"Laborious"

In honor of Labor Day (I'd almost forgotten - since we don't celebrate that here... although come to think of it, the US embassy might be closed...), Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer posted the following meme. Since pregnancy - and an upcoming delivery are frequently on my mind these days, I thought I might as well jump in and join in the fun.

How long were your labors?

Brendan, 11 hours

Rebekah Joy, 8 hours

Nadia, 6 hours

Anna, 5 days (I kid you not... We went to the hospital on day 1, but things weren't progressing, so they said to go home and come back... On day 3, after a check at the doctor's office, they sent me to the hospital, so days 3, 4 & 5 were spent there. I asked the doctor, after the fact, why they let labor go on so long. His response: "Both you and the baby were handling it, so I didn't want to intervene unless it became necessary.")

Victoria, 7.5 hours (a complete induction)

Jonathan, 4 hours

Elsie Mae, 1.5 hours

#8, remains to be seen

How did you know you were in labor?

Brendan, contractions I couldn't sleep through

Rebekah Joy, irregular but persistant contractions

Nadia, contractions

Anna, contractions I couldn't sleep through, no more than 5 minutes apart...for 5 days... no joking

Victoria, the doctor showed mercy and agreed to induce, since Tim was returning to Niger in 10 days and leaving me on my own with 5 kids, 7 & under. I wanted at least a few days of recovery time. :-)

Jonathan, contractions

Elsie Mae, no contractions, just a slightly achy back that made me suspicious, so we decided to visit the midwife to be sure. Tim delivered Elsie...

#8, remains to be seen

Where did you deliver?

Brendan, hospital, Midland, MI

Rebekah Joy, hospital, Midland, MI

Nadia, hospital, Midland, MI

Anna, hospital, Quebec City, Quebec

Victoria, Lansing, MI (a complete induction)

Jonathan, clinic, Niamey, NIGER

Elsie Mae, clinic, Niamey, NIGER

#8, remains to be seen, hopefully the hospital in Midland, MI

Drugs?

Brendan, yep, Nubain and I loved it!

Rebekah Joy, in theory, except the nurse forgot to open up the IV.

Nadia, no

Anna, kinda sort of... after 5 days of no progress, they gave me a shot of demerol, things took off and my almost 10-lber baby arrived 25 minutes later.

Victoria, yep, an epidural, that DIDN'T work!

Jonathan, Does extra strength Tylenol that I brought to the clinic myself count?

Elsie Mae, Nope... I didn't even bother with packing the Tylenol the second time around.

#8, remains to be seen, but we are praying for a quick and completely natural delivery a bit before my due date.

C-section?

Thankfully, none so far. We want to continue that trend.

Who delivered?

Brendan, intern working with the doctor on call

Rebekah Joy, doctor

Nadia, doctor

Anna, a doctor and the first English speaking medical person I'd encountered in those 5 days

Victoria, doctor

Jonathan, midwife

Elsie Mae, her daddy - the midwife was out calling the doctor to tell her she needed to hurry to make the delivery

#8, remains to be seen, though I know it won't be his/her daddy this time, since we'll be on different continents

If you want to play along with this meme, just cut and paste the questions into your own blog, and leave your link at Rocks In My Dryer. Leave me a comment, so I can check out your labor history, too!