Thursday, June 09, 2005
My labor story
Labor and then Jace
On Friday night, April 30, 2004, Jon and I planned to go to Scippolini’s Pizza and have the Prego Pizza with his parents and Alena, his sis. It was urban legend that the Prego Pizza would send any woman into labor right away. I was sick of being pregnant. We had been talking about Scippolini’s blissfully for weeks. I had gained fifty seven pounds, when you are actually only supposed to gain about thirty five. I was huge and could barely move. My ankles and feet were so swollen I dreaded walking across campus. I worked that Friday and my students gave me tons of presents for Jace, gave me hugs, asked me a million questions, and told me that they would miss me.
We ate at the pizza place out on the patio, which was filled with kids hanging all over their mothers, the tables, and running in and out of the surrounding areas outside. It was a little cool outside that night, but I was always hot, so it felt good. Alena, as usual, didn’t bring a sweater, so was cold. I was practically sweating due to hormones and excessive weight gain. Jon ordered a pitcher of beer for everyone, except for me, of course. It seemed like people kept repeating that I did not need a beer glass in panicked voices, as if I would suddenly forget I was pregnant and start drinking alcohol without abandon after nine alcohol free months. The Prego Pizza was covered with sausage, pepperoni, onions, garlic, red pepper, regular pepper, bell peppers, and everything else imaginable. It gave me severe gas, but that seemed to be it.
The next morning we went to the park to play with Asha. We had a great day just hanging out together. We thought we might go to a festival in a nearby town, but decided against it. We went to Trader Joe’s and Claimjumpers in Concord. We ate enormous amounts of good food. After just the salads, we were already full. That night we started to watch Blue Crush on TV. I cut up some smoked apple swiss cheese, and smoked cheddar to eat with my favorite rosemary flavored Wisecrackers. After five minutes of the movie, I felt something. I ran to the bathroom and my water broke all over the floor. Now, maybe it was the Scippolini’s, maybe it was the enormous lunch, maybe it was the excessive weight gain, who knows? I had been ready….until then! I was eight days early. I was not expecting it, right then!
We called the hospital and they told us to come right in since my water had broken. We already had our stuff packed. I called our immediate families on the way over in the car.
Labor took forever. I had read that you should bring cards and other things to keep your mind off of it. I can’t imagine who could play cards or do anything while in labor! I had Uno in my suitcase and let me tell you, it never left the package. My family and Jon’s family came right away. My sister distracted me by showing me pictures of babies in a magazine and telling me to pick the cutest ones, etc. Everyone else was kinda stressing me out. Some people were arguing; people were talking about history; people were complaining about mundane things and I just kept thinking, oh poor you! After this, I decided that I only wanted Jon there in the delivery room.
Jon turned on VH1 for me and for some reason, Lindsay Lohan was in practically every show! There was the Diary of Lindsay Lohan, she was hosting something, I don’t know, but after eighteen hours, I started noticing she was in everything. For months afterward, I thought I might hate her through association, very Pavlovian.
After many, many hours of waiting to push, I was already tired. They gave me Stayonal. That was the only good period of time. I laughed at a few things. They finally gave me an epidural at six centimeters. Hours passed. They induced me. The labor nurse’s name was Edna. She was a short, Hispanic woman who was very patient and calm. She kept telling me that it was almost time, but then it wouldn’t happen. Finally, it was time to push.
I pushed as hard as I could, but it was hard and I had back labor, which felt kind of like someone crushing your spine with a brick. Jon was calm and kept me focused. In fact, the only time he freaked out was when they put the needle in my back for the epidural. He said he felt like he was going to black out. He told me exactly what to do. He’d say, “Push now. Keep going. Breathe. Push again before the contraction is over.” He gave me ice chips and held my hand.
After many hours of pushing and Edna telling me she thought she might have seen the very top of the baby’s head and Jon agreeing in a non-convincing tone, I couldn’t take it any more. I tried every position. I forgot all about breathing and starting swearing and screaming. I told them I didn’t want to do it anymore! I was thrashing around because of the back labor and one of the times I tried to change positions, I grabbed Jon’s crotch and squeezed it, like I’d been squeezing his hand earlier. He didn’t even say anything, but told me later it was extremely painful. I told him to find the anesthesiologist and make her give me more drugs NOW! She had told me she didn’t want to give me any more and I wanted to kill her. After she witnessed me screaming for awhile, she gave them to me.
Finally, after eighteen hours of labor, I told them I wanted a C-section. I told them to please, please let me stop doing it. Dr. Stewert came in. My normal doctor, Dr. Yee, was in San Francisco visiting her mom, a week early for mother’s day. Dr. Stewert was very calm. I screamed, cried and then calmly told her I didn’t want to do it any more. After talking to me, accessing how crazy I was, and learning that Jace was predicted to be a pretty large baby, she said that a C-section, might in fact happen. She told me that before we got to that point, she was going to use forceps and that I was going to have to push my hardest.
Jace was finally born after about twenty more minutes of pushing. As soon as we saw him, both Jon and I cried. He didn’t cry at first and I was scared, because I had read about Apgar and knew that was important. When they took Jace over to weigh him and wipe him off, he finally cried. I felt so relieved. They told us that the cord was wrapped around his neck three times and that his blood pressure had dropped. I’m glad they didn’t tell me or I might have been too afraid to push hard enough.
His head was bruised from the forceps and was misshapen from the birth canal, but I swear, he was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. I had read about how some parents expected to feel an immediate love for their baby and then felt more like they were being introduced to a stranger. That wasn’t me. As soon as I looked at his little face, as soon as I held him, and he opened his eyes, pushed his neck way up, and stuck his tongue in and out, already rooting for milk, I loved him. I loved him more than I could ever explain—his little chin and lips, the way Jon looked at him, it was all the way it should be.
Both of our families came in a few at a time, very quietly. I knew I looked like hell, but I didn’t even care. I was so happy it was over. I felt like people were staring at me. I thought maybe they had heard the extent of the swearwords I kept repeating over and over. Eventually, both families were there in the room--Jon’s immediate family and almost all of my extended family. They gave me a gardenia and a plant.
A little later, after everyone had left, the hospital brought me food, but it looked like the most disgusting thing I’d ever seen. I can still see the greasy, glossy chicken leg and the over steamed veggies staring out from under the metal cover. Later that night, Jon went to get me Jack in the Box curly fries and a strawberry banana milkshake. (I’d been craving banana milkshakes my whole pregnancy.) The shake machine was broken, so he brought me about a gallon of orange soda, which I didn’t even really drink. We watched our favorite shows, Viva La Bam and WildBoyz on TV in the same bed. My nurse that night laughed at how were both in the tiny bed together. She was really sweet and taught me how to nurse Jace. She was my favorite nurse out of all of them.
People keep telling me I can guilt Jace about the eighteen hours of labor when he’s in high school, but I don’t think I will. After all, I’m sure the experience wasn’t too fun for him either. He was in there fairly peacefully and then got ripped out with huge metal tongs. I’m sure most of his days of sleeping, kicking and eating were much better than that day. Thank god, he had all those Claimjumpers mashed potatoes to keep him going.
On Friday night, April 30, 2004, Jon and I planned to go to Scippolini’s Pizza and have the Prego Pizza with his parents and Alena, his sis. It was urban legend that the Prego Pizza would send any woman into labor right away. I was sick of being pregnant. We had been talking about Scippolini’s blissfully for weeks. I had gained fifty seven pounds, when you are actually only supposed to gain about thirty five. I was huge and could barely move. My ankles and feet were so swollen I dreaded walking across campus. I worked that Friday and my students gave me tons of presents for Jace, gave me hugs, asked me a million questions, and told me that they would miss me.
We ate at the pizza place out on the patio, which was filled with kids hanging all over their mothers, the tables, and running in and out of the surrounding areas outside. It was a little cool outside that night, but I was always hot, so it felt good. Alena, as usual, didn’t bring a sweater, so was cold. I was practically sweating due to hormones and excessive weight gain. Jon ordered a pitcher of beer for everyone, except for me, of course. It seemed like people kept repeating that I did not need a beer glass in panicked voices, as if I would suddenly forget I was pregnant and start drinking alcohol without abandon after nine alcohol free months. The Prego Pizza was covered with sausage, pepperoni, onions, garlic, red pepper, regular pepper, bell peppers, and everything else imaginable. It gave me severe gas, but that seemed to be it.
The next morning we went to the park to play with Asha. We had a great day just hanging out together. We thought we might go to a festival in a nearby town, but decided against it. We went to Trader Joe’s and Claimjumpers in Concord. We ate enormous amounts of good food. After just the salads, we were already full. That night we started to watch Blue Crush on TV. I cut up some smoked apple swiss cheese, and smoked cheddar to eat with my favorite rosemary flavored Wisecrackers. After five minutes of the movie, I felt something. I ran to the bathroom and my water broke all over the floor. Now, maybe it was the Scippolini’s, maybe it was the enormous lunch, maybe it was the excessive weight gain, who knows? I had been ready….until then! I was eight days early. I was not expecting it, right then!
We called the hospital and they told us to come right in since my water had broken. We already had our stuff packed. I called our immediate families on the way over in the car.
Labor took forever. I had read that you should bring cards and other things to keep your mind off of it. I can’t imagine who could play cards or do anything while in labor! I had Uno in my suitcase and let me tell you, it never left the package. My family and Jon’s family came right away. My sister distracted me by showing me pictures of babies in a magazine and telling me to pick the cutest ones, etc. Everyone else was kinda stressing me out. Some people were arguing; people were talking about history; people were complaining about mundane things and I just kept thinking, oh poor you! After this, I decided that I only wanted Jon there in the delivery room.
Jon turned on VH1 for me and for some reason, Lindsay Lohan was in practically every show! There was the Diary of Lindsay Lohan, she was hosting something, I don’t know, but after eighteen hours, I started noticing she was in everything. For months afterward, I thought I might hate her through association, very Pavlovian.
After many, many hours of waiting to push, I was already tired. They gave me Stayonal. That was the only good period of time. I laughed at a few things. They finally gave me an epidural at six centimeters. Hours passed. They induced me. The labor nurse’s name was Edna. She was a short, Hispanic woman who was very patient and calm. She kept telling me that it was almost time, but then it wouldn’t happen. Finally, it was time to push.
I pushed as hard as I could, but it was hard and I had back labor, which felt kind of like someone crushing your spine with a brick. Jon was calm and kept me focused. In fact, the only time he freaked out was when they put the needle in my back for the epidural. He said he felt like he was going to black out. He told me exactly what to do. He’d say, “Push now. Keep going. Breathe. Push again before the contraction is over.” He gave me ice chips and held my hand.
After many hours of pushing and Edna telling me she thought she might have seen the very top of the baby’s head and Jon agreeing in a non-convincing tone, I couldn’t take it any more. I tried every position. I forgot all about breathing and starting swearing and screaming. I told them I didn’t want to do it anymore! I was thrashing around because of the back labor and one of the times I tried to change positions, I grabbed Jon’s crotch and squeezed it, like I’d been squeezing his hand earlier. He didn’t even say anything, but told me later it was extremely painful. I told him to find the anesthesiologist and make her give me more drugs NOW! She had told me she didn’t want to give me any more and I wanted to kill her. After she witnessed me screaming for awhile, she gave them to me.
Finally, after eighteen hours of labor, I told them I wanted a C-section. I told them to please, please let me stop doing it. Dr. Stewert came in. My normal doctor, Dr. Yee, was in San Francisco visiting her mom, a week early for mother’s day. Dr. Stewert was very calm. I screamed, cried and then calmly told her I didn’t want to do it any more. After talking to me, accessing how crazy I was, and learning that Jace was predicted to be a pretty large baby, she said that a C-section, might in fact happen. She told me that before we got to that point, she was going to use forceps and that I was going to have to push my hardest.
Jace was finally born after about twenty more minutes of pushing. As soon as we saw him, both Jon and I cried. He didn’t cry at first and I was scared, because I had read about Apgar and knew that was important. When they took Jace over to weigh him and wipe him off, he finally cried. I felt so relieved. They told us that the cord was wrapped around his neck three times and that his blood pressure had dropped. I’m glad they didn’t tell me or I might have been too afraid to push hard enough.
His head was bruised from the forceps and was misshapen from the birth canal, but I swear, he was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. I had read about how some parents expected to feel an immediate love for their baby and then felt more like they were being introduced to a stranger. That wasn’t me. As soon as I looked at his little face, as soon as I held him, and he opened his eyes, pushed his neck way up, and stuck his tongue in and out, already rooting for milk, I loved him. I loved him more than I could ever explain—his little chin and lips, the way Jon looked at him, it was all the way it should be.
Both of our families came in a few at a time, very quietly. I knew I looked like hell, but I didn’t even care. I was so happy it was over. I felt like people were staring at me. I thought maybe they had heard the extent of the swearwords I kept repeating over and over. Eventually, both families were there in the room--Jon’s immediate family and almost all of my extended family. They gave me a gardenia and a plant.
A little later, after everyone had left, the hospital brought me food, but it looked like the most disgusting thing I’d ever seen. I can still see the greasy, glossy chicken leg and the over steamed veggies staring out from under the metal cover. Later that night, Jon went to get me Jack in the Box curly fries and a strawberry banana milkshake. (I’d been craving banana milkshakes my whole pregnancy.) The shake machine was broken, so he brought me about a gallon of orange soda, which I didn’t even really drink. We watched our favorite shows, Viva La Bam and WildBoyz on TV in the same bed. My nurse that night laughed at how were both in the tiny bed together. She was really sweet and taught me how to nurse Jace. She was my favorite nurse out of all of them.
People keep telling me I can guilt Jace about the eighteen hours of labor when he’s in high school, but I don’t think I will. After all, I’m sure the experience wasn’t too fun for him either. He was in there fairly peacefully and then got ripped out with huge metal tongs. I’m sure most of his days of sleeping, kicking and eating were much better than that day. Thank god, he had all those Claimjumpers mashed potatoes to keep him going.
