MaNiC mOnDaY ~ Labor

Of course, being a mom, the first thing that comes to mind is being IN labor with children! It seems like it's either easy or it's hard, you never hear any middle-of-the road stories about childbirth, that is for sure. Some people get through it in an hour, others can take a full day. Of course, with the popularity of the Caesarian section these days, the full day labor is getting to be a more rare occurrance. I have two kids, but only went through labor once. My son got some pretty good growth in the womb, and so my doctor recommended induced labor a week before his due date, to avoid complications or difficulty in the whole birth process. They wanted to get him out before he got TOO big, is the impression I got. Well.. a week early wasn't quite early enough! I went in at 7pm on October 17 and began pitocin and whatnot to induce labor. I was already dilated to 2, so I was thinking.. maybe this won't be so bad. I was WRONG. The next afternoon, I finally was dilated up to 10, and started pushing. And pushing. The doctor kept coming in and checking, but the kid was not moving an inch. So.. after ALL that.. I ended up having a c-section anyway. I was so sad, I felt like I was cheating, not being able to give birth the way I was supposed to. But it was that or nothing, because there was no way his head was going to fit where it needed to fit to come out, and with my water broken and everything, he really needed to come out. At long last, at 7:01 PM the next day, he was out and about and screaming his lungs out, all 10 lb, 12 oz. of him! Poor kid, he was so big, none of the newborn onesies the hospital had would fit him, so they had to get a tiny gown from the Pediatrics ward to put him in!

And the fun wasn't over yet. Having "failed" at giving birth, I decided I'd try to breastfeed him. That didn't work too well either, and he had a horrible case of jaundice! They had to send him home with a special light to help get rid of the yellow. He looked like a little alien baby in his swing with that neon light shining on him! We got through that too, though, and he's now almost 4 years old, (mostly) happy and healthy, and I love him to pieces!