One month old

As I expected, I have been extremely busy and tired over the last month and this is the first time I have the time and energy to blog about the last month. Let's start with Sarah's birth. After having some very minor contractions starting around 4 p.m., my water broke at 8:20. Michael had just sat down to dinner at a restaurant with his coworkers after just finishing a seminar to BYU-I students interested in attending law school. Fortunately, my good friend called me about 5 minutes before and when she heard that Michael wasn't home but that I was having some contractions, she immediately come over to keep me company. Literally 2 minutes after she walked in the door, my water broke. I texted Michael to come home and my friend helped me pack up the kids, and then she took them to her house for the night.

Once my water broke, the contractions started coming hard and close together. I even had a slight urge to push while making the 6 minute drive to the hospital. Once we got there, at about 8:40, the receptionist told us we had to wait for a nurse to take us up to the delivery unit. As we're waiting and I'm doubled over in pain, the receptionist asks us questions about when the contractions started coming and if I was sure my water had broken. Her bored tone of voice made Michael and me think that she thought I was just some first time mom who thought I was in labor when I really wasn't. Michael joked and told her that my water had broken on its own for our other two children and from the time my water broke to the time the baby was born was 6 /2 hours for the first and 3 1/2 hours for the second. Maybe this baby it would only be an hour. Little did he know that he would be about right. Finally, a nurse came and led us to the delivery unit.

I had every intention of getting an epidural and to speed things along, Michael stayed at the check-in desk to give the secretary all my insurance stuff while I went in to get the IV, which is required before you can have the epidural. Three painful pokes later, they finally get the IV in, but I am progressing so rapidly, that there's almost no chance of getting the epidural before the baby comes. This was the most miserable, painful time of my life. I have never been in so much pain. At first, I tried to handle the contractions as calmly, quietly, and dignified as possible. But soon, I couldn't control myself and I was screaming and moaning. I had only one volume and that was loud. Anytime the nurses asked me something or I needed to tell them something, I would yell. I didn't mean to yell at anyone, I just couldn't help it. I also had a hard time speaking clearly while in such pain. At one point, I screamed out, "Can't you just suction this baby out?". I was at the time thinking of when Jillian was born, she was having a hard time coming out so the doctor put a suction cup on her head and suctioned her out. After I yelled this, one of the nurses looked and me and said in a shocked voice, "No way. You're going to push this baby out". At the time, I didn't understand why she said that. Of course I was going to push the baby out. What else would I do? I was only asking (screaming) for some immediate way to get the baby out. Michael later informed me that everyone in the room thought I said "section this baby out" which they assumed meant having a C-section. It was only then that I understood the nurses response, though it still confused me. Why in the world would they think I wanted a C-section when I was so close to delivering her?

Michael, while trying to keep things light, would make little remarks, such as, "If it would help, I could always turn on ESPN and we could check the score of the game" or "I hope there aren't any women outside this room touring the facility because you're probably making think twice about having kids". The nurses were giving him dirty looks for saying such things and one even told him that he better be quiet or else I might hit him.

A short time later, I had a very strong urge to push, but unfortunately, the doctor wasn't there yet. The nurses began preparing to deliver the baby themselves when the doctor rushes in wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt. He has only enough time to put on the scrubs covering before sitting down and telling me to push. In three extremely painful pushes where it felt like my insides were being ripped apart, she was out. At 9:30, less than one hour after arriving at the hospital and one hour and fifteen minutes after my water broke( Michael was off by 15 minutes), Sarah Nicole Brown was born. She weighed 7.5 lbs and was 19 inches long.

I wish I could say the pain was over, but it wasn't. I continued to have severe cramping in my abdomen and I started shivering and shaking all over. After Sarah was born and the doctor was finishing up with me, I kept saying how much pain I was still in. The doctor tried to get my mind off the pain by asking me the silliest question ever: "Linds (he had a thing with calling me this), tell me where you went to high school". Really? I just had a baby and am hurting and you ask me about high school? You know what I said to him? Through clenched teeth, I responded, "I know what you're trying to do and it's not going to work." So what does he do? He asks me a second time where I went to high school. I didn't even bother to respond the second time. If you're going to get my mind off things, ask me about things that matter now, like how old are my other kids, are they excited to have a new sister, where did you and your husband meet. These are things that are important to me now and things that I would like to talk about. Not high school.

Anyway, a few minutes later, I got some ibuprofen for the cramping. Those stopped shortly thereafter and I was able to have the IV removed, get up, take a shower, move over to the recovery unit. The only good thing about not getting an epidural was the recovery was faster and easier. I felt almost back to normal within a couple hours of Sarah's birth. Though I was totally unprepared for delivering without an epidural and would never choose to do it again this way, it went fast and I'm grateful that everything went as well as could be expected. It's been one month today since Sarah was born and I already can't imagine life without her, though I can (and often do) imagine getting more sleep. Welcome to the world, little Sarah.