layne katharine

i haven’t really blogged about little Laynie yet (except to brag on her sleeping habits, which have unfortunately changed a bit i think due to my not taking any medication anymore)…

so here’s the rundown of the day she was born (this is mostly for my own benefit so i dont’ forget):

July 15th, 2008

• 1:50 AM – i awake to a painful contraction…not terribly painful, just enough to wake me up.  i laid in bed through 2 more contractions, but never looked at the clock (it took alot of effort to turn over and sit up enough to see it).  after the third contraction, i decide that i can’t sleep anyway, so i’ll get up and time them for an hour.
• 2:20 AM – contractions start coming 2-3 minutes apart.  i time them that way until 3:15 AM.
• 3:15 AM – try calling the doctor.  the answering service doesn’t pick up.
• 3:20 AM – wake up my deep-sleeping husband to inform him of what is going on.  we debate over calling our friend Jenny (the one coming to stay with Harper), but she lives 20 minutes away and is bringing her dog, so we want to be sure.
• 3:25 AM – i try calling the doctor again.  she calls me back and says that we should go to the hospital.  (she happened to be my favorite in the practice…i was so excited…keep in mind that i was trying for a vaginal birth after cesarean.)  after i got off the phone with the doctor, i called jenny.
• 4:00 AM – Jenny arrives with bruiser the dog in tow (much to harper’s delight)
• 4:30 AM – we arrive at the hospital…  i had several painful contractions on the way to the hospital.  i was getting more and more excited that my body might actually be doing what it was supposed to be doing
• 5:00 AM – “settled” in triage.  the nurse figures out that we got to the same church (thank you, Lord!).  i get stuck THREE times for an IV…that was super.  they “check” me (my cervix)…i’m only 2 centimeters and am very disappointed.
• 5:45 AM – doctor arrives and tells us that she’ll break my water as soon as we’re admitted and “settled” into a labor/delivery room
• 7:15 AM – doctor breaks my water.  there is miconium (baby poop) in the fluid.  it was absolutely disgusting like mucous.  the doctor says that this isn’t too big of a deal, but will be dealt with swiftly after the baby is born (with suction).  during the next half hour my contractions grew stronger and more painful.
• 7:50 AM – the doctor came in and said that the baby’s heartrate was dropping after the strong contractions.  this was a concern because i was still only 2 cm dilated (the labor could take hours and it’s risky to put the baby’s heart under stress for that long).  she told me at this point that we could very well be looking at another c-section.  shoot.
• 8:45 AM – doctor #2 came in after the shift change.  he looks me in the eye and explains very bluntly that my body isn’t doing what it should and we’re sort of putting the baby at risk if we continue with the labor.  he strongly recommends a c-section…soon.  i burst into tears.  he leaves.  ryan and i talk about it and decide that we have to do another c-section.  i was in serious pain during the contractions at this point and i know that there’s no way i want to endure the pain for several more hours just to have to go through surgery.
• 9:00 AM – we call the nurse to inform the doctor that we’re going to do the c-section.  i am still bawling my eyes out.  the nurse talks to the doctor and informs us that we should be in surgery within the hour.
• 9:10 AM – the next hour is sort of a blur.  i just remember breathing/crying through like 20 more contractions, the nurse came in a did some surgery prep stuff and then they finally wheeled me upstairs to surgery.  i was crying the whole way.  it was so embarrassing and i felt stupid and that made me cry more. 
• 10:20 AM – i’m just guessing, but i’m thinking this is when they started the actual surgery and i could feel them pulling on my organs as hard as they could.  at one point, i think when they were pulling out the uterus, the nurse literally laid on me.  i kept looking over at ryan and i’m sure my eyes were the size of plates.  (although, i will say that the spinal was much more pleasant than the epidural and i think i felt less this time around.)
• 10:26 AM – we hear Layne cry and i felt like it was all worth it.  it literally had not really hit me that we were having another kid until i heard her little voice.  i cried some more.  🙂
• 11:15 AM – i arrive in recovery feeling REALLY weird.  dizzy, lightheaded, and freezing cold.  i stayed in recovery for 2 1/2 hours, but it was actually kind of nice.  ryan and the baby and the nurse came down and she helped plug Laynie in because i couldn’t even lift my head off the pillow.  after they left, i tried to sleep, but it was really noisy in there…entertaining, actually.  it’s strange to listen to how other people handle pain and how the nurses handle the people who don’t handle pain well.  🙂
• 12:45 PM – i arrive in my room and promptly vomit due to the motion sickness i had from the trip (very weird because i NEVER get motion sick).  vomiting 2 hours after having your stomach sliced open is NOT a fun thing.  OW.

i spent the rest of the day in the bed with my eyes closed.  the effects of the medication (the spinal) didn’t wear off until about 8:00 that night.  when i sat the bed upright to try to properly nurse the baby, i puked.  Laynie slept for 4 hours straight the first night, thank goodness.

all-in-all, not a fun experience (once again), but a week later i’m feeling great and i know that we did the right thing.  i hope that someday the Lord reveals to me why He’s never allowed me the birth “experience”, but for now, i’m trusting that this is what His plan was.  i’m definitely still not myself, but i feel adjusted and rested, so the soreness isn’t really a big factor.  thank goodness Super Nana is here helping me.  this morning she took Harper to the playground so i took some week-old photos of Layne.  here’s the only one that’s worth posting:

after re-reading this post, i feel like it’s very negative.  i feel that i should add:  i am totally confident that we did the right thing.  the Lord confirmed that after the baby was out and the doctor informed me that i had a golf-ball sized cyst on my ovary.  he asked if he could remove it.  um, yes please.  🙂  he explained that if he didn’t remove it then, that there was a good chance of it growing or rupturing or both and that i could have to have another surgery down the road if that happened.  thank you Lord!