side note: my original birth plan was to go ALL natural in the Birthing Center at UCSD hospital in Hillcrest. Jeremiah and I had go to a presentation and loved the entire idea of being in an environment where all natural was welcomed and the philosophy of using drugs and medical interventions was not pushed on you like in the labor and delivery unit. They use tubs and showers and massage to ensure a natural experience. I had meant to do a whole post on my birth plan before Eli was born but never got around to it. Basically I envisioned a calm and peaceful environment with no interventions and an easy delivery....ha ha ha.
Ok so I was admitted to the hospital, given a room and my mom called Jeremiah to tell him to "come on down" we were gonna have a baby. Long story short, I got lots of excited visitors that day, my dad, my in-laws, my sister in law, brother in law and my best friend came down to see how it was going and I am sure in hopes of seeing a baby. Pretty much it was a no go, I continued to have some pretty strong contractions but nothing regular and by that point I was getting really tired. Around 10 o'clock we sent everyone home and said that they should all get some rest and maybe there would be more luck the next day. Oh and when my water was broken we were told that I had 24 hours to get close to delivery or I would have to be transfered to the labor and delivery unit because after 24 hours the baby is at risk of infection and then they would have to speed my labor up with drugs aka pitocin.
Around 11 o'clock the nurse came in and told me that they wanted me to take benadryl so that I could get some sleep, I said I didnt want it but they gave it to me anyway and off to bed we went. Well, didnt sleep much but what did happen was that my contractions completely STOPPED!!!! Now I was getting anxious because if they didnt start back up before the morning, I was going to be transferred and my vision of this all natural experience was going to go down the drain completely. Day 3 of no sleep.
Morning came but the contractions did not and I was told that I only had a few hours to get things going so they gave me castor oil, nasty, an enima, even nastier, but it all failed. The mid-wife came in and informed me that it was time to head down. Insert Sad Face here
I was sad to move down to the labor and delivery but at the same time I was kind of excited because I was thinking that at least I would be 1 step closer to, maybe even hours from, holding little Eli. Off we went and in went the pitocin. Needless to say the contractions got much worse and I lasted on the pitocin without pain medication from about 1:30 till about 9 at night. It was long and it was hard but in a way it seems like it flew by. I begged on more than one occasion to Jeremiah to have them give me an epidural but being the excellent coach and husband that he is, he told me very calmly "sally that isn't in your birth plan". Another side note: I had given Jeremiah very specific instructions that at no point was he to give into my pleas, that I would be very upset if he let me get an epidural and he did a good job at sticking to that plan.
The contractions that came with the pitocin were hard and long but I knew from the way my body was feeling, that they were going NO WHERE! Finally after being completely exhausted from 3 days of constant on and off contractions with no sleep, I broke down crying and Jeremiahs arms and said PLEASE PLEASE can we get the epidural and he said, "if that's what you want". The funny thing is, I never needed his permission, if I wanted an epidural I could have had one, all I had to do was tell the nurse. In my mind I apparently needed permission but it wasn't from him that I needed it, it was from me. I had plan and idea in my head that I couldn't let go of and it wasn't until i could convince Jeremiah to say yes that I let myself say yes...does that make sense. Its like every time he told me no, I new that I could keep going, that my body had a little more strength to stick it out. It wasn't till I was crying from pain and mostly exhaustion that I knew it was enough and it was time to rest. Mean while, I have to mention that Jeremiah was amazing...3 straight days of contractions and with each one, he was there to rub and put intense pressure by pushing on my back to help ease the pain. He told me the day after the baby was born that he was physically sore from pushing on my back.
to be continued...
I totally forgot we have pictures that I could be sharing.
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