I started having mild contractions while watching Lost on Tuesday night. Shawn got home late from work and we both agreed that we hoped the contractions would go away, as we were too tired to have a baby that night. As we snuggled into bed and exchanged goodnights at 11pm, I felt a pop and my water spilled out onto the bed. Suddenly, we were wide awake!
I had been examined the day before and was already dilated to almost 4cm, so I was a complete 4 when we got to the hospital. It was surreal to lie there and know what was going to happen in what I thought would be a few hours. I labored for a few hours through painful contractions, but decided early on that an epidural was the way to go. The doc seemed to have a handle on the procedure and it went well. I could feel the contraction pressure, but no pain, and I had almost full use of my legs. As the night wore on, our very young and chipper nurse hung out in the room for what seemed like long periods chatting and typing into the computer. She was very sweet, but I wanted to be alone.
By 6:30am, I was dilated to 9cm, but the baby was still very high and refusing to come down. The nurse and I were hoping to get him out by the end of her shift at 7am. Didn't happen. 5 hours later, I was still at 9cm, but the baby's position had not changed. Shawn said that he was like a bat clinging to the inside of my uterus. I was given pitocin to regulate my contractions, which it did. My epidural was proving to be not quite strong enough to ward off the pain, and I started feeling the contractions. This frightened me. Another doc came in and gave me a dose of something to take away the pain. It did, but I was exhausted and emotional by this point. Our nurse was terrifc and understanding. At about 1pm, she had me start pushing and called the doc to tell him what was going on.
As she and Shawn were flanking my sides and pushing my legs back, I pushed with all my might. I could feel progress, but honestly was feeling like I would rather die than ever do this again. I told Shawn as much.
Just when I thought I could not muster any more energy for pushing, I felt a lot of progress and the nurse jumped up from the bed, half-yelling, "Stop pushing! Stop pushing! Just breathe!" She was crossing the room to call for the doc and backup. I cannot describe the amount of effort it took to stop the pushing and breathe. I was so afraid that I wasn't going to be able to comply, that I started sobbing and saying, "I can't. I can't." If you know me, you know I don't display emotion like that. The nurse hurried back to me while she was waiting for help. As the baby was coming out, she was muttering that the cord was wrapped around him. I could hear fear in her voice, which caused me to panic and sob some more. I heard the doc enter the room and very calmly, he pulled the baby out. I am told the cord was wrapped around his body in a figure 8 and then around his neck. I opened my eyes to see the room full of people and heard someone say "NICU", which made me continue to sob and say, "Is he ok?" "What's wrong?" over and over again. The baby was put on my chest, but all I could see was his purple head. He was wisked over to a respiratory therapist and we waited in agony until we heard his first little peeps. His first APGAR score was a 3 and his second was a 7.
We've had some feeding issues (he's been slow to it) and we've supplemented with a little formula, but he appears to be getting on track. We came home today and I am so sad that this precious little bundle is going to grow up. He's sleeping in his daddy's arms right now and he has no idea what a blessed little boy he is.
