Labor of Love

I want to record the details of my labor, this will either remind me that no way do I want to go through that again or yep let's go for baby number 4. ;0) I had a due date of August 30th. I so wanted to deliver early and be done being pregnant. I honestly hate being pregnant, the extra weight and I don't mix. I gained a lot of weight during this pregnancy and the miscarriage before. I topped the scale just under 167. I did not want to go over 170 and the last weeks I actually lost 1 pound each week. So I was close at 37 weeks reaching 168. My doctor had said she would strip my membranes at 37 weeks. When I went in that day she was out making a delivery. The doctor I saw checked me and said he was unable to do so. I was so disappointed, but what can you do. The next week I saw a nurse practitioner, and I was 3 cm and she was sure that over the weekend things would likely happen. They did not. Finally I was at my last visit August 28th just 2 days from reaching my due date. Well let me back up. Brian was suppose to work Friday, but got a call on Thursday that he was not needed. Right before we left Teagan's school called and he had had an accident in the bathroom. Well I did not want to cancel my appointment. Brian wanted to go get Teagan but I felt strongly he should come with me. So I called my mom and she was able to go and get Teagan from school. Brian, Rayle, and I headed off to the doctor. So we get there and my doctor is thankfully in the office. We listen to the heart beat and everything is good. So she proceeds to stripe my membranes. She is telling me yep this will do it and should work. So I am thinking we will go walk the mall and get this labor going! YEAH!! Then she gives me this strange look. I know the look. I said my water just broke didn't it. Yep! So now we are at the office, we have Rayle and I am leaking like CRAZY. My water broke with the boys but at the hospital. I hope that I never have to go through that again. The feeling of being wet and there is NOTHING that you can do about it is not a great experience. Not fun! We had made the mistake of telling Rayle that after the doctor we were going to grandmas, well not now. He pretty much screamed and cried the entire way back to the house. So we get home, and out of the car, YUCK! That was gross because things started flowing out again when I stood up. I am grateful the office gave me some chucks pads to sit on or our seats would have been ruined. My entire bottom half was soaked. Contractions have not started at all just my water gushing out. So I came in and took a shower, and got in some dry clothes. My mom came to the house with Teagan and my grandma watched the boys so we could head out to the hospital. I wrapped myself with a towel and headed in. My doctor had called in a room for me so I skipped triage and went on to labor and delivery. I think by this time it was around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Not to sure the time. So no contractions and I did not want pit so I was able to walk 40 minutes and be monitored 20 minutes. Banner Desert gets boring after awhile when you have walked it like 5+ different times. After awhile the doctor on call (who also delivered Rayle) wanted me to go on pit since my water was broken they want to get things going in a 16 hour period or they will have to start antibiotics. I spoke up and said what is the longest I can go before we start? It was 2 am so I said let's hold off. My labor FINALLY started around 9 pm. I labored with them and worked through the contractions. About midnight I was done with the pain. GIVE ME THE DRUGS. I had to push another bag of fluids before they could start the epidural. So around 1 am the anesthesiologist came in to get things going. I hate needles; I hate the thought of needles going in me. So of course I flinched big like 2 times. Relief quickly set in and I was able to get some rest, if you can call it that since the nurse came in like every 20 minutes to check on me. I was at 5 cm when I got my epidural. At 3 am my mom has had enough she is tired, cold, and needs to go home. I knew that she would not be back for the birth. She was there for Teagan and Rayle so she headed home. Also the doctor on call Dr. Tamanaha also went home. I guess he lives like 10 minutes away. So Brian and my sister stayed on. Poor Candy was in a wedding that weekend and I felt bad since she was going on NO sleep. So about 4 ish when the nurse came in I said yep I am feeling some pressure. Can't feel anything else but something is going on down there. She checked me and I was complete at 10 cm. She called the doctor and he got back around 4:20. I did not do any practice pushes since Ashlyn was right there. I swear I looked at the clock and it said around 4:30 when I started pushing. But I could be wrong. I pushed through either 3 or 4 contractions and at 4:37 am on August 29 Ashlyn Candyce Gibson made her appearance. Brian was again able to help deliver our baby. (He helped with Rayle as well.) Ashlyn was laid on my chest and I could not believe her hair. It was dark. Both boys were blonde as ever. She was also COVERED in vernix. I was able to start nursing her right away. She nursed for like an hour and a half. She did not get her bath until like 8 am after we got to our room. They took her vitals and weighed her. I still can't believe she was 7.8 lbs. Rayle was 7.3 lbs and Teagan was 6.6lbs. So after forever my room is ready upstairs and we get to it at 7:45. Oh when they took out my epidural the nurse showed me the end. I never remember them doing that with the boys. I was so hungry and thankfully I was able to eat some breakfast. I had not had anything to eat since like noon the day before. From when my water broke to when Ashlyn was born labor had been 14 hours. Both Teagan and Rayle's labor was about 8 hours. I guess someone already has a mind of her own!! So we were able to kind of get some rest. We had visitors: our boys, my Grandma Hummer, my mom and stepdad Jon, Gail, Diana and her sister Any, Brian's stepdad Mike, Aunt Jessica, Grandma Hall, and Tracy and Robert and their kids. It was cute Sierra which is Brian's cousin took a picture of Ashlyn from her phone and she has it as her wallpaper. Sierra and Ashlyn are the only girls on that side of the family. I stayed at the hospital until Monday. Honestly I would have stayed longer but Brian wanted to go home and sleep in a real bed. With Rayle and Teagan I wanted to rush home, but I guess since we live in really cramped quarters I did not mind staying at the hospital. Also the nurses have changed things up, they don't come in and bug you all the time unless you need something they pretty much stay out. So nice!! One of the nurses even made a little name sign for Ashlyn. It was so cute and thoughtful. Also I did not experience the pain of the contractions that make your uterus go back down. They were HORRIBLE with Rayle and I was expecting them to be really bad with Ashlyn, but I had maybe one or two hours of feeling really bad. So on Monday we left and headed home. Ashlyn has been such a wonderful baby. She nurses great and loves to dirty her diapers. Brian has loved changing her. Out of the diapers he has changed she has peed and pooped on him about 75% of the time. He has not been a happy camper!! Me she has only done it twice. You know the rule that you don't bit the hand that feeds you! Don't pee on the mom that nurses you!! The boys have been at my mom's house since Sunday the 30th. They really want to be home but since Teagan is in school and I am on like no sleep we thought it best for them to stay there for a few weeks. Rayle is just in love with Ashlyn. One day we were over there and about to leave, he said, "Mom are you going home?" "Yes." "You can leave Ashlyn here I will take care of her." How cute is that. This last weekend we had the boys from Saturday evening until Monday morning. We drove down to Coolidge on Sunday to be there for the blessing of our friends the Carver's baby. It was good to see many people that we have not seen since October of last year. Some of them asked if we were moving back. No way!

So now to the part that has not been so fun. Since I gave birth I have had a slight headache. It would go away and was not that big of a deal to me. On Friday it became a VERY big deal. It woke me up at 6:30 am and was pounding and throbbing. I waited until the doctors office opened at 8:30 and called in. I was able to get an appointment that day. They were thinking that I had complications from the epidural. So I go in and the symptoms were not like that of an epidural headache. The nurse gave me a prescription for a migraine headache. These did nothing for the pain. I did not sleep the entire weekend but a few hours. On Monday I had had enough. I got the on call doctor and he had me double up one dose of the meds. Still no change. So off to the ER. We got there around 2 and I was taken back at 2:45 pretty quick. They gave me a cat scan, IV, and some caffeine drug. Still no change. The cat scan came back negative, they were still thinking that this was an epidural problem. So before I got heavier meds I pumped some milk. Then I got the meds still NO CHANGE. It seemed to be getting worse. Right before we were going to be discharged with no answers the doctor wants to do a spinal tap. OH MY GOODNESS that hurt so bad. He poked me like 4 times. Again the results were negative. So I get a pain med and sent on my way. No answers. I get to now go see a neurologists to figure things out. Thankfully the percocet and the ibuprofen gave me some relief, and I was able to sleep last night. So poor Ashlyn is on a bottle since I need to pump and dump until after 6 tonight. She is doing okay but I hate bottles and formula. I was able to pump 3 bottles at the hospital and I had pumped 4 bottles last week to give some relief to me. So she is on half formula and half mom milk. I should have enough so that I don't have to go straight formula. I can't wait to nurse her again. So Brian asked me are you sure you want another baby and have to go through this again. Well I never had anything like this happen with the boys and I feel it has nothing to do with Ashlyn and giving birth. Of course I want more children. So I will wait and see what the next doctor has to say and I hope we can get this figured out.