August 8th, 2012 aka A Birth Story: Part One

 The morning of August 8th started off the same as the previous six mornings...up early in hopes that "maybe today will be the day", but with the expectations Baby was never going to actually make an appearance and I would be the first woman to be pregnant for the rest of her life.  As I opened the blinds in the living room, I thought the sky looked pretty and I thought to myself, "I want to snap a pic, just in case today is Baby's birthday".

The morning progressed the same as all the others...cramping, tightening, Braxton Hicks and so on.  Although there was a small part of me that thought, "This is it!", I continued to ignore any and all cramping because I had just gone through five days of this.  Around 11:30 am, Mike and Miss K were getting ready to go to Walmart and I said to Mike, "Maybe just hang on for half an hour and I'll actually pay attention to my belly and start timing what's happening".  I recorded the first contraction at 11:45 am.  The contractions started coming hard and fast.  Here is a screen shot of the contraction timing app I was using:

The first timed contraction is on the bottom and it goes upwards.
Right from the start, the contractions averaged three minutes apart and were 40 seconds long.

We phoned my Dad to put him on stand-by for picking up Miss K.  Ten minutes later we phoned him back to say we needed him NOW!!  Dad was at our place within minutes and by 12:15, we were on our way to the hospital.  Each contraction was intensifying with pain.  A small voice in the back of my head said, "You're not gonna make it!".

Between pulling up in the hospital parking lot and making it to the maternity ward, I had three more contractions.  By the time we reached the nurses' station, I could barely remember my own name.  When I told them that my contractions had only been happening for 45 minutes, I'm sure they were thinking, "Oh geez...here's another woman jumping the gun.  Let's check her over and then send her home".  I had another three, STRONG contractions while standing at the desk.  I said to Mike, "There's not going to be time for an epidural!".

Because their triage (observation) area was full, they decided to put me in a delivery room to do the non-stress test.  As Mike and I turned away from the nurses' desk, another contraction hit and I said to Mike, "OH MY GOD! I NEED TO PUSH!".  Again, I'm sure the nurses were thinking, "Yeah, yeah lady...we hear that all the time".  

We got into delivery room #14 and I climbed up onto the bed with my clothes on.  The poor nurse was trying to get the monitors on me to get Baby's heartbeat and do the non-stress test, but my body kept bucking the straps off.  I needed to pee and the nurse said if I felt like I could get up (as long as I didn't feel like I had to poop), then I could go to the bathroom.  It was at that point I finally changed into a gown.  The ability to pee brought me momentary relief.  As I stood up from the toilet, another contraction slammed my body and I collapsed into Mike's arms.  As I doubled over in pain, I looked down at my feet and saw blood running down my leg.  If I wasn't scared before, the sight of the blood sent me into sheer panic mode.  This was actually going to happen and it was going to be without drugs of any kind.

It took me a few minutes to gain the strength to climb back onto the bed.  I kept saying, "I need to push! I need to push!"(mixed in with a few requests for drugs of any sort...morphine, fentanyl, heroin...whatever I could get).  At this point, more nurses joined in on the action and yet no one had called my doctor.  Someone put my legs up into the stirrups and then told me, "Don't push! Just breath through the contractions!".  I remember thinking, "Are you effin' kidding me?  You prop me up into "go" position and then expect me NOT to push?!?".  A quick cervical check confirmed for the nurses that I wasn't just overreacting and that I really was ready to push...I was ten cm dilated!

One of the nurses ran back to the front desk to phone my doctor.  Because I had been at the hospital for all of 15 minutes, the nurse didn't even know my name.  She just phoned him and said, "I have one of your patients here and she's ready to push!".  Thank goodness my doc's office is just across the parking lot from the hospital...otherwise, he wouldn't have made it in time.

My doctor skidded into the delivery room at 1:05pm and gowned up.  I continued to beg for drugs, even though I knew it was pointless...Baby would be here before any type of drug would have kicked in.  There wasn't even time to get an IV into my hand.  After a couple of pushes, Baby's head was out.  One more push after that and Baby was out and up onto my tummy.  I felt two things simultaneously...instant relief from the insane amount of pain, as well as pure love for my brand new son.  Andrew Jacob joined the world at 1:20 pm, August 8th, 2012 weighing 9 lbs, 3 oz....only an hour and a half after my contractions started.

From this picture, it would appear as though I birthed him from my boob.  

I will post about the rest of Andrew's birthday in a second post tomorrow.  For now, here are a few more pics from Mr. A's birthday:

A half hour after Andrew joined our family.

A very proud big sister...she kept saying, "He's so cute!!"

Well, hello Mr. Chubby Cheeks!!

Two hours old and already a pro at Skyping (with Grandma)

One very proud Daddy with his new son

One very proud Mama and her boy

Snuggles in the hospital

Big Sister checking out Little Brother