A Birth Story (Part Two)

The other day, I started telling you all about the little guy’s birth story. In case you missed it (and you’ll want to read the first half so you aren’t completely lost), you can find it right here! And while you’re here don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed. If you’re looking for today’s photography challenge, you’ll want to check it out HERE! It’s a good one!

So my water had broke at 2:05 am, and we’d made it to the hospital, only to discover that I was no more effaced and no more dilated than I had been at my doctors appointment that previous Thursday. That’s when the nurses told me to start walking. So we did. The hubs and I paced up and down the hallway for almost two hours. We watched the sun come up, watched the morning downtown traffic pick up, and felt my contractions get worse. With every lap around the floor that we made, I started to hurt worse and worse. Apparently, my doctor decided that since I wasn’t very far along, that he didn’t need to make his rounds until later on in the morning. And the Midwife/Nurse/Whatever-she-was who was taking care of me, pushed me to wait until the doctor came to get my epidural.

He finally made his rounds about 7:30.

During my pregnancy, I had seen all of the doctors at this particular practice at least once, but I’d pretty much had the same doctor every visit. And the doctor who ended up delivering the little man, wasn’t it. I was slightly disappointed when I heard he was the one on call, but he ended up being absolutely fantastic. When he came and made rounds, I had dilated to 5 cm. They weren’t happy with how slowly I was progressing, so they ordered up the Pitocin drip. This made my contractions come on much quicker, much harder and much more painful.

My parents (who received the mid-morning “I am in labor” phone call) made the six hour drive from Alabama and arrived at the hospital close to 9:00 am. I have to admit, I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to see my mama. Her and the hubs double teamed and kept the ice chips flowing and the conversation easy for me.

Soon after they arrived, my Anesthesia team came in to give me the good stuff. And YES I had an epidural during childbirth, and NO I don’t feel the least bit uncool, unsuccessful, or unaccomplished. God gave us feel-good meds to ease the pain of childbirth. And I was beyond grateful to take them. So, there. Since we were living in Saint Petersburg, and the hospital was less than a mile from the Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Stadium, the entire hospital was all excited about the Rays being in the World Series. So I remember the guys who gave me my epidural wearing the Rays Baseball Jersey’s. It took two tries for them to get the needle in  my back, but I never budged. The epidural was the part about the labor and delivery I feared the most, but it was the easiest. Once that medicine went into my back, I was in heaven. My legs went limp and I was able to relax for the first time in hours.

From there, the next several hours were spent rolling from side to side trying to keep the little man’s heartbeat up. His umbilical chord was wrapped around his shoulders, and certain positions, paired with the Pitocin drip, made his heart-rate drop. They were concerned that I wouldn’t be able to deliver him naturally, and tried several times to get me to give them the go ahead to do a C-Section. But I knew he would come in his own time. And I wasn’t the least bit worried. I demanded my 24 hours to deliver naturally unless something major happened. There wasn’t a lot of rest during the waiting period. I tried to sleep, but the pressure to push started up, and I just couldn’t relax.

Finally, after many, many hours of nurse-assisted dilation and bed rolling, I reached 10 cm. Then another issue came. The little guy hadn’t dropped far enough yet. So, in a final effort to avoid a C-Section, the nurses rolled by pregnant, limp-from-the-waist-down, drugged up self over onto my knees to lean over the bed. They wanted “gravity” to do it’s work. And apparently it did. Because after about 10 minutes in that most uncomfortable and awkward position, it was time to push.

The hubs mom came barreling into the room as they were getting everything set up, so her, my mom and the hubs stayed right here with me during the delivery. As I was getting ready to push, the overhead light (the one like the dentist uses) went out. So my doctor got up to fix it, and left my midwife there to “catch the baby.” I don’t know how many times I pushed, but I know that I started pushing at 5:00 pm, and I heard the little man’s first cry at 5:49. My mom was holding my right foot, hubs had my left, and my MIL was at my head. They were the best cheering squad ever.

So after 16 hours and 49 minutes, Joshua Noah was born.

I ended up with 6 stitches and a lot of swelling and discomfort, but it was worth every second. He scored a 9 and a 10 on his Apgar tests, and was absolutely perfect, minus the little bout of jaundice that left us in the hospital for an extra day.

So there you go. Little Man’s birth story. Complete with “never before seen” delivery room photo’s.  🙂 I gave my mom permission to snap pictures after the little guy was born, and only from my waist up. I was very strict on those stipulations. Sorry that they are in black and white. This was before my mom got her Digital Camera, so she was using her Film Rebel and had a roll of black and white film in it. Enjoy!

{this is what 16 hours and 49 minutes of baby delivery does to you…And in case you’re wondering what I’m doing, I’m ringing the “new baby was born” bell before going to our room. It took 5 tries to get a decent photo here. I was starving and ready to sleep.)

{me, Little Man, and my daddy}

{My Mom and Little Man. My sister and Little Man.}

And us finally getting ready to go home. We forgot to pack my hair straightener, so that’s why my hair looks like straw. It was a mess. But I really could have cared less. Haha.

(Edited to Add) There’s also a section of the story I left out when I typed this originally. See that nurse in the photo of us wheeling out and to a new room? She was TERRIBLE. After Little Man was born, and they got me cleaned up, hubs went to get me McDonalds. This nurse was coming on shift, and was completely rude. We were getting ready to move rooms, and I was waiting on the hubs to come back so he would know where to find us when he returned to the hospital. This nurse just kept forcing my stuff out the door and was really ugly about us waiting. I mean really rude. AND she forgot to give me an ice pack and all of those “I just had a baby and I’m not feeling great down there things.” So I had serious swelling issues, and my doctor was NOT happy. I went almost 12 hours without any ice to ease the swelling and the pain. Not cool. Needless to say, I filed a complaint.

The End.