Happy 4th Birthday, Sausage!

Today is my little man, Sausage's 4th birthday!  We are going to bake him a cake ourselves, at his request....chocolate with milk chocolate frosting.  Then, we're picking Biscuit up from school early and going to get flu shots (not his bday gift) followed by shopping just for him.  Since Biscuit's birthday was a short 5 days ago, we decided to wait until after both their birthdays to "do" anything and so far their request has been to go to Toys R Us and Build a Bear....soooo much better than me doing a party!  I've done parties the last 5 years, sometimes one for friends and then one for family when we go to visit and I must admit I.don't.like.parties.  At least not kids' birthday parties.

Sausage was our second baby, and he was in a hurry to come into the world!  I was induced, just like with Biscuit, at slightly over 38 weeks.  My doc put me in the hospital around 4 pm on Wednesday, gave me Cervidil around 5 pm.  Now, with Biscuit, the Cervidil did squat.  They unhooked me from the monitors, let me eat supper, and gave me some Ambien.  Not so much with Sausage.  The Cervidil put me into full-on labor within 20 minutes.  Now, for some pregnancy-fog delusional reason, I was convinced that I was going to be in labor for 12 hours or so like with Biscuit so I was determined to walk and "deal" with the pain as much as possible because while I wholeheartedly planned on getting that oh-so-awesome epidural, I didn't want to be tied to the bed for too long.

I convinced the Rabid Sports Fan that I felt like walking so off we went down the hallway.  Now, I was dealing well with the pain, but it wasn't something I could ignore, or walk through.  So, we walked a few steps, and I stopped and survived a contraction.  When we got to the end of the hall, the Rabid Sports Fan said to me, "on the way back try not to stop."  That was when he was killed by a crazed pregnant woman so I calmly explained that I simply could not walk during the contractions.  I rocked in a chair, I sat on the side of the bed, I walked around the room.  Finally, after shift change at 7 pm, I called the nurse because I was hurting.  She assured me that although I was only 4 cm that I would not be in labor for a long time.  I took comfort in that, but still wasn't ready to get my epidural, so I opted for IV meds which I hadn't  tried with Biscuit.

A little later she brought me a shot of Stadol.  Now, I'm not a drinker, have never been drunk, but I can only assume that Stadol is the equivalent of probably an entire bottle of tequila.  I went practically limp with relaxation and passed out.  Until I had a contraction.  When a contraction started it felt exactly the same as it did before the Stadol, only when it was over I fell right back into a state of complete relaxation.  It was freaky.  By this time it was around 9 pm and the Rabid Sports Fan ran to our house to put Biscuit to bed even though his parents were there.  We wanted life to stay as normal as possible for her 2 year old self.  He  was gone maybe 20 mintues and the next time the nurse checked me I was 8 cm so I panicked and asked for the epidural.  Now here is where things get fuzzy for me.  In the way that hospitals do, it took a while for the anesthesiologist to get everything ready for my epidural and by the time she actually placed it, it was close to 11:30 pm.  When the nurse checked me again, I was almost 10 cm and she "accidentally" broke my water.  They called the doctor and we called my mother-in-law who had been present along with my mom for Biscuit's birth and wanted to be there again.  Now, our house was maybe 2 miles from the hospital and traffic wasn't an issue.  The doctor got there and had me push and then quickly threw on his gown and sterile gloves.  The Rabid Sports Fan was calling his mom to see where she was because Sausage was about to be here.  She was in the ER on her way up.  She ran in just before push #2, then with push #3 out flew Sausage!  All 8 lbs 7.8 oz of him.

He came out so fast that he had a bruise on his forehead.  It was the easiest delievery EVER.  Afterwards, when I had some time to think, I was pretty bummed about the epidural.  I mean, he was born 8 minutes after midnight, so I had the epidural for a max of 38 minutes.  The anesthesiologist was still in my room doing her paperwork.  When she was done, she removed my epidural!  I'm pretty sure I could have done those last 38 minutes without her.

Anyway, that's the story of my favorite little big boy's delivery.  I hope his 4th birthday is awesome for him!