first off, i highly recommend getting an epidural to anyone who gives birth. i spent about an hour and a half feeling the pain get worse before asking for it. well, that's not really true. my nurse told me they could give me something through my IV before the pain got really bad, then we could call the anesthesiologist for my epidural. well, i took the pain meds through the IV, and all it did was make me sleepy - and the contractions still hurt way too bad for me to sleep through them. which sucked. really, i think the pain would have been more bearable if the contractions were more than 2 minutes apart right from the start. as soon as dr. g. broke my water, things started moving FAST. so anyway, i asked for the epidural, which i got around 9:45, and i felt absolutely no pain after that. i got a walking epidural instead of the regular variety (basically just a lower dose of the drugs), so i could still feel and move my legs, though my left one was a little tingly. by the time i got the epidural my contractions were coming every minute. this was probably because of the pitocin that was used to induce my labor, which they ended up cutting off completely after about another hour (it was making the contractions too intense). so basically, all the pitocin did was get things moving. it was started at about 6:30 a.m., dr. g. broke my water at 7:30 a.m., and max arrived in the world screaming his bloody head off at 1:32 p.m. after exactly 3 contractions worth of pushing (about 5-10 minutes).
chad was really freaked out by how fast things went. dr. g. came in to check my progress about 1:15, then all of a sudden they were moving in a delivery table and taking apart my bed to prep for max's arrival. then we were pushing (but not for very long), and i didn't feel a thing. and suddenly we had a baby. i'm pretty sure chad was in shock. he said he needed a little more warning. i mean, we were fully expecting not to have a baby until late into the night, but things just went so quickly. then dr. g. stitched me up and took care of me while chad went over to the other side of the room where they were cleaning max up and weighing and measuring him (7 lbs, 7 oz, 20.5 inches). then the baby nurse handed max over to his daddy, who held him while dr. g. was finishing up with me. then chad handed max over to me once my bed was all in order, and we had a nice little family moment. we spent about an hour, just the three of us, learning how to breast feed, and just marveling at this little person we made. then chad started making phone calls and we let his parents come in to meet their grandson. deva and vanessa were also there to greet max on his first day in the world. then they whisked max off to the nursery for an hour or so for tests. but they brought him back right away. both days we were in the hospital, max was pretty much chillin' in my room, which i loved. every time they took him off to the nursery for something, they brought him right back.
my mom, sister, aunt, and brother arrived later on that afternoon (my sis had a CAT scan that day in preparation for her tonsilectomy) to spend some time with us. then we brought max home last wednesday. i'm not gonna lie, it hasn't been easy, what with having to feed him every 2-3 hours and figure out to sleep somehow at the same time. the past few nights, chad and i have been doing shift sleeping. i've been pumping bottles for chad to feed max while i sleep for a few hours, then i stay up with max and chad goes to sleep. max refuses to sleep in his crib. he does pretty well in his bouncer, though, so i think we're just going to try letting him sleep in the bouncer in our room. this shift sleeping thing isn't going to work for us next week when chad has to go back to work. we're trying to gradually get max used to sleeping in his crib, but so far he's only lasted about half an hour at a time in there. hopefully moving the bouncer into our room and letting him sleep there will work out for us.
ok, the little guy is waking up now, and he needs a diaper. i have so much more to say about him, and hopefully i'll find some time soon.
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