Penelope Hope

I had some pretty awful contractions Saturday morning. My midwife came to check me, and there really wasn't anything going on with my cervix. Then the contractions petered out, again. I was in a really bad place emotionally, and just couldn't deal with any of it anymore. My CNM prescribed some muscle relaxers to hopefully get the contractions to stop so that I could get a little sleep, but they really didn't do anything. I got into the birthing tub, hoping that would help, but the contractions were still coming strong, but not close together. After agonizing over things, talking to both my midwives, and talking things over with Rick, we decided to go to the hospital in hopes of getting an epidural to give me a break from the pain and to allow me to get some sleep.

I was getting ready for the epidural when the doctor walked in and said that Miss Muffet was having decels after each contraction. The doctor, I've got a few other names for her, came in and basically demanded to place an internal monitor. She got really agitated when we had some questions and wanted to discuss things. I'll post all about her another time. After talking to each other and our midwife, we decided to go ahead with the internal monitor, which meant that they had to break my water. Once they did that, they realized that there was very thick meconium in the water, and we basically needed to get baby out ASAP.

I was not thrilled to have another c-section. It was the last thing I wanted, but at least this time, unlike Charlotte's c-section, I knew that it was necessary. The surgery itself wasn't as bad as Charlotte's surgery, even though it took a little bit longer. The doctor removed some scar tissue before getting the baby out. The anesthesiologist was great this time around. With C's surgery, they placed my epidural way too high. My arms and chest were completely numb, and I felt like I was drowning. I had a really hard time breathing. This time my arms weren't numb at all, and I didn't throw up after the epidural or during the surgery.

Unfortunately, the meconium was so thick, everyone kept saying that they'd never seen such thick meconium, that they had a bit of a hard time suctioning the baby. It felt like it took forever before she started crying. She had to go to the special care nursery for oxygen and observation and I didn't get to hold her for 3 hours. The longest 3 hours of my life. Once I was able to go to the nursery, we did skin to skin and nursed. It was a little crazy with her oxygen and IV and my IV, but we managed.

Luckily Penelope did much better than everyone expected and she finally got to join us in my room Sunday evening. Since we were both doing well, I asked to be discharged early, and we went home Monday afternoon.

I'm sore, but not in excruciating pain. Breastfeeding is going really well, despite the aggressive suctioning and the long separations that we had those first 24 hours. I was a little worried initially, because Penelope didn't want to latch very well or for very long, but we persevered, and now she's a pro. My milk is already in. It took much longer with Charlotte.

Not much else to write right now. I'm pretty tired, but very happy.

Born 02/12/2011 at 9:21pm. 6lbs. 5oz., 19.5" long.