Saturday, October 20, 2007
Guest Blogging: Daddy Tmlens reporting
So, Victoria wants the blogosphere to know that we are currently at the hospital with labor well in progress, hoping to see Cletus before the end of the day (before lunch, at the rate things are going!). Mom's doing well so far, loving the whole epidural thing, and finally getting a little rest. The breakdown: she's 8-9cms dilated, 100% effaced, the baby's at zero station, and the midwife broke her water a few minutes ago.It's been a bit of a whirlwind. We had (of course) Mexican food for dinner last night, and VW was already cramping when we were eating. Some contractions started in earnest about 8 or so, and the stopwatch came out soon after. We tried to watch a movie, although it didn't provide much more than distraction for Victoria, who was pretty seriously hurting. The contractions weren't regular, varying anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes in between, and after a bath and some serious hydration began to diminish after a couple of hours. So we sez, another set of Braxton Hicks. As they wore down, we decided to try to get a few hours of rest (just in case they were the Real Thing), and went to bed.
Because, see, Victoria had a bargain with Cletus: either Friday evening, or Saturday morning. She's sick of work, sick of the temp (see below), and SICK of being pregnant. And this is obviously a mom who knows her daughter, because...
...at 2:58 a.m. Victoria woke up with a start (which means that I woke up with a start) with an intense contraction. They started coming in waves, every three and a half minutes or so, lasting between 30 seconds and a minute. We timed things for a little while, and I tried to help through what were obviously some extremely painful contractions. About half an hour later, we called the midwife, who advised a shower, Tylenol, and hydration, and to try to sleep, since the contractions still weren't entirely consistent. Shower didn't help, walking didn't help (made things worse!), and the contractions were agonizing. So I began to scramble to get all of our things together which was easy because, well, we're smart and had everything pretty much packed.
4:39 a.m.: we roll out of the driveway on the way to the hospital, arriving maybe ten minutes later. Apart from there being no valet for the car (um, no, I'm not going to go park my car while my wife is in labor, thanks) and my leaving the keys in the hand of a security guard, things went very swiftly and she was in a room and in a bed and gown within 30 minutes. The midwife was in a few minutes later, examined her, and told us Victoria was already 6cm dilated.
There was no question on the epidural: Victoria said she would go as long as she could without, and she had. It was agonizing for me to watch how much she was hurting, and nothing helped (she was being amazingly brave, though, far more than I think she realizes; I'm so proud of her). So it was epidural time; that came about an hour ago, and it's been bliss since then.
Our last check-in with the midwife was about half an hour ago, when they broke her water. So now Mom is finally sleeping a bit, saving up her energy for the big push ahead. If all goes well, and all considered, everything has been going amazingly well, we should meet our little girl in a few hours.
Send your prayers and wishes our way. I'll update again when I'm a daddy.
The Huz
Labels: pregnancy
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