birth of a bug

i had a doctor's appt thursday morning and an ultrasound to try and see how big the baby is and maybe it's gender. no luck on gender, and the best she could do was a rough estimate of 8 lbs, give or take 1/2 lb.
i had already been having contractions all morning and the doctor stripped my membranes and told me it would probably be this weekend. i timed contractions all the way to work, and then all day at work. everyone kept asking me why i was there at all. why should i sit home all day timing contractions when i can do the same at work and get paid for one more day? they were steady all day, at varying intervals from 3-10 minutes apart. finally, nancy kicked me out of the building at 4 and told me to go to the hospital. i couldn't get a hold of the doctor's office, but i went to the hospital. i admitted myself and they wheeled me up to the delivery floor.
when they checked me i was still only 2-3, so they said i could walk or go home. i was not about to leave. i called kisu and told him to come up at 6. i walked--a lot. after an hour, there was no change so i walked some more. they were waiting for dr. s to show up, so i basically sat around or walked. kisu showed up with a sub. i just started to eat when they transferred me into a delivery room. then the nurse came in and said the dr probably doesn't want you to eat, just in case. i said, "well it's a good thing he's not here, then," and i wolfed down half a sub.
i was hooked up to a monitor and the contractions were steady and pretty close, but i wasn't progressing very quickly. finally the resident broke my water around 830, and things picked up. dr. s popped his head in the room and said he had a c-section to do and that freaked us out before he clarified that it was a different patient.
my contractions started to get more intense and about 1000 i gave in and asked for some statol. starting the iv hurt almost as much as the contractions. they didn't burn in my hips so much this time as with pooka. the dose of statol must have been smaller, as well, because i managed to stay conscious this time. i was just on the verge of loopiness, which was kind of cool. i knew i was flying, but i could still understand the things going on in my environment. from the time the statol actually was administered, she was born 45 minutes later at 11:07 pm. 7 lbs 4 oz, 18 1/4 inches. i felt a bit dissapointed by her size; i expected bigger. kisu asked me if i was crazy because a bigger baby would have meant a harder delivery. oh, right. nevermind. hard labor was about 2-2.5 hours. not bad for a second baby. i had finally managed to get the head out and they told me to stop pushing. not what you want to hear. it was hard but i did my best when they told me the cord was wrapped around the neck. they got that taken care of and then i delivered and they announced it was a girl. i wasn't even disappointed, just relieved. but she was very quiet and i got concerned again when it seemed like 15 minutes passed without much noise from her. they got her all set though, and she was fine. mom called about 3 minutes after delivery, uncanny. do they have a psychic link now because they share a name? i could tell mom was balling over the phone.
they were careful with the placenta since we wanted to donate the cord blood. i only needed 3 stitches, but i felt 2 of them. the dr lied about the effectiveness of the local anaesthetic.
bug wouldn't nurse at first, so we got cleaned up and moved into a regular room around 1:30 am. kisu hung out and rested for a while and then went home. bug woke up and nursed with a vengeance.
i couldn't believe how much different i felt this time from pooka. more relaxed and confident about my abilities, actually less tired; i stayed up most of the night just staring at bug. bug was a lot quieter, too. pooka was up that first night screaming and fussing. i was amazed at how mellow bug was, but she still had a whole range of noises she made softly. squeaks and grunts. very funny. i didn't even need much pain medication, which was great, although i still had that cold and any time i needed to cough i was miserable.