Better Late Than Never

I know I should have done this 2 weeks and 4 days ago, but give me a break! I had a baby! Here are the details: Madigan Ruth Halaby was born at 1:44 p.m. on Saturday, February 20, 2010. She weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce, and was 21 inches long. She was born with dark blue eyes and long dark hair (well, long in back anyway; it was sort of a mullet) with blond streaks. She prompted all sorts of comments about her size. The doctor pulled her out and held her up by her feet, saying, "I should charge by the pound!" The nurse measuring her tried desperately to fit Maddie's footprints onto the baby book page--barely. Trish and Jalal were there to help me bring her into the world, thank God for them. The laboring didn't go exactly as planned or hoped, but the end result was perfect. [Warning: Detailed labor story will follow. If you are not interested in this information, skip to the next paragraph.] We started the Pitocin at 7 a.m. that morning. After having fantastic nurses the day before and overnight, the nurse with us during labor was, well, lacking. She seemed like she could care less about my pain, and just kept knocking the dosage on the Pitocin higher and higher. Jalal and Trish helped me fight for getting out of bed and at least sitting on a birthing ball or changing position. I started the day at 3 cm dilated. After hours of laboring, I was hurting pretty bad. I could not catch my breath between contractions, and the monitor wasn't picking them up, so I didn't know when they were going to hit. Jalal and I had worked out a safe word for pain medication, so he didn't give in too easily. I really wanted to go without an epidural, and considering we did it with Quinn, I thought it was possible again. At around noon or so, I finally decided I had had enough, which was actually our safe word. He suggested we find out how far dilated I was at that point, thinking that I would be disappointed if I requested an epidural at 7 or 8 cm (he was right). So we asked Nurse Could Care Less to check me again. She did, and said I was at 4 cm. After 5 hours, about 3 of which were spent in a lot of severe discomfort, and I had only progressed one centimeter! At that point, I was ready to be out of pain and able to rest. So I ordered an epidural. Unfortunately, while my legs got nice and heavy, I still had pretty significant pain from my contractions. After another dose of the epidural medicine, the "hot spot" got a little smaller, but I still had painful contractions in the center of my abdomen. I kept thinking, Come on! If I'm going to give in and get an epidural, I at least want to feel no pain, right? I felt like such a baby because I was still complaining about the pain, and I could swear that the contractions were as bad at four centimeters as when I was in transition with Quinn. The nurse decided to check me again, and she said, "Oh, well, that explains the pain. You're at 10 cm." This was about an hour after I was at 4 cm. Yeah, I'd say that explains the pain. I had to hold on a while longer until they could get the doctor in there, and then I had to push twice. Within 20 minutes, Maddie was born!

So while it didn't go as planned, and it hurt a whole lot to get from 3 to 4 cm, going from 4 to 10 was pretty fast, and I didn't have the "burning ring of fire" that I had pushing Quinn out. I wasn't quite as delirious this time around, so it was a very different experience immediately after the birth. I will post more soon about the last couple of weeks, but I wanted to get the basics out before I got too many complaints. Love, Us (all four of us!!).