How Are You Doing???

"How are you doing??" Such an overrated, rhetorical question that people only ask to be nice. They expect a simple "fine" answer. So, since you asked....I will tell you. The last week for me has been a very emotional roller coaster. It all started on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. I was going about my daily routine, cleaning house, taking care of the kids. Six more weeks before Baby Sophia was due to arrive. I was folding clothes and heard Simon wake from his nap. I got up to get him and needed to pee again...every time I got up, Sophia would sit on my bladder. I went to the bathroom and had some spotting. I wasn't too concerned, but called my husband anyway to let him know. He told me to call the doctor. I was going to wait until I went again (which would probably be in about 10 minutes) to see if I was still spotting then. About 20 minutes later I went to the bathroom again and had a bowel movement with a gush of water following. I thought, "Oh my gosh, I think my water just broke!" It was 3:45pm. Then my next thought was, "I haven't had time to take a shower since Sunday morning..." So I got in the shower and rinsed off quickly...I didn't want to go to the hospital stinking!!! Then I got out, got dressed, and called my husband. He told me to call 911. My daughter was playing with the neighbors next door and I was home alone with Simon (11 1/2 months old). I walked out on the front porch and called Lydia's name...hoping they were playing in the yard. No response. I came back inside and another gush of water came out, much more than before. Yep, my water had broken! I then called 911 and they told me to lay down where I was and check to see if I can feel the baby's head. Wow! As I am laying there, my daughter and her friend (also named Lydia) came over to get a popscicle because they were out of them next door. Thank God for little miracles! I told my Lydia that my water broke and go get Mandy (little Lydia's Mom) NOW!! My Lydia went to get Mandy and little Lydia walks in as if nothing is going on. She is 4 years old and she says, "Who broke your water???" Walking to our fridge, she opens it up and looks at our Brita Water Filter and says, "This broke??" She is so cute!! At this point, I am in no pain at all, just surrounded by water. Mandy comes to watch the kids, the EMT comes and checks me out...no crowning yet. Asks how far apart the contractions are and I say, "I really don't think I'm having any contractions yet." Like I said, I felt fine. I am just worried that it is 6 weeks too early. They load me up in the ambulance and take me away. On the way, around 4:30pm, I start having contractions about 2 minutes apart. I got car sick...those back roads, going fast, riding backwards....oh my...
I get to the Labor and Delivery room at 5:00pm. The doctor comes in, checks me, I am 4cm dialated, cervix still hard. He schedules an epidural (something I requested). It takes about 45 minutes for the anesthesiologist to get there and start the epidural. It took him 4 or 5 tries, but then finally said that it worked...it may have worked, but not fast enough...as I was starting to lay down I felt Sophia coming. I told the nurse that she is coming and I have to push. She said, no don't push, it's not time yet. I said, "YES IT IS TIME!!!" She runs out of the room to get the doctor and I feel the head coming out. I am holding the anesthesiologist's hand, while he is saying, "Oh My, Oh My, Oh My..." They made Mark leave the room while they did the epidural, so he wasn't even in the room with me. I yell out to the nurse (who is still MIA), "I NEED YOU IN HERE NOW!!!" She runs in the room and gets to the foot of the bed right as Sophia slides out. I basically delivered her myself! Two light pushes and she was out! 6:25pm. The nurse again leaves the room with me and Sophia on the bed. She is still attached to me and we are all alone. They had nothing ready in the room for a baby. The nurse comes back with scissors to cut the umbilical cord.  I, and everyone else in the hospital, then hears over the intercom, "Code 14, Labor and Delivery, STAT" This perks Mark's ears up and walks out of the waiting room to see what is going on. He comes in the room to see his daughter already in a bassinet bed. The doctor then comes in (he had gone to the cafeteria to get a coffee while they were doing the epidural-remember I was only at 4cm) and says, "Well, she didn't want to wait, did she???" LOL!!! I got to hold Sophia for about 10 minutes before they took her away. She weighed 7lbs, 1oz., 20in long. Imagine how big she would have been had I carried her another 6 weeks!! The doctor sits down to wait to deliver the afterbirth. It doesn't come. I am still having contractions to get the afterbirth out. The epidural never worked, go figure...After an hour, the doctor said I would have to go to the operating room to surgically remove the afterbirth. Two hours after Sophia was born, they roll me to the OR. They drug me up so much that I couldn't feel anything from my chest down. Four hours after she was born, the uterus relaxes and the afterbirth peels off. They didn't have to scrape it off!! I got to my room around 10:30pm. About 11:00pm, Mark finally comes in. His eyes were red and glassy looking. It scared me so bad. I knew, I just knew he was going to tell me that Sophia didn't make it. He didn't, thank God. But he did tell me that they were going to have to transfer her to a hospital an hour and a half away with a NICU. Her lungs weren't fully developed and she was breathing too fast. Imagine the emotional pain I was in. I also had a horrible headache that I thought was from me not having my glasses on. I asked for some pain reliever for that. It wasn't until the next morning that I found out the real reason for my headache and neck ache I was experiencing. Apparently, when they were giving me the epidural, I moved and some spinal fluid leaked out. I was having a spinal headache. This headache is 100 times worse than the worst migraine headache. They brought Sophia in at 3:30am Wednesday morning, 9 hours after she was born, for me to see her before they took her to the other hospital. I was released on Thursday, but wasn't able to get to Sophia until Saturday. I am able to hold her, but not for long because of the pain in my head and neck. It is now Monday and I am still in horrible pain. If only the pain would go away, then I could concentrate on all my kids. In hinds sight, I wouldn't have asked for an epidural...it didn't work for what I wanted it to work for anyway. I feel like I was in the hospital for a neck injury than I was for having a baby. I don't even feel like I had a baby! We are fortunate enough to have family close by and have available a home we can stay in so that we won't have to drive back and forth each day to see Sophia. I am sorry I don't use paragraphs when writing. I know it can be confusing, and my husband has fussed at me about it. Forgive me. Please pray for our family...the healing process may be long. So this is how I am doing.....How are YOU doing???