Secretly Unstable

I have been told I am crazy, funny, a good cook, and a decent blogger. These are the expectations I am trying to live up to. Thank you.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Now I must start this blog off by saying that there will be typos, bad grammer, and I may just have to stop short at any given second. We are now on Ruby time.

Oh... maybe I should have started by introducing my daughter, Ruby Louise O'Callaghan. She was born about a week and a half early on October 25th, at 5:49PM. (Like I said, we are on Ruby time now.) She weighed in at 7lbs, 3ozs, 20in. She looks like me, and has big O'Callaghan feet.

Now, I don't know how many of you are wondering how labor and delivery went. I fretted enough about it in previous blogs, so I guess I better give you the verdict. I must say that it wasn't that bad.

Next I will say, PRAISE THE EPIDURAL. I wanted to tough it out and see if I could give birth to Ruby without drugs. Who was I kidding? I asked for drugs while they were giving me the IV. And the best thing was that they were back 5 minutes later to hook me up to the epidural. It was all good from there. The contractions I did experience were a bitch. Like bad cramps times ten. And I got the epidural before the contractions got really bad. The even better part is that I was on the epidural for the pushing part. I proved to the doctor that I could push Ruby out with the epidural and I did a kick ass job out of fear that they were going to take me off the epidural. The doctor said I had "the perfect epidural." I had no pain, but I knew when to push. Granted it was still one of the hardest things I have ever done, but it was painless. (And I swear I am not lying.) I was VERY lucky.

Note: I have key advice for any pregnant woman. I will not share the advice here, because it is too graphic. But if anyone reading this gets knocked up, ask me what my key advice is.

When Ruby finally arrived I was happy about three things, 1. I was not pregnant anymore, 2. She was healthy, 3. I am glad I married Derek. Derek was awesome. He was supportive and he didn't annoy me. He also hid whatever horror he witnessed in the delivery room, and didn't show any distress on his face. At one point the doctor asked if I wanted them to bring in a mirror so I could watch the baby come out. "No thanks," I said. But Derek watched the whole thing. Brave man. Derek is continuing to impress me. Those of you who I have spoken to have heard my hormonal lamenting about how, "No one told me that I was going to fall in love with my husband again." And it is the truth. I couldn't delivery Ruby without him, and I couldn't care for her now without him. Plus we have something new to talk about, and after 11 years together, that is very valuable.

Now about the hormones... if labor contractions are 10X as bad as regular cramps. The hormonal rollercoaster that I am experiencing is 100X worse than PMS. I cry around 6:30PM everyday. About what, everything and nothing. It is bananas. Again, thank goodness for a supportive husband. And I figure half of the battle is knowing that I am insane.

The past 11 days have been crazy. We spent 2 nights in the hospital, 2 nights home, 2 nights in the hospital again, and have been home (FOR GOOD KNOCK ON WOOD) since. The second stay in the hospital was crappy ass crappy. Poor Ruby was jaundice and had to be in a light box, tortured by RETARDED residents, and had to deal with a Mom that had 2 hours of sleep in 48 hours. The experience makes the madness of being at home seem easy.

The best part of this saga is Ruby. She is awesome. Today was my first day alone with her, since this country doesn't understand the importance of paternity leave and Derek had to go back to work. She treated me really well today. I mean I have a moment to write this blog (mind you I have 25 minutes until the next feeding.) My first day with her has been a combination of joy, confusion, frustration, fun, exhaustion, crying (her and me), laughing (me), insanity, and quiet. I go mad for one hour, I sit here for one hour, repeat. There is no predicting, there is no "figuring." There is no control and no plan. But there is Ruby, and she rocks. My mini-me.