Originally posted January 22, 2006

We learned I was pregnant with LittleBit right after we sold our old house.  We had just moved into my parents' old house with my little brother while we were waiting for our new house to be built. It was supposed to only take 5 months, so we *should* have been in the new house with plenty of time to spare before LittleBit was born. It did NOT work out that way, but that will be another post, another day.

I was totally and completely EXHAUSTED throughout the pregnancy. It was like chronic fatigue syndrome or something, it was so bad. Add to that living in that house (which I had previously loved, yet grew to hate while living there due to the high maintenance), living with my little brother (who is single and childless and stays up really late and gets up really late and is a type A personality), having a grouchy old neighbor who hated us, having a dog that I hated (unfortunately we still have THAT problem), and all the delays on the new house ... it was a very bad, very long nine months.

I had an interesting last few weeks of pregnancy with LittleBit. At 34 weeks she was in an oblique position. At 35 weeks, I suddenly had boatloads of energy ... I was nesting and got a bunch of packing done for our upcoming move. She had turned and everything looked good except that she was still rather small. At 36 weeks she hadn't gained an ounce and had stopped moving. I had to go to the hospital for monitoring and the doctor talked about "taking her" the next morning. After further testing, he let me go home, but scheduled an induction for January 27. I was SO relieved ... I had packing to do in the meantime! At 37 weeks she still hadn't grown or moved or kicked or anything so I had to go back to the hospital for even further testing. Then at 38 weeks, after 3 weeks of high energy for me and no growth or movement from her, things changed again. I was back to being tired. She was back to moving. She gained a little weight.

It was funny, but those 3 weeks were scary to the doctor, yet refreshing for me. LittleBit rested for those three weeks so I could rest from my fatigue. So I could feel delight in my pregnancy, so I could get all of our stuff packed, so I could prepare for her arrival. Thank you, LittleBit! I love you!

On Saturday, January 22, I had big plans. Billy was starting his new semester at college that day, and I was going to clean the car and install the car seat. (Hey, those are big plans when you're 9 months pregnant!) Mucus was my first sign that I was in labor, but I wasn't *sure* I was in labor so Billy went off to college. Right after that, at 9:13 AM, my water broke. Since the one and only other time my water had broken naturally and before contractions had started was with Taz, which was a QUICK labor, I thought it might be best to go ahead and go to the hospital.

SO, I called Billy on his cell phone and he told his professors that his wife was in labor so he would have to miss the first class. One teacher was cool about it but the other teacher WOULDN'T LET HIM GO!!! She really could care less that her student's wife was in labor. Made no difference to her; he needed to stay in class, regardless. But he went anyway, of course!

Turns out it was a big mistake to go to the hospital right away. Because of the "problems" I had supposedly had during those last few weeks, they hooked me up to a bunch of machines, which meant I had to lay down in bed. Which meant labor took longer than neccessary. And was more painful than neccessary.

I was asked if I wanted an epidural. The contractions weren't that bad so I said I would wait. Then, without my knowledge or consent, they gave me pitocin. I realized what they did when my contractions suddenly went from managable and coming every 15 minutes, to totally unbearable and every 5 minutes.

THEN I wanted an epidural, in a big way. BUT, I had to wait for a VERY long time, because I had to "get hydrated" first. I had to wait until someone came with a bag of fluid for the IV. Then I had to wait for them to hook it up. Then I had to wait for it to hydrate me. Then I had to wait while they called the anesthesiologist. (Why hadn't they called him while I was being hydrated?!) Then I had to wait for him to come. If you've never had pitocin (that was my first and ONLY experience with it) you have no idea how EVIL the stuff is.

So eventually, FINALLY, I get the epidural. Then I was okay for a while. Then my/LittleBit's blood pressure went down. So they had to give me something for that. I have never in my life been hooked up to so many machines before. It was totally ridiculous. I wanted to just rip out all those wires and walk around so I could have the baby already. Then I went into transition and I was HOT. I thought I was going to die. I was hot and it was all I could do not to pass out. Finally that passed and I went into active labor and gave birth to LittleBit at 4:13 PM.

I remember this horrified look on Billy's face when she came out. I'm thinking, "What? Is she ugly or deformed or something?" Turns out I lost a LOT of blood. It just all went gushing out. I had no clue.

She was all covered in blood and she was SO tiny to me, just over 6 lbs. The rest of mine were between 7 & 7 1/2 lbs. It's amazing what that 1 pound looks like on a newborn baby! She cried and cried, until she heard her daddy's voice, and then she calmed down. She was calm and content as long as she heard her daddy's voice.

Once home, she slept a LOT and didn't want to nurse. It took me 2 long, agonizing weeks to finally get her to learn how to latch on. I really don't how how she survived those first couple of weeks. But at 2 weeks old, she started nursing well AND sleeping through the night.

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY, LITTLEBIT!!!