Our little LRB (email me at eastasiabrowns@pobox.com if you would like to know his full name) was born June 4th. He weighed 8 pounds, 1 ounce and he is perfect! If you want to know the whole story, please read on. (KB has not proof read this yet, so please just ignore my typos)
My mom arrived in Bangkok late Sunday evening. We spent Monday helping her stay awake, visiting and eating. Tuesday afternoon KB and I kissed the kids goodbye, put our hospital bag in a taxi and headed to the hospital hoping that I would have the baby that night. I am not sure why, but my doctor only has night clinic hours. Upon seeing her she said that over the last 5 days I had dilated to a 3 (yea!) and said she was willing to give me a Cervidil. She said since last time I was so responsive to it, she did not want to give me the full dose. All I could think was, "I hope this works" and I was really thinking that as they stuck the epidural needle in my back - they never checked to see if I was really was responding to the medication. However, fortunately it did. Although I continued to have steady 5 minute apart Braxton Hicks contractions for about 15-20 minutes after she gave me the pill, at about 21 minutes I felt a contraction at a level of pain that let me know I had made the transition into labor.
Soon after they wheeled me up to my room (I really wanted to walk so I could intensify/speed things along, but they said no), and within minutes I was in my hospital gown. Not too much later I was greeted by an anesthesiologist who to my delight was willing to give me a walking epidural. Although the feel of a needle being inserted into my spine is not something I hope to ever feel again, I was pretty pleased with the results. I could feel my legs and feet. Initially I could feel my uterus contract but it was without pain...later there was significant pain but that is what I wanted when I asked for that kind of epidural.
Soon after the epidural I was dilated to about 5 and they broke my water. About when I dilated to a 7 my doctor arrived. After looking at my fetal heart monitor printout she told me she thought the cord was around his neck, so for the next little bit they had me rolling around on the bed to relieve pressure from the cord and they made me breath a certain way to get more oxygen to him. At that time they gave me some Pitocin to help me pound out those last 3 centimeters to get our little boy out faster. It worked very well.
Within minutes of the Pitocin I felt a lot of pain and I told them I thought was time to push. To their surprise it was. He came out in 1 and 1/2 pushes - No, that is not a typo. All in all, from the moment she put the Cervidil in me to the moment LRB was born, 4 hours had passed - although drug assisted, it was the fastest labor I have ever had. Also, I am really glad I only had a walking epidural or rolling around on the bed would have been a bit tricky with not being able to feel my body and all. It turns out the cord was not around his neck, but the cord was a bit short and he was laying on it. Once the water broke all of his weight on it was preventing good flow of oxygen.
Two days later we went home and are beginning to learn what it means to have three kids...but I think the weight of responsibility will really hit once Gigi leaves. I am scared. Anyways, we are enjoying our days of getting to know the newest member of our family. We all think he is a keeper.
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