You know in the movies when the woman in labor is in a car or something and every time she goes over a bump she looks like someone just stabbed her in the back? Yeah, that was me when they were wheeling me places and going over the tiniest bump going into the elevator. From that moment, I don't remember going into my room let alone getting into bed. Finally, the anesthesiologist came into the room while Mike met up with Joe and grabbed our bags. The first thing the anesthesiologist said to me was, "I saw your bags last night around 11:00pm and I've been waiting for you since then. What took them so long to get you down here?" I told my story to her and her face turned almost red with anger. She was pissed. She immediately told Rachel to give me 50 ccs of blah blah blah. Whatever the blah was, it was magical. Although I could still feel everything, I grinned during the process. I called it my unicorn-fairy-rainbow juice. It was fantastic.
She explained the whole process of getting an epidural and how it is much safer now than it used to be. I just nodded and gave her the green light to go ahead and stab me in my spine. Mike finally walked in and she went over the whole process again with him so he too had a clear understanding. When she walked behind me and got me situated, I asked Mike to talk to me. He said, "Okay." That was it, though! Looking back, it was so funny. I wanted him to talk me through it by getting my mind off of what could be painful. The fact that I was dumbfounded by the fact that he didn't say anything after saying okay, took my mind off of everything. It was very funny. Actually, the only thing that I felt at all was whatever she put in my back to numb me. It was nothing at all. She said my epidural was very easy for her because of how my back was. My spine was very easy to work with apparently. She gave me what she called, the "Jet Fuel". The Jet Fuel was for the first hour or two and it would slowly go to the standard strength. Sounded good to me. It took only minutes before it kicked in. Ahhhhhhhh. I shook her hand when she was leaving and thanked her profusely.
I got all strapped in and was given a catheter. Yikes. It was probably a good idea, though, considering I wouldn't be able to feel a thing had I needed to take care of business. The doctor on call came in and broke my water. That was weird. I was told I couldn't eat or drink anything with the epidural. That sucked because I was horribly thirsty and starving since I hadn't had anything to eat since 7:00pm the night before. Only allowed ice chips. Mmm delicious. We made our various phone calls to family members and friends. Mike and I got all settled in, pulled out our blankets, and tried to get some sleep. We both napped for a while, but it was difficult for me at times because I'd have a nurse check on me constantly. A couple hours went by and my nurse's shift was over and I had a new nurse, Alicia. She was new and always had another nurse shadowing her. It was fine. She was quite lucky to get me, too, because we were banking Farrah's cord blood. This was a totally new experience for her and I was happy to help.
At some point, it started to feel like the epidural was wearing off a bit in my left leg. I mentioned it to the nurse and she said that I needed to roll from one side to the other from time to time to allow the medicine to flow evenly through my body. So, I went from lying on my right side to my left. About 10 minutes later, my nurse was rushing in and monitoring Farrah's heart rate which apparently had dropped from 140 to 53 beats per minute. Suddenly, there was a huge rush of nurses in our room. There was probably about 7. The doctor was being called and I had several women around me. They told me they were going to help me get up and flip onto all fours in order to help Farrah move out of whatever bad position she was in. My nurses were flipped out when they watched me get up immediately on my own and stand on my hands and knees with all my glory showing for the world to see. They couldn't understand how I was able to do it when I had no feeling. Determination, to make sure my baby was okay. That's all. I don't know how I did it either, but all I knew was I wasn't waiting for those ladies to flip me over. Farrah's heart rate went back up and I went back to lying on my right side. At some point when all that was happening, a nurse asked Mike if anyone had talked to us about having to possibly do an emergency C-section. I didn't hear about that little conversation until after we got home. Thank you for sparing me, Mike. That freaks me out.
Family showed up one right after the other. I felt bad because my labor was progressing slowly. People were sleeping out in the lobby waiting for anything. At one point, we had so many people in the room it was difficult for the nurse to get around. Luckily, people were hungry and decided to get breakfast so Mike and I had some time alone to get some rest. When they came back, everyone sat in my room eating Jack in the Box breakfast sandwiches. Jokingly, I called them all assholes. I was STARVING and I was SO THIRSTY. Mean. At some point, my mom became Stalin and ordered everyone (gently) out of the room to allow Mike and I some more rest. At this point we were running on pure adrenalin with no rest. We'd barely napped. Mike slept on the fold out couch. My mom sat between us reading her book and monitored the door.
I was awoken again when the nurse came in with a new monitoring system for Farrah. They removed the monitor from my belly and stuck one on her head. That was a little unpleasant. Didn't feel anything, but the thought alone made me uncomfortable. No one but Mike was in the room when that happened. My nurses were great to make sure that I was able to save some dignity by not allowing people in when I was fully exposed. Thanks ladies. After we'd all been waiting, the doctor decided to pump my IV full of patossum to get my contractions moving along. It felt like the epidural was wearing off on my left side again so I was told to roll over onto my left. 5 minutes later, the nurse came running back in. She quickly had me roll back to my right side. I had asked if they needed me up on my knees again, but she said no. They figured that with the water being broken, the cord was no longer floating around inside me and when I'd roll on my left, Farrah's throat was resting on the cord. That was good enough for me. No more lying on the left. I had the nurse contact the anesthesiologist on duty. He arrived, I told him the situation and he pumped me with more drugs. I was now completely paralyzed. Awesome.
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