Before (the night before, actually)
Life has been crazy but great this past week. We went in to get induced last Friday morning, the 3rd, and had Carter at 6:40pm. I got an epidural around 10:30am and then we just played the waiting game until I was fully dilated. One interesting thing--I was given sugar the whole time. They had a line of sucrose going into my IV along with insulin, and then they regulate it by giving me small amounts of insulin to keep my blood sugar down and sugar just in case too much insulin is given. Well, I ate breakfast and gave insulin myself for that, and about two hours later my blood sugar went really low. They turned off the insulin and gave me sugar, and about an hour later, they had to give me more sugar and then more sugar, and then more sugar again. The nurses were looking pretty confused, considering the fact that I'm diabetic, but eventually they came to terms with my weird body and gave me sugar the whole day. The delivery went great, about 20 mins of pushing, and I loved the nurses. I was nervous about delivery and SI University Hospital because of what I'd heard from others, but for me, it was awesome.
The only complaint I have deals with the contractions I had afterwards (to shrink the uterus)--holy cow! A nurse told me that the contractions are the worst for babies #2 and #3, and I figured they'd be quick, but after 4.5 hours of pain I finally asked for some pain meds. Honestly, I don't know how people deliver these kids with out pain killers!
Luckily I had my mom here to help with the first week. The first week is pretty rough--recovering from giving birth and trying to take care of kids at the same time isn't the easiest. Josh loves me to hold him, but of course I couldn't lift him up, so my mom did the major hauling and running around with Josh. She also cleaned my whole house, cooked us dinner, got up with Carter and I at night, and was much needed company--poor Ryan is so busy with school right now. Almost every day this week he was leaving early and getting home late and taking tests. Anyway, I'm missing my mom (and she's missing the little guys), but all good things most come to an end I guess. Thanks for all you did mom!