Surprise! Jacob's Here!

Nicole's birth was a c-section. Not because I wanted it that way, but rather because just as I was getting ready to push, the baby's heart rate dropped and wouldn't come back. So lucky me, I got to experience labor (well, up to 7cm anyway, then they ordered the epidural) as well as a c-section. Well, not again. When the subject came up of VBAC vs repeat c-section, I gave it some thought, and decided that if I tried VBAC, it may still end up with surgery, and I'd rather just stick to one kind of pain, thank you very much. So we decided on a c-section, so as to guarantee I wouldn't have to deal with labor. And I'm told that if there's no labor, the recovery from surgery can be much smoother. So great, sign me up. All parties agreed on November 20th - nearly 2 full weeks before my due date.

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. Apparently, Jake didn't get the memo. On Thursday, November 16th, I went to work, planning on tying up all of the loose ends since the next day was the last day before I started my glorious 12 week maternity leave. I had experienced some labor-like pains the night before, but with Nicole, I had labor pains for two full days before she was actually born. So I didn't think anything of it. And they really weren't that painful anyway. But at about 2pm, I started noticing some contractions again. I went on with my work, but by 3, they started getting a little more painful. So I started timing them. Seven minutes, then a few at 5 minutes, some more, some less. I had a meeting with my boss at 4 to talk about project management while I was gone. I also had two other people that I had promised some information to by the end of the day, so I continued with my Gantt chart, and then went to talk to one of the people who had been wanting my attention. I told him it was now or never, because I was going home after we talked. I told him I was having contractions so I was going to go home early and put my feet up.

At 4:00 I knew I wasn't going to last much longer if I wanted to be able to drive myself home. So I went to my boss and told him I needed to go home. He understood, and said he hoped I felt better and hoped to see me tomorrow. Well, by the time I had logged off and gotten to my car, I had changed my mind and decided to drive to the hospital instead. They hooked me up to some saline, thinking I was probably dehydrated and they might be able to stop the labor if I got re-hydrated. My husband had called just as I was walking into the hospital and said he was running late and wondered if I could pick up Nicole. Um, no. I don't think so.

By the time Rob had Nicole and got up to the hospital, they had been pushing saline for an hour, and the contractions did nothing but get worse. So the nurse came in and said they'd called my OB, and that he'd be here at 9:00 to do the c-section. It was now 6:00. The contractions were two minutes apart. The next three hours were the most painful hours of my entire life. The plan for the surgery was to do a spinal, which they can't administer until minutes before the surgery. So now, all of my plans had officially backfired. Not only was I going to have both labor *and* surgery, but I was going to experience full labor, with no pain medication, and as luck would have it, as they were administering the spinal, I was ready to push. Instead, I got another surgery, because after all, that was the plan.

Jake was a tiny little thing, at 7lbs, 1oz and 21.5" long. He was totally beautiful, of course. But given my two birth experiences thus far, I can say with confidence that I am quite done. Unless we adopt, we will not be having any more children. Me and childbirth simply aren't the best of friends. But at least I've got the next 12 weeks to just hang out with Jake and enjoy some time off of work. At least, that's what I thought.

In the next installment: Falling down, again.