A Birth Story

I woke up on February 14 after a very miserable night sleep. I knew It was going to be my last good sleep in awhile and I wasted it! I couldn’t sleep! So I got out of bed around 8 and made some pancakes for the Hub and I. I mean it was valentines day after all, gotta go above and beyond. We sat and ate out breakfast and I said “how many times do you think I’m going to cry today” and then I started crying. I knew it was going to be an emotional day. Jim usually works from home on Thursdays but decided that he was going to take the day off instead and finish up the last few things that needed to get done around the house. On top of that he had been sick since Sunday, and on Tuesday the doctor told him he had tonsillitis. His whole mouth was swollen to the point where he could hardly eat anything, and cold sores took over his bottom lip. It was the worst timing ever, but we he made it through.

  It was a great day! I got to clean all day, and I love cleaning! But in the back of my head I couldn’t shake the feeling that “this time tomorrow I’m going to be in labor”. We didn’t have any big Valentines day plans because I was really torn on what to do. Do we go to dinner and a movie and get home kinda late and then MAYBE get an hour or two of sleep and then go have a baby at 3 am or do we just got to an easy dinner so we can come home and try to nap or go to sleep earlier and then go have a baby? By 5 I was starving so we decided on the latter. The Hub and I ate our last meal and Zupas, came home and took the dog on a walk, and sat down to watch Revenge. There were multiple times during the show that I heard vibrating but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Then I finally said something and Jim realized his phone had been ringing but was on the charger. He jumped up and answered it and I heard him say “Hmmm. Let me ask my wife”, that sure got my attention. He then said that the hospital was on the phone and wanted to know if we would like to come in now, and my heart stopped and I shrugged my shoulders and said “I don’t see why not” and looked back at the tv and started crying. It was only 8:00, 5 hours before I was suppose to even go in. I finished the last 5 minutes of the episode, but I have no idea what actually happened. I got up and started getting the rest of my things ready, but I knew it was pointless because my bag had been ready for 2 weeks. Then, I had one of the most amazing experiences with that husband of mine, first of many to come over the next few days, but there was a hug involved and some pretty amazing words and emotions and I’ll just leave it at that.

We got to the hospital around 8:45 and got all set up with registration. Around 9:20ish they came out to get us, and we were headed back to our room. I had no idea what to even expect going in and even now just a few days later it’s kind of a blur. My nurse checked my and said I was 3 and 60%, and don’t worry that I called her out on the fact that I had been 80% earlier. She then told me it’s all up to interpretation and I would know that if I had “gone to class”. Sassy thing she was, but I really really really really loved her. As she was hooking me up she said that I was having contractions, but they weren’t labor contractions, and I had no idea. I didn’t really feel anything, and she said they weren’t regular at all. It was kind of nice to just sit there and chat with her as she did everything. I felt really confident in her and her experience as a L&D nurse. Around 11 I was completely hooked up and they had me started on Pitocin. I had heard stories that it would make my life miserable and for the first hour I felt like it wasn’t doing anything. Much to my surprise around 12 my doctor came in as happy as ever and broke my water and told me I was at a 4. For whatever reason I was positive it was going to hurt, but I didn’t feel a thing, but a gush of warm water, and it never seemed to stop. After that things got rough. I actually started to feel my contractions and she kept telling me to “do what you did to get ready for this part” and I just kept looking at Jim like, I didn’t do anything to get ready for this part, I thought they told you how to breath.

At 12:15ish I pulled out my iPad and watched Lamaze breathing on youtube and it didn’t really help at all. My nurse was really good about coming in every 30 minutes exactly to do whatever they do so when she came in at 12:30 she asked if I was doing ok and I said yes but I didn’t want the epidural yet. I’ve heard of multiple different people getting it and then by the time they needed to push it had warn off and they felt everything, not exactly what I wanted. I was determined to make it to 1 before telling her I was ready. She left the room again and I had 2 more contractions fairly close together and I looked at Jim and told him I couldn’t do it anymore and that I needed the epidural. I called her back in and told her and I said I tried to make it as long as I could but I needed it now. She called the anesthesiologist in and he got right to work. Knowing now how things played out I wish I had gotten it sooner because I didn’t realize how hard it would be to be contracting and getting ready for an epidural. It was hard! I had the pillow in front of me, and my nurse holding my shoulders forward so that I wouldn’t move. I couldn’t breath through the contractions anymore because the pillow was in my face, and if I turned my head I would breath in my hair. It was rough. I didn’t know that it took so long for them to shove that needle in your back! When he was done sticking everything in I had 2 contractions and I was worried and I even said “Am I suppose to be feeling this”? and He chuckled and said he hadn’t put the medicine in yet. I felt like an idiot.

By the time he was done the nurse said I was at about a 6.5! I was shocked! I expected for things to slow down at this point because that’s what the epidural does. It was a good thing I called and asked for the epidural when I did because as he was putting it in he was called into a C section and they said had I not called I probably would have waited until about 2 to get it. That would have been awful!! Before 2 I was already a 7. My nurse told me that the goal was to have the baby here before 7 at the latest so that was my plan. I texted my cousin to let her know because her and my aunt were going to come down and be my personal cheerleaders. I needed cheerleaders. By this point I was feeling really really good, but there was no hope of getting any rest for Jim or I. We both tried, but they come in so often and the anticipation was killing both of us. Only a few hours and our sweet baby would be joining us in the world! Paige told me that Her and Shelley were getting ready and I thought they were crazy. I told them to leave their house around 5:30 and I am so happy they didn’t listen to me. At 2:15 I was an 8, and Paige and Shelley announced that they were coming to the hospital, but I was still convinced we were goaling for 7.

I sent this text at 2:45 “We are at a 9.5. She said we will be pushing in 1-3 hours. If I could push we would but we are gonna let him come down some more so I’d say head on over”. This is when things got, what I felt, weird. I had to lay on my side to get him to drop. I was having to switch back and forth, and they even brought out the peanut ball for me to put between my legs. I could move my own body for the most part, but I only had so much control over my legs. I could move them to where they needed to be, but she had to position them on the ball. After being on my side for awhile the nurse came back and checked me a few times and he was coming down really good, except he had his head turned. It wasn’t a big deal (so they made it seem). The nurse had to get someone else for a second opinion to see what way he was facing. His body was ready, but he was trying to come out with his ear first. This meant that they were going to have to try and turn his head as I contracted. At this point Paige and Shelley  were at the hospital and had joined us in the delivery room. The nurse said we were going to “practice push”, and its just like real pushing, except the nurse was all up in my business with all the strength she had trying to turn his head as I pushed. I’m so so so so so glad I didn’t really know what was going on, because now I do and I would have been really freaking out. Jim was up by my head holding my hand while Paige and Shelley were holding my legs and helping me push. This all started at about 3:30 and went on for awhile. I was getting tired, and she said when we were about 20 minutes away she would call Dr. Huish to come down, and before I knew it she came back into the room and said that he was here, at the hospital. After he broke my water he saw that I was at a 5.5 and decided to just sleep at the hospital because he knew it wouldn’t be long before he would be needed. This is when I got really nervous, and things got a little crazy. This is when lots of people started coming into the room and introducing themselves to me and I don’t remember any of them. I thought it was so funny that she called on her pager and said that she needed help in delivery and like 10 people were there in no time.

We continued with the practice pushing and she said I had a cyst that ruptured while I was pushing so every time I pushed it would bleed a lot. I wasn’t even surprised and she said it wouldn’t hurt the baby at all. When Dr. Huish showed up the whole vibe of the room changed. All of a sudden it was business. All the nurses were there at his command. Diana showed him the cyst and told him it bled a lot when I pushed and he said it wasn’t the cyst that was bleeding, it was because I had torn so much already. He definitely said it so I wouldn’t hear, but I did.  This scared me and not to long after they were pulling out the oxygen. I don’t know if these were related, but I wouldn’t be surprised. Things were underway and people were taking bets on when he would come. I just remember being kind of out of it, and dizzy, and saying “I’m going to throw up soon”, and just like that they had given me a little thing to throw up in. Not long after, I sure did throw up, but it was just mostly stomach acid and bubbles. This happened a few times and then it was back to business. Dr. Huish said he was going to use the vacuum because his heart rate was dropping and he would be here in a couple of pushes. I was fine with that and started prepping myself so a funky cone head shaped baby. And just as an FYI, the vacuum is nothing like you’d imagine. It honestly reminds me of a giant breast pump with a crank handle. He was right, a few pushes later, at 5:05am the cutest baby entered the world. It was absolutely surreal and everything was kind of blurry but he held him up and I started crying, and then he said because of his heart rate I couldn’t hold him yet. Jim then got to cut the cord, and in that moment there was no one else in the world. It was just my handsome husband and my sweet baby, and the tears really started coming for me. Just like that moment over and he was on the scale and Shelley sent Jim over to be by the baby and she stayed with me. All I remember hearing was “he has such long fingers and toes” and “don’t take any pictures yet”. I don’t know why the nurses wouldn’t let them take pictures, but that’s what they said.

Next thing I know Dr. Huish was asking me to push again so that I could deliver the placenta, and he asked if I wanted to see it and I was discussed and said NO until I caught a little glimpse of it and decided that I needed to see the whole thing. I’ve never seen anything like it! He held it up and turned it right side out and told me how healthy it was. My response “and people eat that???” He responded by laughing and saying “no no no, only a few really weird people do”. After that I felt like things were dragging on. I still hadn’t held my baby, and now Dr. Huish was sewing me up. That took another 30-45 minutes and I just watched my husband watch our baby, and I got emotional all over again. At one point I looked over and he was wiping a tear from his face, and I lost it. I’ve only seen the man cry 3 times in my life and this was one of them. Right after that there was a nice performance put on by Nixon as he peed all over the nurses… twice. That’s my boy! Shortly after Dr. Huish was finished with the sewing the nurse handed my cute husband our adorable baby, and instantly he stopped crying and was just happy content and Jim walked him over to me and put him in my arms, and he started crying again, and didn’t stop for about an hour. I tried feeding him, rocking him, everything, he just wasn’t havin’ mom!

Eventually it was time to be transferred into the post partum room and all three of us were just exhausted. The nurse came in to talk to us and I could barely keep my eyes open and nod my head enough to make her believe I was listening. We were lucky enough to have a one hour nap, eat some food, be bothered again by the nurses and then we had another nap for probably an hour and after that we were not allowed to sleep! People were coming in and out, Nixon was being checked by the nurses, so was I, and it was just crazy.

The rest of the day was spent with friends and family, and not much rest. I’ve never been through something so crazy and amazing before in my life. The best part? I got the cutest little baby out of it. We love you Nixon! Thank you for making what could have been a terribly painful experience, not so bad!

Nixon at 3 weeks old and half naked