See what I got for my bday this year.......

Prior to Dylan's arrival, when I first started hearing people refer to such a term as a "birth story," I thought it was a little cheesy. But after my delivery, all of a sudden it all makes sense I am now in the "know" and have a birth story to tell............now I am hearing ladies telling their birth stories right and left and believe it or not, I find them very entertaining becauses each one is unique! So here's how mine goes:

I turned 33 on Wed., Dec. 29th and had a celebration dinner with my cousins at Los Altos Grill. This place serves huge portions of MEAT and I found myself not hungry even though before my eyes were mouth watering ribs, prime rib, coselaw to die for, and herbed mashed potatoes. After dinner David, Bryan and I headed over to the cousins house. On the drive over, Bryan nearly ran off the road - everyone in the car including Bryan screamed. Thank god for that patented Subaru handling! This event is one candidate for inducing the baby early. Then at the cuzins place, we got into a pretty detailed discussion of labor. Danielle and Todd recently had two kids and she was giving us the down low on the labor and delivery. Dave asked Danielle to describe the pain to him in order to give him some reference. She said imagine the worst diarrhea you've ever had, the kind where you're praying to god and times that by two. This event is candidate number 2 for inducing the baby early. Low and behold on our drive home at about midnight, I felt a serious stomache ache coming on... you know like I had eaten something bad and immediately thought it was the Arnold Palmer from the bar, maybe the lemonade was bad or something. My stomache wrenched like 4 times in 10 min. We came home, walked Mags and then I packed my hospital bag since I had decided to do it earlier that day. Got ready for bed and decided to try to sleep it off but found myself complaining to Dave that my stomache hurt and visiting the lieu every so often as the cramps progressed. I didn't think these were contractions because I had felt braxton hicks contractions before and these didn't have the pressure like previous ones.

Finally at about 2:30am, I looked over at Dave who was fast asleep and decided that there was no way I was going to be able to sleep so I got out of bed. At this point, I'm thinking to myself this cannot be a stomache ache no matter what I ate! And the cramps started to increase in intensity and timing as well as pressure so I knew something was NOT right and called the doc. They said NOT to come in unless the contractions or pain was consistent described as 5-1-1 (every 5 min, lasting 1 min, for at least an hr) which mine were not so I was convinced this was false labor. I remember in child birth class that they suggested a hot shower, which I did and rocking back and forth in the rocking chair, which I did. By now, its at least 3:45am and I'm in pain.... I wake Dave up and call the doc again and say, "my contractions aren't following the 5-1-1 rule." I hang up and decide I can't take this anymore and I don't care, we're heading to hopsital and they can send us back if this isn't for real!!!

It's 4:15am. I'm delirious since it's almost been 24 hrs since I last slept. We're driving on El Camino to Stanford Hospital, it's dark and almost eerie.... am I dreaming? This pain can't be real. I'm speechless and Dave is asking, "are you ok? what can I do? I can barely breathe, let alone respond. The contractions are coming fast and strong and I'm just trying to focus on something, anything! I got my legs up, trying to kick the pain into the dashboard of our CRV! It's not working!

We arrive at the hospital, find our way to the maternity ward and announce that I think I'm ready to deliver. The nurses take us to a room where I am hooked up to machines and examined by the doc to find out how far along I really am. The doc says suprisingly that I am already 6cm dialated (full dialation is 10cm). Holy moly! Then they ask, what would I like to do for pain relief?? I ask her honestly how much time lies ahead of me in order to complete this birth, she responds 3 hours and I instantly respond.... EPIDURAL!! There is no way I can endure this kind of throbbing pain for 3 more min, let alone 3 more hrs.

Ok. we're taken to a private delivery room and here comes the anthesiologist to administer the frightening needle, why did I watch that video in childbirth class that shows the process? I don't want to know, just do it as fast as you can. I'm not going to go into it any further but people ask, did it hurt? Well let's just say, its a walk in the park compared to the pain you're in at the moment so NO. Drip, drip, drip... I'm still feeling the pain I tell the doc so he cranks it up a notch. Don't be shy, I can take it. Ha ha. So by the time the epidural was administered and kickin in, I find myself 9 cm dialated. What the heck, I've done all the work on my own!! Why didn't I come in at 2am, silly me! It's a misbelief that the epidural takes away all the pain..... it doesn't. In fact, I still felt quite alot of pain but at least I could contain myself and remain somewhat still. Without the epidural I would of been kicking and screaming as we all imagined!! I finally reach 10cm dialated and find myself in some sort of peaceful state of mind. It's time to rest and prepare for the next phase of birth, PUSHING!

45 min goes by and the nurse and I decide I should start trying to push since what the heck else am I doing there or waiting for. The nurse is coaching me, deep breathe, grab your legs and push 3 times, then release with an exhale. I don't really feel anything but all of a sudden I hear jack hammers and pounding. What is going on? You won't believe this, there's construction on the floor under our room. You've got to be kidding me, this is silly. Good thing you guys got me on drugs or I'd be ready to kill someone!

[Jen is tired... so I'll be telling the rest of this story :) ]. The contractions are coming every couple of minutes. Every time they come, the nurse and I hold jen's legs up, jen pulls back on her thighs and she pushes with all her mightiness.... she takes a deep breath and then another huge push... then another deep breath and another push. Then we all take a break till the next contraction comes. I run to the bathroom and put a cold towel on jen's head. With each set of pushes the baby makes it's way further down. About an hour into it, i can see the baby's head and Jen is screaming like a Duran Duran fanatic w/ each push! I remember when i saw the crown come out... then the contraction passed... i knew that with the next set of pushes Jen would push little dylan out into the world... man that was crazy. And then it just happened... Jen pushed, dylan popped his head out, then his shoulders... the doctor asked, "Father do u want to cut the umbellical cord?".... "hell's no!" I said. Then they put the baby on jen's stomach and dylan jen and i had our first family cry. It was beeeyoutiful.