Labor and Delivery Details

If you don't really care about labor details, just skip this post! Go look at the other one with pictures and Eric in a sweet hat.

But if you do, here's the story... (and by the way our doctor and all the Thai nurses were so wonderful!)

So we'd done our research, read our books, and practiced our exercises. We had our birth plan including no IVs, no inducing, no drugs, no episiotomy, etc. We were ready for natural child birth... and for our son to come early.

But it really didn't happen that way at all. First, he was late. Like a week and a half late, and as time started ticking, we started talking about inducing - aka giving me an IV with oxytocin to start contractions. We finally decided to induce this past Monday if nothing happened before that. We had a couple appointments leading up to Monday where the doctor worked to help get my body ready, but still nothing.

Monday morning we packed up and even walked to the hospital hoping the extra walking would help move the baby along. We checked in at 9 am and started the IV. Little did we know that it doesn't always work! We spent the day watching movies and tv shows, sitting on the birthing ball, and walking around with my IV waiting for the big contractions. By 9 pm there was still nothing significant happening, so the doctor decided to stop the IV and try again Tuesday.

We slept well despite the nurses constantly coming in and out, and at 8 am started again. This day went a bit differently. By noon I was in labor, starting to get painful contractions and had thrown up a couple times. By 2:30 pm I was crying for that epidural. Eric tried to get me to hold out, but by 3:00 pm they checked my dilation and we were signing papers for the anesthesiologist.

It was amazing. Truly. The pain was gone, yet my body kept working. (My right leg was so numb that during the exams it would just fall over.) A couple hours later I was dilated to 7 and then 10. They do epidurals a little differently here, but basically when it was time to push I was still a little numb.

During the next hour and a half it wore off though, and I got worn out. His head had showed up quickly, so it looked like it was going to go fast. I had gotten really excited! Unfortunately though he was turned sideways most of the time. This meant inefficient pushing which made me tired and made them decide to use the vacuum. At that point I really didn't care. I wanted him out! So ok, it was finally going to happen. They had to move me to a different room and get things ready. And then the vacuum kept losing suction. I was so unhappy. A few contractions later I heard a couple snip snips. I couldn't be sure what that was (nor did I care), but soon after that he came out! First the head, pause, and then the rest of his body. I was so excited. Eric got to cut the umbilical cord, and we got to hold him right away. The placenta followed shortly afterwards. And then... I got to be sewn up. Yep, those snip snips were that episiotomy that I didn't want either...

So now it's 24 hours later. Wow... We have one more night at the hospital. We've changed those meconium diapers and cleaned the umbilical cord. We're working on nursing. We haven't slept much. Well, Malachi has. It's pretty much his favorite thing to do. We've had a couple visitors. We got his Thai birth certificate. Tomorrow it'll be translated into English for us, and then we quickly head to our appointment at the US Consulate to register his birth and apply for his passport. Lord willing, his passport will arrive quickly, and then we'll go to the other consulate to get his visa. And then when all that is done, him and I will be off! (Eric's heading back a little earlier.) Pretty much crazyness. If I survive March I'll be doing well. :)