My mind is going. During pregnancy, a woman's brain shrinks three percent, and part of it never comes back. For most women, this is not a problem. I however, had limited resources to begin with. Best I can figure, what with all the drinking in college, Izzy, and the new pregnancy I'm down to about 17% of the capacity I was born with.
I'm forgetting everything. I forgot assignments every day at work last week, I forgot my neighbor's name - first AND last, and last night, I called a little boy the wrong name entirely on my baby board. It's tough being dumb. Men, you know what I'm talking about. I'M KIDDING. Uh huh. ;-)
I woke up feeling pretty moogly this morning, which thrilled me. Morning sickness normally doesn't occur with "bad babies" as my ob/gyn calls them. His terminology cracks me up. He calls everyone friend. As in, "Let's go take your chart to my friend at the desk and she'll make you an appointment." or "My friend here will be waiting for your urine sample." There are a LOT of urine checks during prenatal exams. Anyhow, my doc is very stiff and very awkward, but I think he's a really good doctor. As I was typing this I was remembering Izzy's birth, which had a few pretty dramatic moments. I typed up my birth story a week after Izzy was born, for my June 2003 baby board, and I'm going to paste it below for my post today:
"It is my sincere pleasure to announce to you all that my gorgeous perfect son, Isaac Zane Freedom arrived healthy and easily on June 10, 2003! Here's our story....it's long, but very happy...My doctor and I had been monitoring my blood pressure for several weeks, and on Tuesday, June 3, I called because it had skyrocketed to 160/115. They had me come in, and I saw the midwife for the first time because my ob had a family emergency. She immediately put me on bed rest. So I left work on June 4th. She had me do a 24 hour urine collection, and I saw her again on Thursday, where she and another doctor in the practice said there was some protein, and decided to have me do another collection over the weekend.
So I went in on Monday, and saw my regular doctor again, and he said that although there was less protein in the second sample, he still thought it was time to induce!! Thank goodness I had taken my little sister with me, because he sent me right next door to be admitted.
It was terrifying and exciting - I couldn't wait to have my son, but when it was actually time, it didn't feel real. I was admitted and they checked my cervix - I was only fingertip dilated and the baby hadn't dropped - I believe they said -2. So they started Cytotec, 25 mg. I had three doses of this, 25 mg, four hours apart. My last check was at 6 am and I had only dilated to 1.5 cm, so they started Pitocin.
At 8:45 I went to the "potty chair" (they won't let you walk to the rest room on Pitocin, but they did bring me a little chair ) and I thought I had developed a horrible incontinence problem, but I quickly realized that my water had broken on it's own! I was so excited - since this pregnancy had not been natural like I had envisioned, at least I did something on my own!
At 9:15, the contractions begin to kick my butt! I am not joking - they were horrible. Every minute to a minute and a half - I thought I was going to lose my mind from the pain. They checked me, and I had still only dilated to 3 cm! That's when I decided that I was having that epidural ASAP. They came in and I told them that as soon as I could have it, I wanted it, and they said they'd give me something else first, because you have to be further dilated.
They gave me Stadol, and it was wonderful! I was completely loopy, but I was able to handle the pain so much better. You do still feel it, but it's so much more manageable, it's unbelievable. I highly recommend it, especially if you're stuck with Pitocin. At around 11 or so, they came in to give me the epidural, and I just knew it would be horrible, but it took about 30 seconds, and didn't hurt at all. And it's true - you do completely forget about that little catheter in your back, although it hurts like a @*&^ when they pull the tape off afterwards!
After that, the rest of labor was a breeze! I was determined to do it naturally, but the pain was way worse than I had imagined, and now I think I was nuts, because it was so easy with the epidural. I truly can't say enough wonderful things about it.
At about 3:30 the doctor checked me again, and said the cervix was gone, the baby was in place and it was time to push! The doctor left the epidural on during the pushing, which surprised me, but it went great - I couldn't really tell when I was having contractions, but I was still able to push fine.
I started at about 3:45 and my husband and I are pretty sure that I only pushed through four contractions, and there was our beautiful son, at 4:02 p.m.! The midwife was there too, and on the final push she jumped up on top of me and started pushing wildly on my stomach. Seems our baby had his shoulder stuck. She got him unstuck, and then the doctor pulled him out, and I immediately knew something was a little off, because they didn't let my husband cut the cord.
They rushed the baby over to the warming table and called NICU up, who were there in about 30 seconds. I saw the baby moving, but it took him a couple of minutes to make the cutest little mewing sound. I asked my doctor if it was normal to have so many doctors and nurses around him (the Stadol hadn't worn off completely yet!) and of course it's not, but they were afraid he had broken his shoulder. His original score was 3, but it was very shortly 10, and he was screaming with vigor!
We named him Isaac Zane Freedom, which we thought was very appropriate with all of the trouble in the world right now. He was 8 lbs 6 oz, 22" long, and had a 15" head! His skin has the most gorgeous healthy color, and he has dark hair. We're calling him Izzy, and we love him more than anything on earth. He's our first, and we were so scared about becoming parents, but we took to it immediately. I was overwhelmed with love the second I saw him.
These last seven days have truly been the most wonderful seven of mine and my husband's lives. I hope the rest of you have such easy and quick labor and deliveries, and I hope you have such wonderful perfect babies as my sweet little Izzy! Now, I completely understand why people love babies so much. I hope all of you experience this same happiness!!! I love being a mommy!
Cindy & Izzy (6/10/03)
Posted 6/17/03, 7:48 p.m. on BabyCenter"
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