My Weekend - Shower & Childbirth Education

Thought you might want to know how my weekend went. Some more pretty eventful things going on. This will be a long post as it has the shower update and my Childbirth Class Update.

This was the weekend of my Columbus shower and two of my best out-of-town girlfriends came in on Friday night. My job was to pick Danialle up at the airport at 9:25 p.m. When I got home from work I did some last minute cleaning and preparations. I finished up the last load of laundry, picked up in the kitchen, and sort of helped Eric figure out what needed to be cleaned. Erica and Samara called me around 6:30 to see if I wanted to meet them for dinner, but at that point I hadn’t packed yet (we were all spending the night at Samara’s) and didn’t know that I’d have time to go get dinner, come back and pack, and still get to the airport in time, so I turned them down. I finished up at home and got to the airport at about 9:00 p.m. A good surprise, Danialle’s flight got in early, so by 9:15 p.m. we were headed back to the parking garage. We then drove to Samara’s and got in before they had their shopping bags unloaded. We all got comfy, the girls did a couple of shower related things and we chatted until almost midnight. Samara and the other girls let me use the guest bedroom, so I got a great night of sleep and we got up around 8:30 a.m.

Saturday, the other girls were in full shower preparation mode. They didn’t really let me help, but I did go to the grocery store twice for items we forgot. Guests arrived just after 12:00 p.m. Several people I had invited and hoped could come had other things come up, so it was a small party, but it was really nice. Samara and the other girls put a lot of effort in. There was a nice light lunch with finger sandwiches, macaroni salad, fruit, and cheese and crackers. The cake was beautiful. Even the decorations were adorable, although now I have a surplus of rubber ducky bath temperature monitors (one for every grandma plus a diaper bag). We played a couple of games which everyone seemed to enjoy. Then we opened gifts. I got a lot of really nice things and was again overwhelmed at how generous my friends are. We also played “Baby Bingo” with bingo cards made up with possible gift items. If I opened a gift on the card, you got to mark the square. I’ll have to keep that one in mind. It really has people focusing on what you are opening. After the party we headed back to my house with all the stuff. I got to show Danialle and Erica Grace’s room in person for the first time. It’s really just about done. All we need is the baby! Then we headed to El Vaquero’s for some Mexican food. I love that place, but it didn’t really sit well with Erica and Samara has had a bit of a Mexican aversion, so it may not have been the best choice. After dinner we went to Babies R’Us to exchange a couple of items and I decided I wanted to go ahead and pick up some more things that I didn’t have that I know I’ll need. It was so fun to look at all the stuff and actually put things in my cart this time. The other girls humored my shopping desire and after the cart was loaded we checked out and headed back home. Samara headed home as her husband and dog had been hanging out at my place all day. Danialle, Erica, and I changed into our PJ’s and went to work assembling the stroller they bought me! It’s still sitting in my living room and I love it! After that, we played Phase 10 with Eric and then headed to bed.

Sunday morning we got up early and took Danialle to the airport. Erica decided to head out early too, so she would get back early and have all day at home to play with her new puppy. We dropped Danialle off about 7:30 a.m. Then Eric and I headed to First Watch for some breakfast. After breakfast, we decided to play hooky instead of going to church and I headed back to bed while Eric got comfortable on the couch. Around noon I got up again. Then I was pretty productive at home. I wrote all the receipts in the checkbook, paid the bills, finally finished my Wedding Scrapbook journaling!, and put up all of the stuff from the shower and my Babies R’ Us shopping spree. Although I have another load of baby laundry to do now. About that time, it was time to get ready to go to class.

Two couples were missing from our Childbirth class, but this one was actually really informative and not repetitive like the last one. We learned all about the different types of pain medicine, induction methods, and other assistance that you could have during labor/delivery. I think some of it scared Eric as they also discussed possible side effects of the different types of medications. I’m sure we all knew it, but the closer to a natural (drug-free) childbirth you can get, the better for both Mom and Baby. We discussed that early in labor they can give you a drug called NuBane to help take the edge off contractions. It is given as an injection in your IV and is a narcotic. Since it goes into your IV it does cross the placenta and get to the baby. It wears off in about 2 hours and after the 2nd dose is virtually ineffective. Side effects if the baby is born before it wears off are sleepiness/sluggishness in baby and possible respiratory problems. They didn’t say much about side effects before birth except that it can effect the fetal heart rate. That was enough for Eric, his vote, no NuBane. We can try the breathing, hot shower, massage, and position changes for pain management in early labor. The epidural on the other hand, is injected into your spinal column so very little medication if any gets to the baby. The epidural numbs Mom from abdomen to toes and allows you to only feel pressure, not pain. Once an epidural is administered, Mom isn’t allowed to get out of bed, a catheter may be used to empty the bladder and you are much more immobilized. An epidural can also slow labor, so the earlier it is given, the more likely they will have to use Pitocin to speed labor back up. An epidural can be administered after 4 cm, but is most effective between 6-7 cm. Pitocin is used in an induction or to help out irregular or slowed contractions. It causes your uterus to contract more frequently and intensely than natural labor. This is another IV drug, so it must be monitored very closely. Too little and the contractions won’t be productive, too much and it could cause fetal distress. Eric’s opinion on this…try to wait until 6 or 7 cm before getting an epidural (if at all), so there is less need to use other drugs that could affect the baby.

So here is our birth plan. We would like to go into labor naturally if possible. Once in labor we will attempt to use relaxation techniques such as breathing, massage, hot showers, hot rice packs, and position changes to manage the pain. We would prefer not to use any narcotics. As long as the pain is tolerable, I will attempt to stay drug free. The goal is to stay drug free until at least 6 cm of dilation. When pain is no longer manageable I will ask for an epidural. If there are problems in delivery, we are against the use of forceps, we will allow a vacuum extractor if needed. I would prefer to not have an episiotomy if possible, but if necessary, be gentle. If it appears that I will not be able to deliver naturally and will need a C-section, I would prefer to make the decision sooner rather than later in labor. I do not want to labor for 30 hours and then still have a C-section (as we saw in the movie we watched last night). I’m not sure what my tolerance for pain will be, but we’re going to go in with an open mind. If I can go natural, I will. If I can’t, I won’t feel guilty for using pain relief.