One year ago today I was waking up on a typical Tuesday morning. Liam needed to have breakfast and get ready for daycare. I needed to pry open my eyelids enough to get dressed and brush my teeth so that I could drop him off.
What was not typical was two things: I was heavily pregnant and Scot had a doctor's appointment that morning for surgical follow up on his wrist.
I had two weeks until my due date. I was huge and uncomfortable and growing more so by the day. When pregnant women say that the last few weeks of pregnancy suck they mean it. In my case, I *really* meant it. My whole pregnancy and been crappy and hard and as I neared the end I wanted nothing more than for my useless and endless contractions to actually DO something. Everything in my life had become a challenge at that point and Scot was largely out of commission because of his surgery. His wrist and arm were in a cast and he was sporting the most fabulous yellow foam wedge on the arm as well.
Since he wasn't allowed to drive I had to take him to see his doctor that morning. We were expecting them to remove the pins in his arm and for him to feel a lot better and gain more use of his hand/wrist/arm. We were, in fact, counting on it. We had been told at the time of surgery that this would be what would happen.
So, when Dr. Sadist the orthopedist walked into the room and announced it was too soon to remove the pins we were both unhappy. When he looked Scot full in the face and told him to "just deal" with the pain he was in without the benefit of narcotic painkillers we both got angry. Word to the wise - never anger a heavily pregnant woman.
After a tense exchange, Dr. Sadist agreed to prescribe pain medication for the two weeks until Scot's pins came out. This, of course, was all we wanted in the first place despite the fact that Dr. Sadist acted as though we were looking to score Oxy on the street. *eyeroll* He upset me so much with his attitude and the misinformation over pin removal that I sat in the room with Scot and cried while they recasted his arm. It's a long story but I was looking forward to the end of being the only functional adult in the house and because I was so huge and uncomfortable (read: in constant pain) this was A Big Deal.
We left the office with an appointment in two weeks time to remove Scot's pins and a really paltry prescription for Vicodin. Scot was pissed. I was pissed. We walked out of the building and drove straight to Scot's GP so that he could talk to them. They were willing to take care of him and understood that I was damn near incapacitated myself.
It was a long and stressful morning for me. I spent a lot of time in the car which only ever aggravated the contraction situation. The afternoon was a bit more calm and I headed off to pick up Liam at daycare in the late afternoon.
My contractions rematerialized in the car as they always did.
When I got home with Liam they kept going which they never did.
Hmmm.
I left Liam hanging out with Scot and I went upstairs to time contractions and try to figure out what was happening. Two hours later they hadn't quit but they hadn't patterned either. They also were not exactly painful. Uncomfortable, yes. Painful? Not really. You would think that I would know labor when I saw it since I'd been through it before but I was flummoxed. While Scot got dinner for Liam and then called his Mom to have her come help put Liam to bed (Scot was unable to do bath time) I put a call into my doctor. She said to time it for another hour and if it didn't quit to come into the hospital.
It was a good thing my mother-in-law was already at our house because an hour later they hadn't quit and we had to go in. By the time we got there they were getting closer together and starting to become painful.
When I got all checked in and the doctor gave me the once over we got the word that I would be staying. Dr. Sadist had done his sadistic worst and stressed me into labor. The baby was on the way!
I got to have my epidural early so my labor was smooth and comfortable. Magee was incredibly busy that night (I got the last free L&D room) so it was just as well it was smooth sailing for me. But, around 5:50 am on March 4th, I was ready to push. At 6:05 am, Jamie was born.
One year ago today I woke up expecting my day to be normal. I woke up expecting to slog my way through at least two more weeks of pregnancy. One year ago, I ended my day by holding my newborn son.
Happy Birthday, Jamie. I love you.
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