I had another bad pregnancy. Michael estimates that I threw up about 500 times by the time Dempsey was delivered. Several things made this one worse. I had the store to run, medication did not help the nausea, and I developed polyhydramnios which is basically a lot of amniotic fluid.
The polyhydramnios caused me to be huge. I kid you not, I was asked daily from 7 months on if I was about to deliver, if I was having twins, and on more than one occasion I was asked if I was having triplets. I was bigger than my friend at her delivery and I still had over 6 weeks to go. My maternity clothes ceased to fit. I was straight out ALL belly.
The polyhydramnios caused me to be tested over and over again for diabetes, oh how I love that orange liquid. And it caused me to make weekly trips into Manhattan for sonograms. Therefore, Dempsey, has more pictures prebirth than anyone I know. (Hey, at least he has that going for him as a second child).
The polyhydramnios caused contractions to begin at about 30 weeks. Mostly these were Braxton Hicks but pretty intense pressure and very regular, all night long. Everyone thought I would deliver early, I was put on modified bed rest, and knowing this made the waiting worse than even Madeus who was 2 weeks late. I did not sleep the last 6 weeks of my pregnancy pretty much longer than an hour at a time. I was miserable.
However, the polyhydramnios did cause my water to break at 38 weeks and to have one of those rushing to the hospital type of moments you see in movies - plus the whole water thing was pretty fascinating.
I kid you not, I have never seen so much water. My water broke in bed around 2 am. I thought that was it but when we got to the hospital I was told the baby's head had capped off the rest of the bag. My midwife broke the rest of my water and for the next 45 minutes it was a flood. Over 12 soaking towels and they had to bring a trash can in to put the towels. One nurse said it was the most fluid she had ever seen. It was actually kind of fun.
My fascination got me to 7 centimeters. I asked for a low dose epidural because of my sensitivity to medication. Michael was not allowed to stay in the room during the epidural because of past legal cases and he was pretty upset by this. Every thing was easy from there until I got ready to push around noon. The nurse and midwife ordered frozen yogurt from a staff member who was going out to get them and let's just say, their yogurts were liquid by the time it was all over.
Right when I was about to push, I had a lot of the pain. I told my midwife but she did not want to give me a dose because we were about to push. I was apprehensive because I know I have children with 95th percentile heads and I pushed a long time with Madeus. For Madeus' birth I used a bar placed over the bed to help but this hospital did not have that. My midwife does not cut or use other tools and while I am thankful for this, I was wishing she would change her mind. I finally gave up, after yelling at the midwife, hitting Mike, and throwing up, I told her I would no longer push until I got some pain management. I really felt like I would need a c-section as was suggested for both of my babies. My persistence and her melting yogurt led my midwife to agree and two pushes after my second epidural dose Dempsey arrived. I have NEVER felt such pure relief (and I also suggested Michael go down a floor in the hospital to get a vasectomy:)
The stats:
Dempsey was born at 38 weeks at 8lbs 11 ounces (he was growing about a 1lb every two weeks)
He was 21 1/2 inches and was born at 2:10 pm.
His labor and delivery was everything opposite of Madeus. He was born early. My water broke. I went into labor naturally. Madeus start to finish was 23 hours. Dempsey was 12 hrs. However, they both gave my body a run for its money when it came to pushing. However, with Dempsey the pain was tremendous and without my own endorphines building up throughout the contractions, it came on so intense. Madeus clocked in at about 1 1/2 hrs and Dempsey at a little over 2 hours.
I have already forgotten a lot but what I always remember is that I CANNOT believe a woman's body does this, can do this, and can produce these amazing people. I really was in "shock and awe" over the experience all over again. In some ways it is worse the second time, because you know what is coming but at the same time you don't have that fear of the unknown so it balances out.
We were in the hospital several days, it was interesting and emotional so I will save it for another post.
