And Introducing!

We had a fairly strange 48 hours after my last blog. I went to the doctor as said. Not only was the baby too "high," but I had made no progress in a week. The other reason my doctor didn't want to strip my membranes is because she wasn't convinced the baby was even head down anymore. Great.

The ultrasound confirmed Baby Pete's acrobatics and she scheduled me to come in the next morning. They would flip him (a very weird procedure they do from the OUTSIDE believe it or not) if they could and induce me, or if that didn't work, she would C-Section me the next morning. Getting better all they time. So that night I put a frantic phone call in to DesMama to get the low down on the C-Section. (Thanks again, DM, you really allayed a lot of my fears.) Also, I relaxed quite a bit. One way or another in 24 hours I would have a baby.

So, of course, I actually went in to labor that night. (It was after the season finale of L O S T--conincidence? Hmm . . . . ) I called the hospital at about 1 am. My doctor was not only at the hospital but answered the phone. She is wonderful, incidentally. She told me to come in; no sense to spend half the night in labor to just get a C-Section.

Anyway, when I got there they gave me a drug to stop my labor so they could apply all kinds of pressure to my tummy. Her first try didn't work and they gave me some fentanol because I was shaking so badly afterward. I don't know why? Maybe because it seems so totally unnatural to have somebody doing that to you and maybe because they had already hooked me up to the IV which automatically makes me feel like a sick patient instead of a pregnant woman.

Her second try was successful and baby was now head down. Time to RESTART labor. By the time they located a Pitocin pump that was working it was nearly three a.m. At about 5:30 in the morning I got the worst epidural I've ever had. Between the epidural and the other drugs, about 8:30 I started feeling that whole ghost leg syndrome thing and was sure I was going crazy. The fact that I was by myself didn't help. (Weeks ago we scheduled a physical for Plantboy that morning. He had to have the physical completed before he could be officially offered the Oregon job. So we couldn't exactly cancel.)

My brief journey into the land of nervous breakdowns was one of the worst hours of my life. If any of you have ever actually had a breakdown, I got a tiny taste of empathy and I will never again say, "that could never happen to me."

Once Jeff showed up, my attitude improved immensely. We also turned on the TV to try and distract me. This technique actually worked pretty well because we turned on the most obnoxious presidential press conference (it was on every station) and I channeled my energy into disagreeing with the current leader of the free world.

Baby Pete entered the world at 9:58 am with a head full of light brown hair weighing in at 7 pounds and 11 ounces--making him more than half a pound smaller than either of my other kids. Baby Pete has also been easier on me in every way so far than my other two bambinos. The thing that is hard about three? Getting everything done. Right now it is okay because Plantboy is home, but when he heads for Eugene and leaves me alone for a few weeks it could get a little dodgy.

Hah! Another lengthy post, but everyone loves to tell their birth stories and in this medium nobody interupts with one that is inevitably better. I promise to dutifully read your posts about your births as well.

I'm sure you will all understand if my blogging is a little spotty this summer, but don't give up on scienceteachermommy. Check in every few weeks and I'm sure I'll eventually find time to be a regular again. So now it is back to the world of laundry, dirty dishes, dirty diapers, constipation, nursing and whatever other pleasant thing is part of motherhood.

I've got adorable pictures, but I'm having trouble making them work. They aren't attaching to my gmail either. I will try to get it together for the next post.