Vaginal C-section
For anyone who does not want the details, go ahead and stop reading now....I will post the cute baby photos later, but if you are interested as to how MJ entered the world here you go...
On Friday April 2nd, I taught cycling at 5:30am at our local gym. I did more calling and just riding the bike then actual "teaching" but I was there none the less. At home after my shower, I began to have "un-mistakable" contractions about 10 minutes apart. On this particular day we spent the morning with a friend and her daughter whose car was getting new tires. She commented that I was looking alittle rough and walking funny. I, of course, knew that, but I did not think it was anything too out of the ordinary. Throughout the day, my contractions stayed fairly steady, but never increased so I ended Good Friday by taking Lilly to the doctors only to find that she still had an ear infection (after 10 days on antibiotics) and had a fever of 103.7....yikes! It was recommended that she begin a course of 3 injections of antibiotics to really force her ears clean and try to get rid of whatever was causing her so much trouble. On Saturday morning Lilly was still not doing well, and had another appointment for her second round of antibiotics. She was a champ and this time they tested her for strep, but she was negative so we were still at a loss as to what she had contracted. As the day moved forward she was eating less and less and hardly drinking and we thought for sure that we would be in the hospital with her. All the while I was still having contractions about 10 to 15 minutes apart. Since Sunday was Lilly's actual birthday we had planning to have my folks over for brunch and then take Lilly to pick out a gift for herself and eat some cupcakes....but someone else had a different plan.....
I woke at 2am and decided I needed to take a bath (should have been a sign that something was wrong....I don't take baths), then at 3am I had some stomach cramping followed by diarrhea. This lead me to think I was coming down with the stomach bug that Fitz had earlier in the week. Although, I was not feeling bad, I was concerned about dehydration so at 8am I called the on call doctor and check on what I should be doing. She advised me to keep up my fluids and if I could not then come in to the hospital. At 8am we also called the on call pediatrician to set up Lilly's last injection of antibiotics. Once that was set for 10:30am, we began to get ready to head to make folks house for the change of plans egg hunt and food at their house. As the morning slipped away, I started having contractions about every 6 minutes lasting for about 1 minute. We managed to get to my parents where I was left to make laps of their house, use the bathroom at will, and squat when the contractions got worse. Fitz took Lilly to get her last injection and find out at last that she had "hand, foot, and mouth" virus....a very, very common virus affecting children 6mo to 4 years. It causes a high fever, blisters on the palms of hands and soles of feet, and ulcer like sores in the mouth. Poor baby was SICK!!! And the only treatment is to let it run it's course! When Fitz and Lilly came back, we started the Easter Egg Hunt and my contractions got worse. Finally, Fitz and I made the call for me to head into the hospital at noon-ish and leave Lilly happily playing with her Eenie and Commadore. Fitz had wanted to drive "really fast" like they show on tv, but since we live in such a small town, we were in the car for less than 6 minutes and he was only going 40mph. After checking in and being wheeled up to L&D, getting check into triag, we found out I was 5 cm dilated with contractions 4-6 minutes apart. I was admitted to L&D at 12:45pm ish, and my contractions stayed at 4-6 minutes but began increasing in intensity. At 1:58pm the OB decided to break my water to help things along and boy did it ever. I began pushing very, very soon after that and with the aid of the OB and nurses, Michael Joseph Fitzula IV, aka "baby MJ." was born at 2:20pm. The delivery was very fast and thus caused some tearing on top of him turning upon making his exit causing his posterior shoulder to come out first. He had dark hair and very good apgar scores, I on the other hand was facing a 4 degree tear and 90 minutes worth of stitches with out any type of drugs other then lydocane. Now, I will preface this with the doctor was great, she put me back together in working order, and I am very glad she took her time and did it right....BUT in the moment I wanted to kick her in the face and have her just stop!!! She used as much lydocane as she could and then I just had to hold still. After that I had the chance to nurse baby MJ and he is a champ at that! All told we are doing well, Lilly is quite the doting big sister and is eager to help with everything. I am glad to be home with some pain meds (although not the really good stuff) and be able to sleep in my own bed. We will see how everything pans out over the next few days, but he seems to be a great kid already!
