Joel.....the rest of the story....

Joel, Dr. Kunar (shocking, yes he is old enough to be a doctor), and I

Joel in all his glory. Future blackmail picture :0)

Well, as you ladies know, it seems that whenever women get together they love to talk about their "birthing stories". Of course, I'm no different so sit back and humor me as I describe the events of August 1st.

As I had said before Dr. Kunar agreed to strip my membranes on Tuesday the 31st. I had been fairly content being pregnant (as compared to my other pregnancies) and wasn't quite sure I was going to have him "strip me" and thought maybe I would just let Joel come on his own. On Monday we went to Panera and when we got home I decided to go into Labor and Delivery because I thought I might be leaking fluid. They ran some tests and decided that I probably wasn't leaking and Dr. Kunar told me to come back the following night to be stripped. When I got up on Tuesday I remembered that that night was my neighborhood Bunco group. I was pretty certain that I didn't want to miss Bunco, so I pretty much wrote off having my membranes stripped. Throughout the day I was feeling yuckier and yuckier. By the time I got to Bunco I had decided that if I was going to feel crappy, I might as well feel crappy and go ahead and have a baby! Half way through Bunco (around 8:00) I walked down to the hospital and Dr. Kunar "stripped me". As he was doing it he reminded me that it could take a couple of times to actually work, to which I thought heck no...if this doesn't work, I'm done, this baby is just coming whenever! Afterwards I walked back down to Bunco and proceeded to win $15!! Not too shabby, considering I missed half of the game!!

After Bunco I came home pretty frustrated. I hadn't had any contractions and figured I was in for the long haul. At about 9:30 I started contracting, but they were about 20 minutes apart. By 11:30 they were all over the place, some were 14 minutes apart others 20, but nothing regular. I figured I might as well go to sleep and turned off the lights at around 11:45. At 12:20 AM I was awakened by a really strong contraction. I got up and went to the bathroom and tried to lay back down, but the contractions hurt too badly. They weren't close together but they hurt bad enough that I thought, I'm going in to have this checked out! I packed my bag, woke Greg up and then walked back down to the hospital. When I got there Dr. Kunar checked me and said I was a five, 80% effaced and Joel's head was engaged so it was time to be admitted, YEAH!! I immediately told him of my desire for an epidural....in Kansas they have to page the anesthesiologist at night (which can take FOREVER) so I didn't want to take any chances of having another baby naturally. Dr. Kunar kind of laughed me off, but the nurse assured me the doctor was on site and they would be letting him know of my desires.

My nurse, Sarah, who was WONDERFUL, got me into my room and into a gown. I had a HORRIBLE gown and was constantly flashing everyone...gotta love Army hospital wear, how humiliating!! I was the only woman on the floor so I had every nurse in my room. One nurse started to get my IV going and immediately blew out my vain (fun, fun), she then got the IV going in my hand, which hurt like crazy (I hate IV's in my hand, arms are much more comfortable!). After a bag of fluid and another blood draw (the first clotted) the anesthesiologist came in and started my epidural. We went through all the risks and told him of my horrible spinal headache after Ethan. He was pretty confident that my experience was a fluke and everything would be fine.....

The doc had warned me off a shock down my leg but nothing could have prepared me for the shot of electricity that went down my leg when he was putting in my epidural. I nearly kicked the nurse across the room and it was totally reflex. I really don't think I could have stopped it had I been more prepared. Two words you never want to hear from someone digging around in your back....."oh honey"......I was devastated. (When I jumped, the needle went farther then it should have and fluid pushed back at the doctor, a wet tap) Memories of the 10 scary days I spent flat on my back, sure I had a brain tumor, came flooding back to me. For those of you who don't know about my spinal headache with Ethan, I spent 10 days with the worst headache of my life. I was taken back to the hospital in an ambulance at one point and remember begging Greg to move back to Louisville to take care of the kids, fairly sure I was going to die. I had three blood patches (they take blood out of your arm and shoot it into your back hoping to patch the hole that is causing the leak in your spinal fluid), IV meds in the emergency room, major narcotics at home and an MRI. Needless to say this was an experience I was more then happy to not go through again! When Greg heard the distress in the doctors voice, he was sick too. In fact I thought he was physically going to be ill, I've never seen someone turn so green and pasty so quickly! As the anesthesiologist finished the epidural, all I could do was cry. We discussed options for what we could do to avoid the headache but he said I had a 70% chance of having one. Greg and I spent the next 30 minutes or so very quite. I felt like such a weeny for "needing" the epidural but I was so upset that I had such horrible odds of having a headache.

After all the epidural "drama" my contractions completely stopped. I was at a 6, so Dr. Kunar broke my water and started Pitocin. Dr. Kunar and Greg are both chit chatters....they were on either side of me talking about army, politics, medicine, etc....twice I told Dr. Kunar that I was feeling some "downward" movement but he didn't seem too concerned, by the third "movement" in about three minutes I told him I thought he better check me. When he raised the sheet he and Greg could see the top of Joel's head....glad they stopped talking long enough to listen to me ;)

The nurses got the room ready and Dr. Kunar asked me if I was a "good pusher"....was that a challenge?! I pushed two times and Joel was out...how's that for pushing Doc?! I had to have a few stitches because Joel had his hand on his head as he was coming out...what a stinker! Joel was born at 0322, so from the time I was admitted until he was born was 2 1/2 hours, not too shabby!!

After Joel was born, the anesthesiologist came back in and told me that he had done some research and thought my best option was for them to go ahead and do a blood patch in the epidural line. He took 20cc out of my arm and then "shoved" it in my back. I am so glad we listened to him. I am also so thankful for everyone who prayed for us that night and in the following days.

That night as I laid in Labor and Delivery I kept hearing Jeremiah 29:11 in my head, For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. I took a lot of comfort in knowing that either way things turned out, that the Lord was in control.

The rest of my hospital stay was very uneventful. I was given a private room thanks to my wet tap which was such a blessing. I had a very small headache on Thursday but it was managed well with Motrin, rest, and lots of fluids. My biggest complaint right now has been a very stiff back and left leg. The doctors feel it is normal from all the blood they put in my back but it is still rather uncomfortable (but I am certainly not complaining!!).

Joel is beautiful, he looks pretty much exactly like his brothers. I am excited to watch him grow and become a little boy and then man. Right now he's sleeping next to me and grinning in his sleep, ain't life grand!!

Thanks for all of the encouraging words on the blog. Sorry for such a long story....stay tuned for more annoying baby stories and LOTS of baby pics!!

P.S. Excuse all of my non medical person lingo!!