Trying to sleep the night before being induced (try being the key word) is quite impossible really. We were both up doing last minute preparations, and I think we finally lay down around 12:00 midnight or so, but hardly slept. We kept saying I’m too excited to sleep! like the little boy in the Disney World commercial. Then at 4:00 a.m., I called the hospital to see what time we were scheduled to go in; they said we needed to be there at 5:00, so we quickly showered, fed the dogs and let them out, loaded the last few things in the car, and headed off to the hospital. We arrived just after 5, got checked in and went to our room (room 14). At 6:00 they started the pitocin drip which increased the contractions. At 7:00, the hospital has a shift change and we met our nurse for the day, Lindsay, who has since been referred to by family and friends as that cute nurse. Then at around 7:30, Dr. Udell came in to break my water, and the contractions became much more intense. She was estimating that we would deliver around 4:30 or so, and I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to wait on the epidural. Our friend Amy who graciously agreed to take pictures of the delivery for us (we had no clue what she was really in for) arrived about 8:00. Monica and Amy passed the time taking practice pictures and taking care of me. My mom got there around 9:00, and Danielle came in around 10:00. By this point the contractions had started to wear me down a bit, and I had become a little unpleasant to be around.
Deona feeling a bit uncomfortable.
Amy & Monica trying to keep spirits up.
Labor's getting intense.
I was always under the impression that contractions during intense labor were every 2-4 minutes apart thus leaving a minute or so for a short break. Maybe I misunderstood or am just a labor oddity, but it didn’t work that way for me. My contractions were intense and about 30 seconds to a minute apart no chance for any type of break. The pain wasn’t unbearable, but any of you that know me well know that I don’t handle being tired very well. :) So, we did that for about 3 hours until I started to cry from exhaustion. At that point I was dilated to a 5 and still had about 4-5 hours to go, so I decided to have the epidural. It was the best decision for everyone. :);
whew, an epidural...just in time.
It didn’t hurt really, the hardest part is sitting super still in the middle of a big contraction while putting faith in a stranger (Thank you to Dr. Greene) to carefully insert a needle into your spine. Once the medicine hit, the rest of the day was wonderful. It's quite an amazing thing really; you feel some of the pressure that lets you know that you’re having a contraction, but there's no pain. It made the entire experience enjoyable, and I could actually carry on a conversation. I don't remember much about the next few hours, not because I was out of it, but because it has now been several weeks, and my memory is not what it used to be. I guess we pretty much just hung out in the room, talked and waited for time to push. I had progressed a little each time Lindsay or Dr. Udell came in to do a check, and by 4:30 it was time to start pushing. The pushing process took a little longer than expected, partly because of the epidural, but mostly because of my own issues of how to push properly. So with Monica holding one leg, Amy holding the other (poor Amy saw way more of me and the birth process than she bargained for), and Nurse Lindsay in the middle checking progress, we pushed for about an hour and a half until it was time for delivery. Dr. Udell had graciously agreed to let Monica catch Everett when he came out, so she got suited up in scrubs and gloves once he was ready to arrive. A few good pushes and his head was out. The umbilical cord was around his neck, so there was a minor delay while Dr. Udell fixed it. A couple more good pushes and he was here.
the "catch".
They put him on my belly for just a couple minutes while Monica cut the cord. Then they whisked him off to his little plastic bed in the corner of the room to put his security bands on, get his footprints, etc. I couldn’t see very much from where I was, but the pictures that Amy took pretty much tell the rest of the story. I do remember being relieved to hear him cry for the first time, and I remember Monica kept looking back from where he was and saying, He’s perfect! Absolutely beautiful!
"He's perfect! Absolutely beautiful."
I know from the pictures now that he must've recognized Monica's voice immediately because of the way he is looking at her.
One of my favorite pictures of the entire experience is when he is looking at her and has his arms up in the air, his Hallelujah pose. :) After they took care of all the necessities, they wrapped him up and I finally got to hold him and get a really good look at his adorable little face, and it is of course the most beautiful face I have ever seen.
He was 8 lbs 4 oz, and he measured 20.5 inches long.
It was the absolute best possible ending (or should I say beginning) we could have ever hoped for.
Nurse Lindsey (aka "the cute nurse"), Mommy, Everett, Dr. Udell & Mama
Everett & Mommy
Finally, going home.
This entire experience has been absolutely fantastic. I mean, I know most women who have been pregnant think it is great, but most of those women spent much of their life dreaming about having children. And many of them probably already had a blissful picture painted about how wonderful it would all be. I, however (as Im sure most of you know), was not one of those women. I never really pictured myself pregnant. I love kids, and I thought I would be a parent someday, but I never thought much about me being the pregnant one. I was never worried so much about the pain of labor, but more about the inconvenience of actually being pregnant for 9 whole months. Nine months is a long time; I don’t even like committing to my weekend plans. :) I was worried about having to sleep on my side all the time, and having morning sickness, and getting fatter than I already was, and my feet growing, and losing bladder control, and having to watch what I eat and take vitamins, and heaven forbid GIVING UP DR. PEPPER! Its funny cause people always say Having a child is going to change your world in ways you could never imagine. I don’t think that totally true because I feel like we understood how having him would change us; we knew we would be tired, we knew all priorities would suddenly shift to his direction, and we definitely fell in love with him long before he actually arrived. What I didn't expect is the way the experience of actually being pregnant would change me. I am still awestruck when I look at him and think that the entire process took place inside of me. How amazing it was to watch him grow through the sonograms and to feel and see him move. (He had a tendency to stretch his legs and stick his butt out a bit). One of my favorite things to do after work or before bed was just to lie on the bed and watch the tremors in my stomach from all his activity. Suddenly all the decisions I had to make, all the things I was worried about, became what I wanted not what I dreaded (ok except maybe the Dr. Pepper part, and I know I didn’t have to give it up completely, but I didn't want to drink any caffeine while I was pregnant, and when you are addicted to something such as I was with Dr. Pepper, it is best to give it up all together rather than try to limit yourself). I just kept thinking about the little guy inside of me that was a part of all the things I ate and everything I did each day. I know I wasn’t perfect I’m just saying it was much easier to make better decisions knowing that someone really small inside of you is benefiting from each of those good decisions. I also found myself wanting to feel good emotions just in case he was somehow affected by what I am feeling. I wanted to be happy, and calm, and not let stress or anger run my day. But most of all I find that he motivates me to want to make good decisions about what’s right and wrong in life and to be a better person because I am not just a role model now, but his Mama, and I want to be an example to him of all the things I believe in such as love and peace and compassion and patience and faith and happiness and laughter and hugging and helping and listening and strength and knowledge and especially courage. I have lived my life with too many fears to name and too many reasons not to finish or achieve something, and each year they bring me down a little bit more. But he makes me think twice before I give up or run away because I am scared. I refuse to pass those fears on to him, and living by example is the only way to ensure that I don’t. The current quote on my MySpace page pretty much sums up what I feel about it all:
Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone
It is completely true. He is not just in my heart, but rather he is my heart, and I have forgotten what it felt like before he existed.
Everett Blake Guajardo
Born at 6:03 p.m. on May 13, 2008
Weighed 8.4 lbs/length - 20.5"
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