Here's Gibby

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Norfolk, VA, United States
Just a girl from Mississippi who married a Sailor. Most people consider me weird and I consider most weird people normal.

23 February 2011

Amelia's Arrival

Well it has been a very long time since I have blogged but reading Cathryn’s blog made me remember my birth story.

Amelia was due on April 17th 2010. I had her on April 23rd. Going went a week past my due date I was mad as a hornet. People at work are asking me everyday why I am at work and when is the baby is going to pop out. One guy even poked my belly with a pencil, I almost slapped him. My mom had been trying to plan her flight around Amelia’s due date but she didn’t want to schedule her flight for before the due date then have to leave early. My mom’s flight was to arrive at 8 pm Thursday April 22.

I had been having mild contractions since Wednesday night and by Thursday at 6pm I was having contractions every 7-10 minutes. They were light but I wasn’t sure how hard they would get since I had never had a baby. I called my grandma and she said to go to the hospital. So I had my neighbor drive me to the hospital and then pick my mom up from the airport. She had never met my mom so I told her to look for an older version of me and it worked. I get to the hospital and sign in and I am there a few hours before they send me home since I am only dilated about 2 cm.

We went to dinner at Denny’s and I get spicy chicken strips and biscuits and gravy. My pregnant friend Jocelynn is also with us and she is drinking a giant chocolate milk shake. Next mom and I go back to my place and I try and go to sleep but I am pacing the floor. I just keep walking back and forth and bending over the chair so mom says that’s it and we go to the hospital again. It is 4 am this time and I check in and I am dilated 4 cm so they emit me. I take a few walks around the ward of the hospital. Then my nurse Rebecca arrives around 6am and gets me in the shower to relax. I stay in there a while trying to manage through the contractions. Around 9 am Jocelynn arrives and I talk to matt on the phone. I am still doing ok and am still convinced I can make it without drugs. I am talking to Matt and breathing….then when contractions come I am just starring at the light bulb and breathing and moving my legs. I do this for a while and around 11 am my mom talks me into getting some drugs. I talked to the dr and ask him how much longer. He says at the rate I was going (dilating one cm per hr it will be 3 before I am ready to push then even longer to push it out) about 5 more hours. When he says that I ask for the drugs.

I ask the nurse what my options are and she says the drug that could also drug Amelia or the epidural. I am thinking about it and tell her the epidural because I didn’t want to drug Amelia. It takes 2 hours for the drugs to get to me because there is an emergency and all the anesthesiologist are in the ER. By the time I got an epidural I was dilated 8cm. In the middle of me getting the epidural I had a contraction and the dr had to wait till it was over to give it to me. After I got that it was like I didn’t have a pain in the world. I started laughing and talking to Matt on the phone and I felt great.

My mom keeps looking at the contractions on the monitor and says they are getting heavy. I don’t feel them of course. Then I start feeling a slight pressure and heavier pressure and I tell mom that I feel like I need to push. The nurse comes in and she checks me and says yes it is time. It is about 3 pm at this time. The nurse brings all the equipment in and gets the midwife to come and I begin pushing. I push and I push and I push and two hours later I am still pushing. They have maxed out how much patosin I am getting. Amelia was turned sideways plus she had both her hands up to her chin making her head come out with her chin up instead of down. They kept trying to turn her and turn her head but they couldn’t get it. Finally the mid wife had to give me an episiotomy to get her out and out she came. The midwife was not supposed to do that but all the doctors on call were in the ER so she had to do it to get Amelia out. As soon as I saw her I was laughing and crying all at the same time.

She was screaming and looked just like matt did in his baby pictures. It was love at first site. I felt an unbelievable feeling of love for her. They cleaned her off and my mom got to cut her cord. My mom was such a trouper and so was Jocelynn. They helped out a lot while I pushed. I had one foot in moms arms and one in the nurses arms and I was bearing down. My mom said it looked totally different from that end. We were all crying and happy it was finally over. So at 5:15 pm exactly Amelia Belle Roeder was born. It was 1:15 am in Dubai where her father had been on the speaker phone the whole time. I wouldn’t let them take her out of my room the whole time. I wouldn’t let her out of my site. I slept with one hand on her consoling her through the night. She cried a lot since she wasn’t getting much milk from me.

Getting up for the first time after having your insides fall out was a site and feeling I didn’t prepare for. Around 7pm the nurse came in to bathe Amelia and to get me up after the Epidural wore off so I could walk and go to the bathroom. I remember getting up and looking at where I was sitting and it looked like some murder scene off CSI. I almost puked and passed out. Then I had to sit on the toilet and pee. I am telling you that wiping your VaJayJay after it has gone through that is quite the experience. They give you a saddle to wear and a bag of ice and a pair of granny panties and a water bottle all to help you feel less comfortable when you sit and when you go potty. Well all those things help but you still feel uncomfortable. So you squirt the water down there you don’t wipe….then you put the huge saddle in the granny panties and the ice pack on top of that and all while you have an iv attached to your hand that hurts! And trebly legs and a gown with your ass hanging out. You really don’t care who sees what at this point since everyone has just seen all of you for a long time so you let your ass continue to hang out.

The nurses come in every hour to check you and the baby and to push on your stomach and check your VaJayJay and your stitches and make sure you go potty. They check how often you and your baby go number one and number two.

We never could get her to latch on for some reason. After many contractions and many nurses and many tears we gave up on the breastfeeding feeling defeated and broken. Amelia was born exactly 24 hrs to the minute after her cousin Alyssa. My sister had her baby 5 weeks early in an emergency csection 24 hours before in Mississippi and my mom was there for that and then jumped on a plane and was here for Amelia too. That was one crazy week. We took Amelia home and my dad drove 14 hrs straight to see her. He got to Va at midnight and just had to see her. Of course I was up feeding Amelia. We took Amelia to a few dr’s visits for weight checks. She was born 7lb 7 oz but dropped to 6lb 10 oz when she left the hospital two days later. Then we headed for Mississippi on what would be the longest most stressful road trip I have ever been on. I will separate that one into another blog….lol