Lillian Qing Qing

October 13, 2:34 pm Lillian was born. 8 pounds, 3 ounces, 20 inches long.

I hate being pregnant and I whine a lot about it. So, wehn my doctor said he would induce at 39 weeks, I jumped at the chance. My doctor was convinced that the risk of c-section or complications from an induction was extremely low and with Bin, I ended up inducing, despite being so close to labor (dropped, over 3 cms, lost mucus plug, etc).

Since the induction was not medically necessary, I had to wait on the list. No guarantees of getting in. At 5am, they had no openings and Peter decided he would just go into work that day and I would just call if they ended up having an opening, but he seemed to think the chances were pretty low. At 9am, after the shift change, I called the hospital again and they had an opening for 10:30am. Peter was a bit surprised to get my call saying ok, come home now. Apparently, he made the mistake of sending e-mails to his coworkers before packing everything else, so they all congregated at his desk as he tried to get going. :) I took Bin over to her friend's house with the plan of her spending the night. With a check in time of 10:30am, I figured I would be lucky to get in and started by 11am. When I induced with Bin (and with her I was starting with irregular contractions and so close to labor that people couldn't believe I wasn't already there) it took a total of 9 hours, so that would mean like 8pm then 4 hours of baby in nursery so midnight before bin would be able to meet baby which wouldn't work. After dropping her off, I went home and peter was there, ready to go. I drove myself to hospital (this pregnancy I have been feeling a lot better overall and generally drove everywhere since I prefer driving than riding).

We got checked in and the nurse hooked me up and got pit going about 11am. The DVD player wasn't in the room (someone had moved it to another room) so we just read and Peter napped. After lunch, the nurse said she would have someone come hook up the dvd player for us. in the end, we watched one episode of Big Bang Theory and that was it. Things went a bit faster than expected.

While Peter was off eating his lunch (I told him not to bring food into the room since I wasn't allowed to eat and was starving), the contractions started getting a little more painful. I thought crap, it is barely one. My dr wants me to put off that epidural as long as possible and here I am ready for painkillers after only like 3 hours. It still wasn't that bad, so I tried to read my book and relax and breathe and all that stuff. I went with the newest Dresden book Changes. Butcher tends to have a fast paced style, keeps me up all night reading when I should be sleeping so I figured that would be a good choice. After about 15 minutes I realized, it still really hurt and I really needed to pee. So, I called the nurse in and said I want some drugs and to go potty. She said drugs after she checks me depending on the results. I said, ok, potty first though. That should tell you about the pain level- I was ok with not getting anything until doign some other things first. Going potty I was convinced she had dropped a bit and decided that was why it was hurting more, so hopefully I had dropped enough to atleast get a painkiller. They say the first shot of the painkiller is the only truly effective one so I was trying to put that off for a bit.

When I came out, Peter was back and the nurse checked me. While doing so, she said wow, your bag of water is like right here. And then it broke all over the place. She then went and ordered my epidural, as I was at 7cms and -1 station. She called my doctor but said she had no doubt he would approve the epidural. Last time, my dr came in checked me himself and thought about it. This time, the nurse over at his office okd it and soon we had drugs. Not soon enough for me as I became a complete wuss for every contraction. Like went from maybe wincing to shaking and barely breathing for the pain in that one minute. So, right now, I think the pit isn't the evil part of labor. I handled that all good for a few hours. It is the water bursting that sucks.

The epidural guy came and I was all pathetic so he gave me some drugs in the IV to tide me over while he hooked the rest up. He said I did do a great job at not moving a muscle the whole time he was setting things up, though it was pretty obvious I was in massive pain. I was completely shocked that I had made it all the way to 7cms dilation without needing the epidural. I think the nurse was a little defensive cause I kept saying, wow, I can't believe I did that. She was like, you never told me you wanted one. You said you were fine, your pain levels weren't that high when I asked, you looked fine during contractions. She said she expected a 3 cm dilation when she checked me, not 7. The 7 was way fast- esp since starting at 1 cm, 50% effaced and high.

My doctor came just as the epidural went in. I think he was a bit surprised by the speed too. He jokingly pointed to his shoes and told the nurse that he didn't have running shoes on today, so he was going to need a bit or warning. Then we started watching our dvd. Since everyone seemed to be expecting fast, we went with tv show instead of a movie. I still expected a few hours though. So 2pm, epidural in, tv on. We watched an episode and the nurse checked me. She asked if I could feel pressure on my pelvis, which I could. She then went and called a bunch of people and tv show went off. My doctor showed up and the nurse joked that as fast as he got there, they must be running shoes.

I pushed 4 times and baby plopped out, as well as a whole bunch of water and blood and stuff. He did have to do an episiotomy, but I didn't really feel it. I could feel the contractions for when to push though. Boring stuff while the nurses took care of the baby and my doctor sewed me up. He left some prescriptions and was done. I think my doctor probably spent only like 20 minutes total on me all day. Things were just that fast. 2:34 pm she was born. That is a nice, easy to remember birth time.

I finally got baby back and unlike bin, she went for the breast and latched on first try. She seemed to know exactly what to do, which a lot of lactation consultants claim all babies do, but just the difference in latching on at the stage between lil and bin was huge. I don't think I did anything differently. Lil also has been very into breastfeeding. If she is awake, she wants to be eating and thinks feeding sessions should last 45 minutes, an hour.

By the time they had me ready to move to my own room, the epidural was pretty well gone and I was happy to take my percosets. The hospitals prevailing attitude was better to stop the pain before it starts, so two percs every 4 hours was the standard. I figured I might as well enjoy the chance to be painfree while I have lots of people there to take care of things.

Bin meets Lil
After dinner, Peter went and picked Bin up from friend's house. I think she was excited, but also a little scared of the baby. Initially she wanted daddy to hold baby, not her. It was already pretty late, so they didn't stay too long. Peter took her home and they slept there. I had lil brought to me when hungry until like midnight and then decided to sleep. Of course, with nurses coming to check my vitals and bleeding, pull out IVs, etc, it wasn't the greatest sleep.

That sums up day one. Right now (Oct 16) I am still recovering. I think Lil is an easier baby, but I am also a lot more confident, less worried. Like when lil fussed all night, it was kinda expected, not nearly as upsetting. Still sore and tired, but emotionally good. Mostly just glad not to be pregnant. :)