birth story

This is the way I remember things, starting with Tuesday, even though he wasn't born until Wednesday...

Tuesday morning I still didn't feel very well (see the post below for why). We had an appointment to go see a house so I got dressed and off we went. We really liked the house, and told the realtor that we wanted to go ahead and make an offer. He said we should go over the house really well so we knew what we wanted to offer. As we were going around my back was hurting and I just wanted to sit down so I went back and sat in the car until they were finished. Bob came back out and we decided to go to Wal Mart to return some things and get some other things. When we got there I was not doing well standing in the line to return the stuff so I went and sat on a bench while Bob took care of business. When he was done we went back and got a wheelchair and Bob wheeled me around while we picked up the things we needed. When we were done we went home and I just rested for the rest of the evening. Bob made some spaghetti and it was really good! We went to bed at about 10:30.
I didn't actually go to sleep until 11:30, but got up every hour to go to the bathroom. (I was still having diarrhea) and my back hurt a whole lot! Finally around 6ish Bob's alarm went off and he was sort of awake. I told him how I felt and he asked if I wanted him to stay home with me that day. I told him no, to go to work I'd be fine. He got ready for work, and took the dog out. When he came back he asked me again if I wanted him to stay home. At this point I was having some cramping across my lower abdomen so I told him that he better stay. We called the birth center and since they were not open yet we left a message and waited for the midwife to call us back. When she did we told her what was going on and she told us to go ahead and go to the hospital. We got our things together and headed out. While we were driving the pain was getting worse so Bob was driving as fast as he could, honking and passing people. We got to the hospital and as we were walking across the parking deck I had a contraction and the parking attendant looked over and saw us. She ran up to the building and brought back a wheelchair and rushed us into the hospital. We rushed past admitting and straight to the 5th floor where they put us in a room and the midwife checked me. She said that I was dilated 3 cm and that this baby was coming out today. She offered some pain meds, and I let her know that I wanted none at all unless I asked for them. I think we got to the hospital around 10:45. They put us into another room where they hooked up the IV with the penicillin (my appointment for my Group B Strep had been scheduled for Friday). They also hooked up the fetal monitor and stuff. I don’t remember everything at this point. I do remember that the contractions were getting closer together for a while, and when one would come I would grab Bob or Bob’s shirt. After a while he got me my teddy bear and the labor necklace. I used the bear as a pillow against the edge of the bed. Then it seemed to me anyway, that the contractions were so far apart. I was sleeping in between them and each time I would think “this is going to take forever if these contractions don’t get closer together”. Although, as it turns out, even though it felt like 30 minutes of very refreshing sleep, it was only 30 seconds or so. At 8 cm I was getting such a strong urge to push that I could not stop myself. The midwife kept telling me to blow the pain away, but I just couldn’t stop from pushing. They gave me oxygen to help me breathe. Soon they were actually telling me to push, and I was really trying! After a few sessions of pushing I didn’t feel like I was making any progress so I asked if he was coming. Someone, I’m not sure who, said that his head was showing, and that he had a lot of hair. I reached down and felt his head. Bob said I started crying, but I don’t remember that. After that I pushed and pushed, but it was so hard. I felt like my head would explode and my lips went numb. The midwife said that if I didn’t get it in a few more pushes they were going to have to use the vacuum extractor thing. Oh yeah, even though I definitely did not want it, she gave me the episiotomy. THAT pain was almost worse than a contraction. I screamed like a crazy person! Anyway, when she said that I got upset. There was no way that I was going to let my baby get his head suctioned! I pushed and pushed and pushed with the next contraction. The next thing I knew his head was out, and then with a gush the rest of him came out, too! They rushed him over to give him oxygen and get him warmed up. No one told me at the time, but apparently with each contraction his heart rate was going down. Bob says when he came out they rushed him to cut the cord. He was so purple. The cord was wrapped around his neck, belly, and one leg. I’m not sure how he ended up that way. After a few minutes I asked if I could see him and the brought him over. He looked better (I didn’t see him before, but bob said he was almost black!) but he was still purple. I snuggled him a little bit and then they took him to get him under some lights for warmth and give him more oxygen. Just after they took him the midwife started helping me get the placenta out. It took a while, but it blurped out. I asked to see it and she came over and showed it to me. Bob said that he wanted to keep it, so it’s in our freezer now. The midwife started to stitch me up and in came my mom and sister! I was shaking so badly, I felt cold and I was exhausted! My mom said they had seen the baby in the hallway and he was so beautiful. She gave me a big hug and told me that I had done good. After I got stitched up they wheeled me out to the recovery area, and on the way from delivery to recovery they stop and you get to push a button that plays a lullaby to let everyone know that a baby was just born. We got into the room and started getting guests, but that’s a story for another time.