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| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 2 2008, 01:26 AM (454 Views) | |
| Lynx Rubin | Nov 2 2008, 01:26 AM Post #1 |
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Resident Matchmaker
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(takes place Wednesday October 22) It was late Tuesday morning when it happened. Lynx was at home, preparing to go in for an afternoon shift at the Ministry. She had just eaten quite a hearty breakfast, and she was wondering when exactly her appetite would stop increasing (or, more to the point, when the size of her stomach would stop increasing). She was due tomorrow, although that meant little in the world of having children, seeing as very few women actually delivered on their due date. At least she was carrying lower, which her Healer had marked as a good sign, for the baby would drop before labor actually started. The process would be soon, of that she was sure. The baby could have been there last week for all anyone knew. But the baby hadn't arrived last week. No, Lynx had just gotten more uncomfortable. She hadn't thought getting even more uncomfortable was an option, but apparently it was. She was tired all the time - even walking the length of a hallway was taxing on her swollen feet and ankles and her poor, poor lower back - and perpetually uncomfortable. She couldn't find a good position to sleep in at night, and the most mundane tasks - showering, to name the most frustrating example - had become momentous difficulities. She supposed whoever or whatever was responsible for the grand design of women having babies had to at least be a little intelligent - because by the time the damn thing was due, the mother was so frustrated that she wouldn't care just how much pain it took, as long as it was OUT. So, when she suddenly paused in front of her desk as her stomach tightened in what felt like a vice-like grip, she felt a wave of relief wash over her. No, her now rock-hard abdomen wasn't fun, but it meant that the baby was finally going to arrive. She gripped the edge of the desk, unable to do much but wait till the pain subsided. It felt like it would take ages, and she tried to take deep breaths, as the books had instructed. Eventually, the contraction passed, and she was able to stand straight again. Well, it looked like she wouldn't be going into work... Damn. She'd had a long list of things she wanted to accomplish that day. Well, maybe just for a little... Her tiny inner voice was, actually, making sense. After all, she had read that women didn't need to go to the hospital till their contractions were about 5 minutes apart, and when they started - if it was going to be a long labor - they could be much farther apart than that. And she didn't feel another one coming... Perhaps she should just wait and time the first one. Then she could see if it was worth going into work for just a little bit. She glanced at the clock and made note of the time, the other part of her mind wondering if she should tell Tyler just yet. He wouldn't let me go to work... The inner voice wasn't going to win that argument. He'd want to know if she was in labor, no matter how far apart the contractions were. She made her way to the living room and sat down beside her husband. "The baby's coming," she said simply and calmly. There would be time to freak out later, but childbirth didn't really scare her (well, the pain had scared her a little, but the process itself was natural). It was being a mother that scared her. "I had my first contraction upstairs, so who knows how far apart they'll be." Was she excited? Of course she was, but she didn't want to freak out over going into labor just yet, especially since it could be hours before she'd actually have to go to the hospital. It would be more practical to focus her energies on being productive. |
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| Tyler Rubin | Nov 2 2008, 01:29 AM Post #2 |
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Tyler had been pouring over a list of figures, attempting to calculate astrologically what the chances of a boy was--as well as memorize facts about how often babies actually came on time, what he would have to do..it was quite the extensive library of books he had around him. And all of them had been unable to tell exactly what he would feel in the moment his wife entered the room and told him she had had her first contraction. He blinked frantically, and took her hand. She sounded rather amazingly calm...interesting. He knew quite well that Abi at that point had already been screaming. Not that the fact surprised him at all. "Wait, what?" He couldn't have heard that quite right. She wasn't due til tomorrow- he still had time... As though lead paint had dropped into his stomach, he found it impossible to move for a second, and tried to be logical. Just one? Well, clearly they weren't that close together yet. But still...she had to rest. As much rest as she could get, right? This would be long, hard...he blinked frantically again. Breathe. Numbers, there were figures and facts on the table besides him. Everything would be fine. Lynx would be fine, and out would come James or Aurelia, and they would be fine..fine. Everything would be fine "Okay." He said, running his free hand through his hair. "Okay. What's next?" Cause, his mind had seriously drawn a blank. He was shaking slightly, and blinking. What was wrong with him? Ok. Maybe it was an obvious question. |
![]() ..happiness is or is happiness a little more like knocking on your door, & you just let it in? | |
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| Lynx Rubin | Nov 2 2008, 01:30 AM Post #3 |
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Resident Matchmaker
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Lynx had calmly explained to Tyler how contractions could be quite a while apart at first and that she wouldn't have to go to the hospital till they were closer together. Then came the explanation of why she felt she should go to work for just a little... ..the reply to that was a firm no. So they'd waited a bit, got her things together. And... aside from the occasional contraction, nothing new was happening. She spent most of Tuesday waiting for the contractions to get closer together, but they seemed to be quite stubborn and slow-moving. Her mother had warned her that her family tended to have long labors - Llian had been an exhausting 36-hour labor, and first labors tended to the be the longest. But they had gone to the hospital eventually - early Wednesday morning and had finally gotten settled into a room. Lynx, by this time, was so tired. She was staying calm, but it hurt. She was getting tired from all the contractions, and she just wanted the baby to come out and for it to all be over. She had yet to scream, though, or curse or have any desire to curse anyone else. All she wanted was for it to be over. At the moment she couldn't really focus on how excited she was that her baby was coming into the world. She could focus on that later. They were waiting for a Healer, and yet another contraction passed. There was hardly any time now between them, and she just wanted them to stop so she could sleep. It had been over 24 hours at this point. |
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| Dania Winds | Nov 2 2008, 01:32 AM Post #4 |
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Dea walked into the room, sterilizing the room with a spell, and pulled her hair back more tightly so it would stay out of the way. "Good morning." Dea greeted cheerfully, taking a quick appraisal of facial expression. "We're going to prop you up so its not so uncomfortable laying on your back, and then we'll get started." She pushed up her sleeves and magically accio'd some more pillows (technically, each bed had one, but that was hardly useful for propping a patient up), and set to elevating Lynx. That done, she tilted her head slightly, asking permission, "May I?" and began to lightly knead the woman's stomach. Her eyebrow popped a moment later though, and she seemed almost amused as she asked, "You've been having contractions for a while, haven't you? Can you tell me when they started, and how far apart your last ones had been?" As she asked the questions, she turned on moniters and measured the cervix. "You're just about ready." Dea said, her tone encouraging. "The baby is already in normal delivery position, which is why you probably feel a fair amount of pressure on your pelvic girtle - your hips and pelvic area. The baby is head first, facing your back, and what'll happen is that baby will crown in that position, and then gradually turn sideways to let its shoulders through." That announced, she quickly monitered Lynx's blood pressure, fluids amounts, and iron levels, and then began explaining, "Its a bit too late to give you an epidural, for pain relief, usually one gets that when they are four to five inches dilated. Nine and a half is too close. Probably within your next contraction you'll be at ten, and we'll start pushing. All you have to do is to breath in between contractions, ride the wave of the pain, breath out and push with the contractions. Once the baby is crowned, you are already half-way done." Placing a small disk onto Lynx's stomach, she smiled slightly as, with the disk, the baby's heartbeat was auditably maxifized. She began counting it per minute (it is supposed to be about 100 beats per minute, amiotic fluid causes it to beat harder), and tilted her head. "Baby's ready to come out too, listen to that strong beat." Despite the pain, labor was probably the most amazing thing she'd ever do in this hospital. |
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| Lynx Rubin | Nov 2 2008, 01:33 AM Post #5 |
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Resident Matchmaker
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Lynx listened to everything the woman had said, replying, "The contractions started late yesterday morning." She wasn't much in the mood for talking, so she figured she'd keep her words as few as possible. All she wanted to do was have the baby. The news that he or she was ready to come out was quite exciting, and Lynx was realizing just how much she wanted it to happen (and not just because she wanted the pain to stop). "Really? You mean it's almost over?" She was exhausted and she hadn't even given a single push yet. Her stomach contracted again, just as Dea was finished speaking, and she managed to get out, "Ok...it's... happening now.." |
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| Dania Winds | Nov 2 2008, 01:33 AM Post #6 |
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"The contractions are the part that last the longest, unless there is some kind of complication, like the ambilical cord is where it shouldn't be, then yes, it shouldn't be much longer before you're a new mummy." Dea assured her. Late yesterday morning. Well, damn. She wasn't sure exactly how this woman had managed to go nearly a whole day with these contractions, and only now showing up at the hospital. Dea could tell the moment Lynx began having her next contraction, and simply urged, "Just try to relax. Focus on something that is completely distracting to you. A strawberry, a room, a book, anything. If you relax and focus on something, it'll hurt worse. The problem is focusing singularly on that one thing, not the pain." Once the contraction was over a few minutes later, Dea measured her cervix once more, and smiled. "Exactly as I'd thought, you're ten centimeters. This is the hard part; contractions will come every few minutes, and you just need to remember to breathe. Deep, calm breaths. Most people like to turn their companion's hands black and blue from lack of oxygen. Don't worry, I can take care of that too." She kept her words light and unworried, and took her place where she was needed. After a moment, knowing it was coming, Dea began to coach. "Alright. One...two...three...push! Thats it, deep breath, and again, one...two...three...push!" |
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| Lynx Rubin | Nov 2 2008, 01:35 AM Post #7 |
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Resident Matchmaker
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Lynx nodded at the advice, wishing she'd known it a lot sooner. "You see?" she remarked to Tyler in between breaths. "I should've focused on work," she laughed. But the laughs were short-lived. The contractions were pretty much non-stop now, and she was being told to push. So, push she did, on Dea's count. She gritted her teeth and tried not to picture just what was going on in the lower half of her body. She just knew that it hurt. She had never felt such intense pain in her life, and she wanted it to all be over. She gripped Tyler's offered hand and squeezed tightly as she pushed as hard as she could. Just a little more, and it will all be over, she silently encouraged herself. Just a little longer. She was trying to focus on anything but the pain, but it was just do hard. Another push. Dea was announcing that the baby's head was crowning, and the uncomfortable feeling shifted. There was so much pressure on her... pelvic... girtle or whatever it was that was called. She couldn't exactly remember, and she wasn't thinking that clearly. Her empathy naturally tried to help her out with some sort of defense, but it seemed to also be going haywire. She pushed again on Dea's command, wondering how it was women did this more than once. Why would they choose to do that? At that moment, she was quite sure she was never ever doing this again. She didn't know how many times she had pushed before it was announced that the head was out. That had been painful enough, and now the shoulders had to fit? She felt as though she was being stretched to her limit. Another few pushes, and she was almost there. By this time she was half-delirious from exhaustion - it had, after all, been over 24 hours since she had started having contractions, and sleep was rather impossible. "One more push," Dea announced brightly. She didn't want to do it again. At all. But somehow she found herself giving one... last... push... The pressure was relieved, and then there was a loud cry. "Congratulations," Dea announced happily. "You have a son!" The baby was immediately placed onto her abdomen, and she got her first glimpse of him. They had a baby boy. Her wide smile was all the communication she could manage at the moment. She was extremely emotional, and she actually felt a couple of tears well up. "We have a son," she said excitedly to her equally-as-ecstatic husband. Stating the obvious? Yeah. But... they had a son! Dea asked if Tyler wanted to cut the cord. She supposed he did - she had dropped his hand, anyways - but as Dea removed a newly towled off baby off of her stomach (or, the mush that had been her abdomen), at that moment all she wanted to do was sink back against the pillows (even if her sweat-soaked hair would make that rather uncomfortable). A nurse put ID bands on her, Tyler and the baby and took the baby across the room to get records of the footprints and for the Apgar test - which she had learned from her reading was performed one minute and five minutes after birth - and she propped herself up, watching the baby she had just given birth to. Merlin, she had just given birth to a baby. She was a mother. Of course, apparently she wasn't done, as Dea told her she had to give another few pushes to expel the placenta. Right. More pushes. Great. She forced herself to comply, her overly-sore body protesting her every movement. The nurse pressed down on her stomach to make sure everything was out (and damn that hurt) and asked her to get up and go to the bathroom. Luckily, that didn't take long, although it was hell to get up after going through that. Her stomach muscles felt like mush, and her legs weren't doing much in the way of helping. But by the time she had done that and she had been cleaned up, her newly-cleaned and swaddled baby (who had scored an 8 on the Apgar test) was handed to her, and she got to hold her baby for the first time. He had stopped crying by then and was just looking up at her. "Hi James," she greeted him with a smile. He was beautiful - a bit red-faced and wrinkly, but beautiful. He was wearing a little blue hat now to keep his head warm, but when he was first born, Lynx had seen a head of dark hair. James moved slightly in her arms and yawned, Lynx noting every little detail despite her complete exhaustion. When he opened his eyes, she beamed with pride and delight. His eyes were a deep shade of blue, and Lynx was almost certain they would become brown. Finally seeing him was an absolute joy, one she probably couldn't express in words of any kind. She loved him so much already, and he wasn't even a half-hour old. Dea asked her if she wanted to start breast-feeding immediately or wait till she got to a recovery room. Lynx decided the latter option would be best and turned to her husband. "D'you want to hold him?" she asked, quite sure of what the answer would be. It was odd, knowing that he could be away from her now. It was odd being able to see him, knowing that every little movement he made had been going on inside of her just the other day. It was a strange phenomenon, and she was surprised at how much she was loving every second of it. They had a baby. [permission given to GM Dea and Tyler.] |
![]() [credit Meredith] | |
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