Reese's Birthday-September 19th 2009

I went into labor on Thursday September 18th, sometime in the middle of the night. I'd eaten Scallini's eggplant parmagiana recipie a few days before in an effort to induce labor as its famous for putting pregnant full term women into labor!!! When I woke up that morning I was pretty sure I was having mild contractions. I sent Richard off to work and perched on my bouncy ball to chat on the internet :) As usual, it progressed and Richard came home from work so that he could take me up to my usual midwife appointment late morning. I was 3-4 cm dilated so they sent me home to walk as much as I could. I walked, showered, walked, swung my hips around, walked. By mid afternoon it was really starting to get intense so we called the midwives again and Asia came to the house and checked me. I was 5-6cm dilated so we waited a bit and then we decided to head to the Foothills hospital. When we got there I was 8cm dilated, that was around 4pm. I did some more walking, swaying, then I got in the tub and by now it was really hurting. I had the dreaded nausea/vomiting that I've heard so much about during labor. I was totally silent during contractions and I didn't want to be touched or talked to because I was concentrating so hard on distracting myself from the pain by tapping my toes!! Between 7-8pm I started feeling like I should push and I was finally 10 cm dilated. I pushed, pushed some more, nothing. Reese's heart rate stayed stable the entire time. We pushed while doing lunges, leaning into the bed, one leg up, one down, sideways, backwards, upside down(just kidding) we tried everything but Reese remained posterior facing and she wouldn't drop down with the pushes. They did an in and out catheter incase my bladder was blocking things, they broke my water too and there was meconium in it. After 3 hours of pushing I was getting exhausted, the pain was unbelievable and she still wasn't budging. The midwives decided to get the OBGYN in to look and confirm what they thought. The way Reese was positioned, she wasn't able to drop into the birth canal and the only way she was coming out was via C-section. I was horrified because the reason we had midwives was to avoid a C-section. But everyone told me that this was the only way to deliver her, that we could keep trying labor but eventually she was going to go into distress. So, I consented to the C-section. They missed my IV three times. I told the anethesiology resident that I wanted the attending to put my spinal injection in....it was AGONY sitting on the side of the OR table because by that point I was so worried and disapointed that the pain was completely overwhelming. The attending took two tries to get the spinal in. Seriously, it must be because I'm a nurse!!!! My blood pressure dropped during the surgery to 70/35 but I didn't feel dizzy at all, they poured the fluids in and it came up. At 12:27 am Reese Madeline Burwell made her entrance via c-section.."Its a Girl!" to which I replied "I told you!!" She cried right away but then went quiet and I was grilling the anethetist about what was going on. Then my midwife was there telling me that she was healthy, 7lbs 12oz and perfect :) As they were closing me up I had a wicked bout of nausea. But obviously it wasn't that bad because I was questioning the poor anethetist about which anti-nausea drug he was giving me!! Wow I must have been a nightmare for him :) They finished closing me and then I got to hold Reese......I'm pretty sure there is NOTHING in the world that is more amazing than holding your child for the first time. I actually don't think you can describe to anyone how it feels. We were wheeled to recovery and the midwife helped me latch Reese on to breastfeed, she did great! My Mom, Dad and Jenna all came into see us and went mental over Reese. Poor Richard looked so tired, but ecstatic at the same time!! Then I got settled into my room on the postpartum floor, Reese...well she was actually nameless at this time. We didn't name her until the morning!!! She was baby girl Burwell for like 10 hours poor kid. We all got settled and Richard went home. I seriously couldn't sleep, I didn't have a room mate but rather than take advantage and sleep, I just stared at her. Every little noise she made I was hauling myself up to look at her(cause my legs were still paralyzed from the surgery) I had a brief moment of panic that my paralysis was going to be permanent(silly girl) but then all of a sudden the feeling came back. It didn't hurt that much at first though thanks to the morphine that was in the spinal. It DID make me itch like CRAZY though!!!!!!
finally I fell asleep for a little bit and then Reese and I woke up and started the day.