Motherhood begins

Megan came into the world today at 7:02a. I started having contractions yesterday afternoon but I'd had false labor the day before so I didn't pay much attention. I even ate dinner around 6p - BIG mistake! That food made all those contractions and nausea worse.

I told Eric it was time to go to the hospital around 2:30a. They admitted me right away, and said I was already 5cm dilated. When they checked for dilation, my water broke. It came in a huge gush, and it felt like wonderfully warm bath water to me. Right after my water broke, the contractions started coming fast and hard. Megan's heartrate was dropping, so the nurses gave me brethene to stop the contractions. Luckily it worked, and I was comfortable and calm for my epidural, which I asked for without hesitation :)

Since the contractions had stopped, the nurses gave me pitocin to start them again. I could feel vague waves when I had one, but most of the pain was gone. I was just uncomfortable. I switched from side to side, but I never progressed and Megan's heart rate kept dropping with each contraction. After about 3 hours of labor, the doctor said we should do a C-section, and I was perfectly okay with that decision.

The C section was a breeze, although the epidural gave me horrible shakes. I did not want to look while they were cutting me open, but as Megan was born she gave a nice strong cry and I breathed a sigh of relief. After they sewed me up, we went to the recovery room, where I nursed Megan right away. My heartrate was too high though so I stayed in the recovery room for awhile. It eventually went down, and everything after that went as expected.

Although Megan's initial nursing went smoothly, the next few times we tried we could not get her to latch on and she just cried and cried. Then came my personal hero, our lactation consultant. She got Megan to latch on, and from then on, nursing was a breeze. I was in heaven - there is nothing more rewarding than feeding your child from your own body.