Nick’s Birth Story
I know every woman says it, but by the time I actually went into active labor I thought it would never happen. At 32 weeks I had gone into preterm labor. At that point I had been dilated to 3 cm and I was 60% effaced. After that I spent weeks waiting to finally go into active labor as I constantly had bouts of contractions that would start and stop. Every time a new bout would start I would be sure that bout would be the one only to have my contractions fizzle out again.
None of the doctors really expected me to make it to full term, but there I was on April 20, two days away from being 39 weeks, still pregnant. The night before I had started getting campy and I woke up the same way. As the morning went on my cramps got a bit worse and I started spotting.
That day was a pretty busy day for me. I had an appointment with my eye doctor and then I had my weekly appointment with the OB. At my OB appointment the doctor said that she felt that the baby was going to come soon, but she didn’t consider me in active labor yet and she really wasn’t sure that it would happen that day. She did an internal inspection, found that I was dilated to 4 cm, and sent me home with instructions to call when my cramps were five minutes apart.
As I was driving home I thought about how I wasn’t quite ready for the baby to come. There was still things I needed for him. Most of the things I knew we could get by without for awhile, but the fact that I didn’t yet have a changing pad bothered me. I suppose it could have been a nesting instinct, but all I knew was that I had to get that pad, so off I went to Babies-R-Us. Of course then I thought about the fact that Easter was only a few days away, and that Nick would likely be here for it and I would need Easter Bunny presents for him. So after buying the changing pad I headed next door to Meijer to by an Easter basket and Pat the Bunny (the book that every baby should have).
Having finished my shopping I finally headed home. By this point my cramps were starting to get stronger. I was getting to the point that I had to stop what I was doing and breath through the pain. I noticed that the pains were starting to move closer to the 5 minute mark. I started to wonder if we would be going to the hospital soon.
Once I got home I put my stuff away as quickly as I could and then I went to soak in the bath tub. While I was in the tub the pain started to get worse, but the water felt so good that I didn’t want to get out.
As soon as I got out of the tub things really started to progress. The pains quickly intensified and they became hard to handle. I quickly came to miss the soothing warmth of the bath water. I realized that the contractions were starting to come fast and strong, so I called out to Jason that I thought we were going to have to go soon. Then I called my mom and told her that I was thinking I that I needed to call the doctor. She asked how far apart my contractions were and then got upset with me when I told her that I didn’t know because I hadn’t been paying attention to the time while I was in the tub. After we got off the phone I worked on getting myself ready to go and monitored my contractions. That’s when I found out they were coming every 2 to 3 minutes.
I finished getting ready and called the doctor’s office. I told them what I was experiencing and they told me that a doctor would call me back. Knowing that this could easily take 15 to 20 minutes I was ready to sit back and wait, but my husband had other ideas. The drive to the hospital was about 25 minutes, and Jason did not want to get there an hour from then which it likely would be if we waited to be called back. So instead of waiting he loaded me and everything into the car and off we went.
We got the call from the doctor just after we had gotten onto the highway. I again told her what I was experiencing and she said I should come in. I told her I was already on the way and that we would arrive in about 20 minutes.
We arrived at the Triage entrance and pulled into the special parking spots next to the entrance. By that point I was in so much pain that I didn’t think I could walk inside let alone go all the way desk a few floors up, so Jason got me a wheelchair and pushed me in.
When we got to the desk I signed all of the required documents and then was admitted to an observation room where we had to wait and wait. My mother arrived not long after us and came in to keep us company. I was getting hard contractions that were reaching the top of the meter, but nothing was as painful as the ones that would go into my back. Waiting in that pain was hard, but I think it was just as bad for Jason. At one point he asked if he could go out and yell at the doctors since no one had come in and my mother and I both told him, “No!”
Finally after waiting for almost two hours a doctor came in to examine me. They did an ultra sound first and saw that Nick was still head down, but sadly me for me he was sunny side up. Then they did an internal check and found that I was dilated to 6cm. They then said that they were going to admit me. That’s when I lost it and broke into tears. To this day I still can’t explain why I started crying. I could just blame all of those wild pregnancy hormones, but I think I was just relived that after weeks of preterm labor it was actually going to happen.
On our way to the delivery room the nurse asked me if I wanted an epidural. I had always wanted something, but the thought of the epidural had freaked me out, so I had really been on the fence on it. The pain I was in though, especially the back labor, was more than I could handle, so I told her that yes I wanted one.
The delivery room was quite nice. It was very large and it had a private bathroom and some chairs as well as a sleeper chair. There was a good size place for the baby to be as well. Best of all at that point there was a T.V. Sitting in the exam room without anything to watch to distract me from the pain had been tough.
They got me all situated on the bed and hooked up to the monitors. Then they said that someone would be in soon to do my epidural. They said that they would allow one person in with me so that they could put all of their focus on me while they were doing it. Well, as soon as he arrived Jason was out the door leaving mom to help me through it.
The epidural went very well. They said that it could take up to 30 minutes for the numbing to take affect, but mine kicked in quickly. By 10:30 I was feeling great and ready to watch the Red Wings take on the Coyotes (they swept them in that game by the way). I couldn’t believe how great I felt. I just kept looking at my mom and asking her how she ever had done it without anything.
That was the start of my many long, but painless, hours of laboring. At some point during the game my mother-in-law arrived to wait with us. Later on the doctors came in and broke my water to help move things along. They told me that they were trying to get in touch with my doctor, but they weren’t having much luck
Once the game was done the night seemed to just drag on. We turned off the lights in the room, but we left the T.V. on. We watched Oprah, Cheers, The Golden Girls, I Love Lucy, and still nothing happened. Every one else slept a little, although not well, but I could hardly sleep at all. Every 20 minutes the blood pressure monitor would turn on and wake me up. Plus the baby kept moving around and they’d lose his heart beat and they’d have to come in and move the monitor until they found it again. The nurse and doctors would come and check on me periodically as well. Around 3 or so they found that I was fully dilated, but the baby hadn’t dropped, so they wanted to give him time to come down so I wouldn’t have to push as much. They told me that I would know when it was time because I’d feel a need to push. At some point they turned down my epidural so I could feel a bit more so I’d get that feeling to push.
My doctor was on call at the hospital starting at 7 and I was so happy to see her. I was the first patient that she had had from the start all of the way through the end, so I joked with her that I thought Nick was holding on because he didn’t want her to miss the big moment. She said that they were going to come check where I was soon and they were going to have me start pushing no matter what. I was a little nervous at the thought of it actually happening, but I was also ready to be done with the labor.
Around 8:30 they gave me another internal exam and found that the baby had dropped all of the way down to negative three station. They couldn’t believe that I hadn’t felt a need to push. Since the baby was already so low the head doctor said that he guessed that the baby would be out within 30 minutes, but not to quote him on that. It’s a very good thing that he added that part.
As soon as everything was ready to go Jason took my left and a nurse took my right and we got down to business. I pushed and I pushed, and the doctors said I was doing great, but nothing was happening. At some point Jason made the comment that if I thought this part was hard then just wait to until I got to the shoulders. I think everyone in the room looked at him like they thought he had a death wish! There were a lot of people in there too. I guess that’s what you get when you deliver at a hospital that’s part of a university.
I ended up pushing for an hour and a half. I don’t remember a lot of what went on in the room because I was in a world all on my own. I just kept pushing and then resting in between contractions. It was hard to do, but the pain wasn’t awful because my epidural was still working. In fact I often had to ask the nurse if a contraction was starting because I couldn’t really feel them. Towards the end the doctors started telling me, “next big push and he’ll be out.” Well, after hearing that five times I finally had to ask them to stop saying that because I couldn’t handle hearing it one more time when it kept not happening.
Finally Nick arrived at 10:10 in the morning. It turns out that he had his hand up by his face which was what was causing his difficulty getting out. When he finally came out he flew out like he had been shot out of a cannon. My mother said that if the doctors hadn’t been there ready for him he would have ended up on the floor.
I honestly can’t describe the feelings that went through me when they laid him on me. For so many months I had felt him moving around, and even though I had thought about him all of the time I had never really pictured what he’d look like. It was so wonderful to finally see him. I was so enthralled with getting to know my little man that I hardly noticed the doctors stitching me up (thank you again epidural!). Since Nick’s hand had been up he had really ripped me up coming out.
In the end I’d say Nick’s birth went pretty well. I’m glad I had a patient doctor who was in no rush to get Nick out. The last thing I needed was for someone trying to pull him out since he was a bit stuck. I’d say the worst parts of labor for me were the beginning before I had drugs, and after. I got quite nauseous after Nick was born and got sick. Then when they tried to get me up my blood pressure plummeted and it took about two hours before I was up to trying to move again. I also can’t say that I forgot the pain as soon as I saw Nick, but it was worth all that I had to go through to have him.
