Family of Five (Little md's birth story)

As some of you know I was scheduled for induction on Friday April 23rd. I arrived at the hospital at 3am. I went up to Labor and Delivery pretty quickly and was checked into birthday suite #10. The room where we would welcome our Little md.



I was more nervous than ever. I just kept thinking 'we can't possibly be lucky three times in a row...what if something goes wrong this time?' I was hooked up to the baby heart rate monitor and the contraction monitor. Apparently I was have contractions and just not realizing how often I was having them. They weren't painful.

The nurse checked me (still 2cm) and started the pill in my cervix around 3:30. So then the contraction became more painful. Around 7:00, she said she wanted to check me again at 8:00 and was hoping Dr. S would come in by that time so he could break my water. Pause!

{With both of my previous deliveries I think one of the most painful things was the breaking of the water. I would--both times--end up shaking, crying and last time, begging them to stop. So this time I figured I got a little say in the matter...this being my third trip to the rodeo and all. After explaining myself, the nurse agreed. She didn't want to be running around frantically trying to get my epidural after he broke my water. She called the doc and got permission for me to get the epidural prior to his visit. Yeah!!}

A nurse anesthetist administered the epidural, and it was the least favorite of the three I've received. He was very slow, which is okay, I want him to get it right, but he also did things a little differently and I felt more pain during it. But at least I was numb, or getting there and the water breaking and subsequent cervix checks were not painful. Whew! Dr. S said I was four centimeters, and the baby was minus 1 station. Yeah he was coming down like he is supposed to!

A little later I felt the contraction on one side again. Actually that side never really did get numb, so even after rolling over, it was not getting numb, the nurse called in the candy man to add some more juice. He did and it worked this time. So well that I actually--between BP cuff intervals--got to doze and rest.

But then (sometime between 11:00 and 11:30 I think) I started feeling a sharp pain in the area I would think is my cervix. Hmmm. This is new and not so pleasant. I called the nurse in to say I was feeling pain and she (as they always do asked if I meant pressure) and I (as I always do) explained that this was different than the pressure of needing to push, this actually was a sharp pain. She checked me and said I was complete, but the baby for some unknown reason was back up very high. She thought it was due to my bladder being full, but that changed nothing, so she was puzzled and I was worried. Why would he move back up? Did this mean a c-section? Did this mean he was too big to fit?

She said she could get a boost to the epidural but it would mean longing time pushing. I told her that with Little m I was extremely numb and she still came in record time. I said "I'm okay with pushing longer" I was not okay with "pushing through the pain" which was the other option. She said..."I'm just not gonna tell him you're complete or he won't boost the epidural" Believe me her secret is safe with me. And you, right?

Well in the meantime, waiting for the candy man to come back, guess what rapidly began to wear off? That's right. What pain relief I had left. So now every minute or less, a mack truck would hit me somewhere in the middle and radiate through me as if my pelvis were trying to break free of my body.

I was gripping the bed rail and curled (as near as I could get) into the fetal position. I'm not entirely sure, but I am fairly certain there was some whimpering and shaking going on. At one point D tried to rub my arm and I strongly suggested 'don't touch me!'

So there I was. Me and the pain. And the worry about my baby. And the blur of people getting things ready around me. The baby nurse telling her student nurse charge that "here was the ambi bag for resuscitating the baby" should they need it. An EMT standing at the foot of the bed with her hair too black.

Candy man came back and I probably should have acknowledged him, but all I heard was "oh you're getting low" as he added the meds to my contraption. Probably a good thing I wasn't talking as I might have wanted to say rather sarcastically "really?"

Then my nurse asked me to roll over so we could start pushing.

"I can't."

"We'll wait until this contraction is over."

'No' I was thinking, 'I can't push in this much pain!' She made some comment that the epidural wasn't going to work at this point and I looked her dead in the eye and said "are you saying it's not going to work?" She said, 'well it may start working too late'. Nothing like that to motivate you. Ha. But I somehow rolled over to my back during the next contraction and the baby nurse was on one leg, while my nurse was on the other. And somehow--Thanks be to God--the pain started going away.

But the flip side of course is how very numb I was. And so the pushing began at 11:50. And progress was slow and I needed oxygen because just before I started pushing his heart rate dropped a bit. But then it went back up and stayed good. Occasionally I had to stop to catch my breath. The nurses were so awesome and so were my mom and husband who held my shoulders up with every push. Doc came in and decided to hang out in the hall for awhile until I got closer. So this made me feel better. Apparently he thought I was close enough that he didn't need to go back across the street to his office.

So I kept pushing and finally with a little position change of the legs I could tell it was getting close and so everyone took their place for this birth and I had to hold off a minute so Dr. S could get his face mask on. I pushed again and he said to stop--I think the head was out and Little md's cord was wrapped tightly around his neck.

But that was quickly taken care of and after a little push Dr. S said my favorite thing that he always says during delivery "okay you can stop now the rest is all me." I don't know why that is such a comfort to me. I guess just to know that the work is over and in a few seconds I'll get to see my baby for the first time.

There was a little whirlwind as he was born at 12:29 and a joke as Dr. S said what a cute girl and the nurses said "WHAT?" And he checked again and said Oh! because with the cord and everything he was too busy to check carefully.

Instead of handing him to me though, the nurses took him to the warmer and began working on him and it was then that it hit me 'he's not crying'. I kept waiting and watching and asking "is he okay" and they said he's moving all around. But I still didn't hear him cry, and they were suctioning him and working on him and I was griping D's hand and after an eternity (that was less than a minute)...



He cried.

And I cried. And I finally, finally got to hold him.





He's fine. His scores at birth were a little low at 7, since the cord was around his neck. But then after that he was fine and pink and healthy and beautiful. He's 8 pounds and 5 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. His head circumference is 14 inches.

We are a family of five now. The girls are more than a little in love with their brother.



I couldn't have asked for anything more. Well, maybe a little easier recovery, but I'll save that for another post.