrible contractions all week and i was excited to go to the doctor to see how much i've progressed! of course when i got there dr. wolaniuk said that she wouldn't even say i was dilated to a 3. closer to a 2! and that i was 80% effaced. she took me off of "house arrest" and all other restrictions. she said they would induce if i made it to the 20th. i was devastated. i cried all day. i was in so much pain and i didn't think i had the strength to make it 10 more days!

the next day (february 11) i woke up and i felt a lot better. i had finally accepted that he wasn't coming anytime soon and i made plans to go visiting teaching and had my boss put me on the schedule for the next week for a few hours to keep me busy. so around noon i went to wal-mart and picked up some treats to make valentine buckets for the girls we visit teach. emily morrison wanted me to come over to get to know each other before we went visiting teaching. i stopped at mcdonalds on my way to emily's and got a chicken nugget happy meal. i visited with emily from about 1 to 3. when i got home i hung out with brad a little and watched 'die hard 2'. around 5pm i started getting contractions. they were like 5 minutes apart. patty made potato hamburger helper for dinner. i said that i was going to watch 'Lost' and if my contractions hadn't slowed down i would go to the hospital. i started watching 'american idol' and by 7:45 the contractions were so constant and painful i told brad i wanted to go ahead and go to the hospital.

brad was so good about not freaking out! although he kept speeding and saying the cops wouldn't care b/c i was in labor and i was getting upset saying if we wreck the cops wouldn't have a chance to pull us over...hehehe when we got to the hospital brad dropped me at the door then went to park the car. it was kind of funny b/c neither of us could remember where labor & delivery was. we walked and walked and couldn't even find anyone that worked at the hospital. finally some guy told us it was on the 3rd floor and we found it. patty came a little while later.

to make this a little shorter they admitted me and put an iv drip in for the pain. after 9 hours of one contraction after another i was still only dilated to a 5. my nurse, teresa, asked me if i wanted to continue being in pain or if i wanted an epidural. i was scared to death but i'm also a BIG baby and i couldn't take the pain anymore. brad held my hands and it hardly hurt at all. i know everyone says you should try to have your baby naturally but that was the first time in months that i felt no pain! it was amazing! i got the epidural at 2am.

i slept pretty good after that. except for every hour when they came in to examine me. around 9 am i was still between a 5 and 6 so they said at noon they would induce. no one came in until 1:30. after they induced me i got really hot and dizzy and i couldn't breath. they gave me some oxygen and told me to relax.

after that it was kind of a blur. they examined me, the nurse told the other nurse to go get the doctor and they had me turn over on my knees and put my elbows on pillow. i was in so much pain. it felt like he was coming out already. it was also a little awkward with my butt in the air and brad and his mom sitting in chairs at the end of the bed but i couldn't think of anything but the pain. i kept asking what was wrong and all they gave me was that he had "nose dived". i didn't know what that meant but they started wheeling me into surgery.

they put me on the operating table and i heard them saying they didn't have time to put me to sleep. i heard someone ask why they had done and epidural and someone said it was already in there. they said they were going to do a c-section and put a blanket up in front of my face. i remember they kept asking me if i could feel it and i could and i was crying and scared. finally they got me numb enough to start. they said it wouldn't be a sharp pain. they should have said it would feel like someone is ripping out your insides and someone else is pushing around your insides with as much pressure as they could! the anesthesiologist and nurse donna were so good about telling me what was going on and when i couldn't take the pain i asked them to just talk to me and they were really nice. the sound of van crying was the most beautiful sound i ever heard!

i kept asking if he was ok and if he had 10 fingers and 10 toes. when they told me he was perfect and they held him up for me to see i really cried. i told them they had to let brad know we were ok. i couldn't imagine how scary it would be for him for them to just take us away and not let him come.

of course the worst part wasn't over. they still had to sew me up! this hurt even more and it took even longer. just when you think it's finally over they say they have to push on you to get the rest of whatever out. talk about awful! i would have rather had him naturally with no pain medicine at all! when they finished my arms felt like they were asleep and i couldn't stop shaking so they had to lay van on me and wrap my arm around him for me. then they put me against the rail of the bed to hold him in.

it took about an hour after the surgery for the morphine to kick in and i was shaking so bad i felt like i was having a seizure!! all in all february 12, 2009 was the scariest and happiest day of my life!!!

Vanderlei Allan Pikey

born February 12, 2009 at 2:23 pm

7 lbs 0 oz and 20 1/4 inches long!