Sunny Side Up. 1-19-12

My little girl.

Boop made her arrival at about 10:30pm yesterday.  It was not an easy labor for either of us. It started at 5am, and by the end, I was begging for a C-section. I didn’t get one. Early in the day, we discovered that it would be back labor, aka ‘sunny side up;’ when I heard, all I could do was groan. It’s a very difficult labor as Boop was lying on my spine. Little did I know it at the time, I would have been lucky if that were the only issue.

I was progressing but slowly. By about lunch time, I opted for the epidural as planned. It helped me get through the early part of early labor. The nurse anesthetist did a pretty good job, but it didn’t work very well on the left side. By the time I got to the pushing part, it didn’t feel like I had anything on either side. When they broke my water at about 8pm and I was dilated to 10cm, the intense labor started. I was begging for help. Unfortunately, Boop couldn’t get past my front pelvic bone; her head kept beating against it. She couldn’t clear it, and I was completely exhausted. They opted for vacuum extraction. I still had to push to get far enough for the vacuum to work, and then I had to push with the vacuum.

Poor thing, Boop’s head was a mess. As it turns out, her head was sideways trying to get down the birth canal. Between the vacuum and her sideways head, she had an awful time. Her umbilical cord was wrapped around her head twice. Her skin was really dry. However, she had a good cry. I was so exhausted, I couldn’t even lift my head to see her. Then, they had trouble with the afterbirth. The placenta wouldn’t come out and the doctor had to take it out in small pieces, which was also very painful. One of the nurses asked how far she was past term, due to the condition of the placenta and Boop’s skin. I told her that her due date was really January 23^rd. Then, the midwife had to stitch me up from Boop’s rocky exit, and we lost count of how many stitches she put in. At that point, I was ready to see my dainty little girl, all 7lbs, 13oz. and 20.5 inches of her. I wonder how her looks will change once she’s recovered from all of the trauma. She can only be more adorable.