The Gory Details (Warning TMI Ahead)!

I know you've been on pins and needles to hear every gory detail of our third child's birth. Okay probably not, but I'm going to give them anyway. Honestly I find people's birth stories to be completely fascinating so if you are weird like me, enjoy.

I woke up bright and early and got showered and ready. We did our final packing and headed off to the hospital. They took us right up to our room where I got in my skivies and we got to work. By 8:00 in the morning the nurse started me on Pitocin. I asked her about when I could get my epidural and she said pretty much when it got too painful. So for the next 5 hours I just hung out. I was having contractions every 2 to 4 minutes but they were not painful. I read my book and watched some TV. In that time my doctor came in and broke my water and said I could get some food if I wanted, but to be sure it wasn't anything that would be too awful coming back up. I was pretty hungry by 10:30 so I ordered a bagel and yogurt. I was still totally starving and by 1:00 I decided to order a little more food. In the 1:00 hour the contractions started to get a little more painful. I decided I would just wait for my food and then after that I would ask for the epidural. The nurse came in to get me started on my epidural at the same time as my food and I opted to just eat quickly (this tells you how much pain I was in at that time). Well by the time I finished my food the contractions got a lot stronger fast. I was totally ready for my epidural. We got set up and the anesthesiologist started working fast and furious. He was really quick but my contractions kept getting stronger and I was crying and gripping the bed through each and every one. He finished up and left. Meanwhile I was feeling no relief. My nurse said that it should be working within 20 minutes. 17 minutes had gone by and I was still crying and gripping the bed. She gave a call to the doc for a second dose. As soon as she finished with that I yelled out that I was going to "poo my pants." (Told you it was TMI). Anyway I exclaimed it again and which point the nurse said "no dear you are having this baby right now." (Scott note: Mitzi doesn't seem to recall this part, but after her "poo my pants" comment, the nurse decided to check her cervix to see if she was ready to have the baby and instead felt the baby's head already on it's way down. That's when she said "no, dear, you are just going to have this baby now." At least, that's how I remember it.) Complete and total panic set in. I have never planned on having a natural birth, I do not tolerate pain well at all. The nurse called my doctor and within 2 minutes my doctor along with several other nurses came in the room. I was yelling and crying and completely panicking. My doctor and the nurses had to yell instructions to me to which I would yell back a panicked "What?!" Anyway within 5 minutes my sweet baby was born. I can't really explain the amount of panic, pain, and adrenaline that I felt at that time. But thankfully it was fast and furious. As they were handing Piper up to me I thought she looked just like Corbin. After that they checked her and she was kind of struggling a little bit with her breathing. They were going to actually take her to the NICU but within 5 minutes she was fine. My arms shook for about an hour afterward because of the adrenaline rush.

I was so shocked to have the baby that fast I thought I would get my epidural and have several more hours to kill before the baby would come. I didn't think I was going to have her until 7:00 that night. I don't even know what I was dilated to before the epidural, my nurse was going to check my progress after the shot. So to say I was unprepared is a bit of an understatement.

I had a huge blood clot and was bleeding pretty badly for just a bit but luckily I got over that really quickly too. During the delivery the anesthesiologist came in and gave me a second dose of the epidural. It didn't kick in in time to help with the pain, but lucky for me after I had the baby I couldn't move my legs for several hours or stand for about 8 hours. So with the epidural I got the pain from the shot, the numb legs, the sore back, and the $1000 bill, but no relief. Good times. I will say that I'm glad this happened though because I would never choose to have a baby naturally by myself but I did it and survived. Not only that but it's true the recovery is so much better. I have had no pain in my nethers and was lucky enough not to tear or need an episiotomy.

Meanwhile Scott and I just relaxed and enjoyed the rest of our stay in the hospital. I decided to take advantage of the hospital nursery and stay an extra night. Hart and Jory have had our kids since Thursday night and they are coming back tomorrow morning. I miss them. Let the juggling act begin.

We got some devastating news from Scott's mom on Saturday night while we were at the hospital. It turns out Scott's sister was in a serious accident while riding a scooter and sustained several critical head injuries. Check out this post here. Please pray for her.