in the name of archiving and remembering, this is a rundown of brennan's entrance into the world.
thankfully lane wrote the basics in his journal to help jog my memory...
april 22, 2011:::brennan grace sandifer born
1:31 pm, good friday, 7 lbs. 14 oz
24 hour labor from start to finish... 18 hours of contractions and hospital time
2.5 weeks early
1 pm thurs, 21st: my water broke, was fairly certain what was going on, but since it was much earlier than we were anticipating, we waited a little bit to be sure it was, in fact, the beginning. once we truly knew (and registered and accepted) what was going on, we prepped the house (meaning, lane installed the car seat because we knew we'd be needing it; i vacuumed and did the dishes), packed the final things in our hospital bags and left for the hospital at 6:45 pm.
7 pm: arrive at the hospital. it was very surreal driving to the hospital calmly, chatting with the nurse as she checked my vitals to be sure i was in labor... i think we had imagined it being the chaotic movie-type scene with screaming and gore.
from then until about 10:30 we just did a LOT of laps in the hallways trying to get things progressing... lunges, squats, everything. things did not seem to be moving very quickly.
nancy arrived around 11 pm once things started picking up. all night long we continued the walking/lunges/squats combination, and labor was very difficult. i got in the tub, threw up in the hallway during a walking session from the pain... the works. they checked me at 7:45 am and i was still only to 6 cm., but we were encouraged that this last little bit is what goes the quickest, if we estimated the average of about an hour per centimeter. after such a long night, we were very excited we only had a few hours left... so we thought.
transition was SO HARD, and it got discouraging as the hours went by. i was at 8-9 cm for a good 3 hours. intense. pain. awful. the weird thing though is that not for a second did i even think of getting an epidural. it wasn't even a decision honestly... i honestly forgot that was even an option. i had set my mind on a drug free birth, and had laser-like focus on that outcome. i never cried... never got super overwhelmed... i just zoned in and focused. i didn't even really talk the whole time, was just focused, though lane tells me that there was one time that i looked at him and asked 'can i do this?' when it was getting sooo hard in those hours of transition. i was in A LOT of pain, there were times that lane was praying for God to just END THIS when it was taking so long and i was struggling with the pain. the quick summation of my labor is: long and painful. end of story. i just did not progress quickly.
at 9 cm dilation, i felt intense urges to push, but i wasn't ready yet... most discouraging hour of my life, when we would be SURE i was at 10, the doc would come in and check me and shake his head and i knew that there would be no relief in the near future. that happened 3 times where he checked me and i wasn't ready, but my body was pushing without my control.
we finally reached 10, and were able to start pushing around noon, and the doctor came in around 1 pm. after being in transition so long, brennan decided to crown for a good 15 minutes. seriously, child? this little girl was putting up a fight getting out! but she made it, had a full head of hair, handled everything perfectly, and was a champ. she put her momma through a bit of a doozy, but once you hold that reward in your arms it really doesn't matter.
she's perfect.
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