Heard the saying No Pain, No Gain? Well, it is 2:52 am on Sunday morning, so I think it is safe to say "I'm calling bullshit!"
First of all let me start of saying, I have had terrible luck with my teeth, I have always took pretty good care of my teeth and for some reason, I think I could have owned a luxury vehicle for the low bargain price of what I have spent on my teeth during my lifetime. Friday morning I woke up with a slight headache but assumed it was sinus', went to work as normal, and throughout the day realized it was my tooth. My dentist is closed on Fridays so I figured I'd just have to live with it til Monday... well, now I'm not sure I can. I'm not much on medication, but I feel like in the last 24 hours, I have tried everything! Around 7pm last night I took codeine, at this point I was willing to take this just to feel better, (I'm allergic, so at this point I was ok with the allergic reaction, just to have the pain go away) and I went to bed. I woke around 1 and I could feel that my face had swollen and the pain was back with a vengeance! My husband woke up to my uncontrollable sobbing in the hallway and tried to help me out by looking up home remedies... he asked how my pain was, and I got to thinking, this is far worse than child birth! (or at least my experience.)
Friday, April 3rd, 2009. I woke up just like any other day, I got dressed for work, I fixed my breakfast and packed my lunch and headed out to work. On the way there I listen to "Bro Fro I wanna know" (my Friday morning treat, they use to air waves to catch liars and cheaters in action) I got to work a few minutes early and preceded with my day as normal. I felt great! NO way did I believe that in less than 48 hours I was going to be giving birth to my daughter. You see, I was 38 weeks 6 days pregnant with my daughter, and earlier that week at my weekly visit, my doctor informed me that I would have my daughter by Sunday! Until this point, my pregnancy had been a walk in the park, so to speak, I had only gained 14lbs, I wasn't sick not even once, and I had not had one contraction, not even a braxton hicks thingy, I also had worked every scheduled work day and didn't miss a one. When she said I was dilated I about fell in the floor of shock because I had felt nothing happening, I didn't even realize she had dropped! It was seriously crazy!
Friday afternoon, I was at work trying to get the final touches done before I went out of work for the next 6 weeks, and I bent down to pick up a paint brush and felt my first contraction. Okay it felt more like a twinge than a contraction, or what I thought a contraction was suppose to feel like. The rest of the day I kept thinking I'd feel another, and NOTHING! I went to dinner, I walked around walmart, still nothing! I went to bed and woke up at 2 thinking I may be having them but it wasn't strong enough to really tell. I decided to make myself useful, the nesting thing for me was insane, so I mopped, did dishes, folded laundry, packed my bags for the hospital, checked my checklist about 14 times, and decided at 5 I needed to watch Clueless! By this point my contractions were happening more frequent but the doctor said not to come til they were 5 minutes apart. By the end of the movie they were 5 minutes apart, so I decided to wake my husband.
Me: Honey, I think it's time
Macon: Really? Now? What time is it? How far apart are they? (all half mumbles, while still somewhat asleep)
Me: yep, yep, about 7ish, about 5 minutes apart
Macon: WHAT????(Sat straight up in the bed, through covers back, in a matter of about 5 seconds, he was on his feet)
Me: What's wrong? I'm fine, don't rush. It's okay, I'm fine. I still have to pack up Whiskey's things (our dog) I have to shower, shave, put make up on and do my hair. It's okay seriously, you have got to chill out!
Macon: ~Deer in headlights~ How are you so calm?
Me: I am fine, I don't want to lay around the hospital all day and I don't want to get there and them send me home.
Macon: Your nuts you know that?
Me: Yep, now you chill
After that, I showered, shaved, washed, dried and styled my hair, makeup and packed up whiskey's things. We called his parents around 8:30, my grandma, and my dad. We then headed to my dad's to pick up magazines, and drop off Whiskey. Around 9am we were on our way, so I called the hospital told them I was coming and by that point my contractions were 2 minutes apart!
Food is a very important part of my life, and since I had been up since 2am I was STARVING to say the least, so I insisted even with my husbands questioning, we must stop at McDonalds. I ordered a plain english muffin toasted, we got my food and kept on trucking (30 minute drive to the hospital) We arrived at the hospital at 9:45 and checked in the delivery floor. By 10 I was checked (5cm, 100%effaced) and hooked up to tons of equipment and told to wait it out, so for an hour I waited.... at 11 nurse came back in and at which point I was then 6cm and told I could move to a room or I could walk. My birth plan was to wait as long as possible on the pain meds so I decided to walk. And for two hours I walked and peed, I'd walk a little and pee a lot. Lol... Around 1:45 I finally decided to go to the room and unpack my things and at this point the pain was only about a 4, but I was getting nauseous, so the nurse talked me into a epidural. My epidural procedure went great but then I noticed it was only working on the left side of my body, so I told the doctor, and she told me to lay on my right side to let the meds drain into my right leg, I did as I was told and then my left leg was no longer numb, so I did the same to the other side. I did this several times until I could feel everything again, the epidural had worn off, I had the clicker to give myself more if I wanted but I realized I didn't really need it.
At 3:30 the doctor came in and I was at 9 cm, at this point Macon called my dad, and his mom/dad, to come to the hospital, and by 4 they were all there. At 4 she came back in and I was at 10 so she called the doctor. Dr. Fair arrived at 4:15 and by 4:25 I was ready to push.... after a very long, lol... seven minutes, my daughter was born at 4:32pm April 4th...
I guess the reason I was thinking of this tonight is... When I checked into the hospital that morning, the first question was "On a scale of one to ten, what is your pain?" My answer was "honestly 2"
But if you were to ask me 3 hours ago, when I awoke to this hellacious tooth ache, my answer would have been 45!!! I think this is kinda crazy... I mean at the end of that day I went home with this amazing little girl. At the end the day today, all I'm gonna get is a day of no sleep, a giant ass dental bill, probably a root canal, and miss a day from work. I just have to say, this really sucks.
So when they say, NO Pain NO Gain, I just wanna say... that is not always true. Sometimes, in the wake of having a child, there is a major gain. Working out to get in shape and / or get healthy is a major gain. But this there is not gain! Normally I am a positive person... not so much today.
