I've never been happier to have a healthy baby at home. I had been nervous about this delivery for awhile since everything has been going suspiciously well the past couple of weeks; I felt like I was getting set up for a big trauma. When I went to be induced, everything started off pretty well. My water broke after a few hours and as usual the nurse was highly entertained with how much fluid I had. (Happens every time. For some reason I produce enormous amounts of amniotic fluid.) After awhile, though, the nurse started looking a little nervous but explaining things in vague terms. She was monitoring the baby's heart rate and said "It looks like there is a cord in there" and I thought, "Well I'm no obstetrician, but I'm pretty sure there is supposed to be a cord in there." But quickly the baby's heart rate dropped and the nurse checked me and said she felt the umbilical cord coming out. I still had no idea what that meant, but suddenly there were lots of people in my room all looking very serious and someone was shaving my belly and telling me that I was going to have an emergency C-section. Needless to say, I was scared to death. I just turned my head and started crying. I was wheeled into the operating room, the whole time with the nurse pushing my baby back up inside me and trying to get the cord out of the way. I remember the first thing I thought was, "Brandon is never going to get his thesis done in time if I have to recover from a C-section." The second thing was, "Holy crap, I think I can still feel my belly. I am SO not ready to be cut open." I actually started pinching my belly to test how much I could still feel. At this point, my sister ran in, ready to operate, and told me that she would get the baby out really quickly. For some reason I was never worried about that; I was sure that she would get the baby out and she would be fine. But I just wanted someone to knock me out. Imagine the scene in What about Bob where he gets on the bus and walks up to a complete stranger and says, "Excuse me, could you please knock me out? Just punch me in the face." I couldn't handle the thought of watching myself be cut open, but then felt guilty about not wanting to see my own daughter's birth. But thankfully and miraculously, they checked me one last time and the cord had moved and wasn't in the way anymore. Her heart rate was back up and the cord didn't come down again after that. I have never, ever felt so relieved.
They put me back in my room and waited for me to deliver normally. Since they had given me such a high dose of medication for the C-section, they turned off my epidural so that I could get some control over my lower body. I could literally feel NOTHING below my waist and I felt like my torso was balanced on a giant yoga ball. I started getting my feeling back eventually and at the very end I started feeling the pains of the contractions. I never knew this before, but I am not a very nice person when I'm in pain. It escalated pretty quickly and I was trying to crush Brandon's hand and yelling through each contraction. I may or may not have yelled something about never wanting to do this again, and where is the anesthesiologist with my drugs, and oh my gosh this contraction is never going away, and seriously why am I not getting more drugs right now. Brandon was a very good sport. He tried to fix my oxygen mask and said, "Oh, that's probably cutting into your face a little bit" and I just moaned/yelled, "I really don't care about that right now, Brandon!" Luckily for everyone, it was soon time to push and I got her out in 4 or 5 pushes. Finally our little Siena was here and healthy and I was SOOOOO happy. She is a great baby and I have seriously loved every minute I've had to spend with her.
