December

We has a new baby!

Last Friday night, I was NOT happy. I spent about 2 hours being generally pissed off at the universe because I was still pregnant, as my last post will confirm. The icing on the cake was having weak, irregular contractions- I was SO done with false labor. That was around midnight, and I went to bed a few minutes later. I think 'sulky' would have described my mood quite nicely.

At 1:17 I woke up with uncomfortable contractions and a need for sustenance. Cookies were had. The contractions kept getting more uncomfortable, and increasingly regular, so at 2 I woke up Ben. We'd only been in bed a couple hours, so we kinda laid there for a couple minutes, half convinced this was another false alarm.

Within minutes my contractions, which had been 10 minutes apart and very weak, went to 2 minutes apart and HIGHLY uncomfortable. We packed up our stuff and our son and drove to my MIL's to drop him off. We got there at 2:40, at which point I realized my water had broken. Yay! And yet not, because these contractions hurt. A lot.

Ben's mom hopped in her car, and we made the 20 minute drive to the hospital. During every contraction--which got a LOT worse during the ride, holy crap monkeys--I would wriggle around trying to find relief, and push my palms into the ceiling. Unfun.

We arrived, I was dropped off at the emergency entrance, and two very nice orderlies ran me upstairs to L/D. I do mean ran- my hair blew back and everything. Not that I cared- by then the contractions were right on top of each other and I barely had time to breathe.

The L/D nurses didn't even bother taking me into triage- they just dumped me onto the closest delivery bed available and helped me wriggle my way out of my soaking wet pants, while I loudly moaned. When asked if I wanted an epidural, I said yes, along with an emphatic "screw this!" that made the nurses laugh.

The nurse checked me. I was at 8cm. My husband and MIL arrived, and so did a very nice doctor I'd never seen before in my life. He asked to check me too, and I thought this was silly since the nurse just had, but he did it anyway. I was 9, then 10, and then I was told to push. Um, what? I had been there less than 5-10 minutes, there was no pause between contractions, and I was NOT HAPPY. No pain meds for me! I yelled at a couple of people, including my MIL, for the high crime of trying to be helpful.

After a brief argument with the nurses ("But it hurts!!") over my position, I got my head on a little straighter and started pushing. Not more than 5 minutes later, I had a baby on my tummy! Whoa! She was gooey and purple but awake- she didn't start crying until the nurse suctioned her nose.

She pinked up great except for her face- she'd come out with her little fist pressed against her cheek, on top of being born at Warp 9. So her face stayed purple. It's mostly cleared up now, though.

December Marie Gabbert, after a labor of MAYBE 3 hours, was born at 3:17am on June 5th 2010. She weighed 7lbs 13oz and was 20 inches long.

In the week since we’ve had the joys of establishing breastfeeding, jaundice, an overenthusiastic toddler, and trying to synch up sleep schedules. December seems to think that Darius’ bedtime is a marvelous time for dinner. Sigh.

But she’s gorgeous, and tiny, and all mine! Muahaha!