Mazotti Memories & Mishaps: 8.28.09

OK, now that I have had a moment to catch my breath and settle in at home I am ready to re-live 8.28.09. For those of you who have called to check on me I am sorry that I have not returned your calls. I am just too exhausted to repeat the "labor story" again. So here it is...
I went to the doctor at 1pm on Thursday, August 27th and AJ was moving down but I had only gone from 2 centimeters dilated to 3. The doctor stripped the membranes and told me if it was going to work I would be in labor sometime within the next 24-48 hours. At 6pm that evening I felt my first contraction. I went for a walk. I felt more contractions. I went for another walk. By 9:30pm I knew that we should head to the hospital.
When I showed up at the hospital I was dilated to a 4. After hooking me up to the monitors and checking the contractions for about an hour and a half I was moved to a room. I told the doctor that I wanted my epidural ASAP. Apparently someone else had the nerve to have a baby the same night / day and they were ahead of me on the epidural list. The contractions came on super strong. Then the pressure came. Between the pain and the pressure I could not focus on any one area. I dilated from a 4 to an 8 within 45 minutes and was still waiting for the epidural. I have never felt that much pain in my life. I was half crying, half yelling, half begging for my life. I kept telling the nurse that "she didn't understand" and "I need an epidural now!" I was saying things like "Oh My God" and "I Can't Do This" over and over. I was literally freaking out. Finally the anesthesiologist came in an administered my epidural. She hit the nerve and I felt an electric shock go down my right leg that locked my hip into place. Now my hip was killing me. Then another shock down the right leg. I thought "OK, only like 5 more contractions and I won't feel a thing." 25minutes later (and dilated to a 9) I was still feeling everything. Finally the anesthesiologist said "screw this, it should be working by now I need to do it over." So it was epidural take 2. Just when I thought that I was going to die I realized that I could not feel my legs. Sweet relief.
End of story right? Not so. As with Cienna, epidurals make my blood pressure crash. So within 5 minutes both my and AJ's blood pressure dropped dramatically. They called for every doctor and nurse in the maternity ward to come down to my room. They kicked Tony out. They started administering the Epinephrine like it was going out of style. Finally they were able to stabilize AJ but not me. For the next hour and a half they kept pumping me full of meds to try to bring my blood pressure back up. In the midst of all of this I dilated to a 10 and they told me to start pushing. Then the doctor asked if I had been in an accident that would have injured my right hip and I told her no. She said that there was something "funky" with my right hip and it curved inward which make it almost impossible for me to birth a baby the "old fashioned way." She said that I could continue to try to push but it was going to be from the OR just in case.
So now I am being wheeled into the OR and my blood pressure is still not stable but I still have hope of pushing baby boy out. After 10 minutes of pushing the doctor told me that it wasn't going to happen. A half hour later I heard his sweet cry. C-sections are not the best for baby bonding...you can't see your child until they show you (which in my case was about 3-4 minutes after first hearing the cry) and then they don't let you hold the baby because they have to stitch you up. And if everything that I had been through wasn't enough they thought they nicked my bladder again! It was like to deja vu from my experience with Cienna (minus dilating to a 9 before getting an epidural and I had an emergency c-section for a totally different reason) but everything else from the blood pressure crashing to the bladder nicking was the same.
Once I was finally able to hold AJ I realized how in love with him I am. He is cute beyond words. He smells amazing. And he snuggles like nobody's business. He doesn't cry like a baby....he squeaks like a tiny mouse. I am totally obsessed.
My mom has been here since the 26th helping me around the house and with the kids. OMG. Kids (plural!) Saying it (or typing it) out loud is crazy weird. I can't believe that I have kids! She is staying until the 10th and I can't thank her enough. Yesterday she vacuumed my house, mopped my floors, ran around Little Gym with Cienna and watered my plants. Today she washed sheets, mended clothes and dragged a screaming toddler through the mall that kept screaming that she needed ice cream when she really needed a nap. And on her birthday none the less. Thanks mom! I love ya!
I am so happy that I have my perfect little family. I have an amazing husband (who grocery shopped for me yesterday, got up with AJ in the middle of the night to bring him to me and then got up when Cienna couldn't find her "B" at 2 in the morning), my adorable daughter who makes me laugh every single day, and my mellow baby boy who we call AJ. I couldn't be happier than I am right now!
And now for some pics!