The birth
I decided that I should document the story of the birth of Charlie.
My due date was Sunday November 25th. By the time the day was rolling around, I had come to the conclusion I was going to have to wait and be induced. I had been having contractions for over two weeks and nothing had happened, so I just knew nothing was going to happen on its own.
Well I woke up that morning at about 4 a.m. with contractions. These contractions were like all the rest. They were of the same intensity so I just forced my self back to sleep. I then wake up later that morning and I am still having contractions. I tell my husband that maybe we should time the contractions once we are both showered and awake.
So at about 10 a.m., Aaron and I are downstairs watching TV timing my contractions. They are 7 minutes apart. Later we notice the contractions are now 5 minutes apart. At this time Aaron is like maybe we should go to the hospital. I say no because they are the same intensity of the contractions that I were told were false when I went to the hospital, and everyone said the "real" ones would be much stronger. So Aaron convinces me to at least go get lunch and drive to the shopping plazas by the hospital. I agree so off we go. We have lunch at Burger King, and then head to Circuit City. At this time the contractions are 3 minutes apart, but still no stronger. Aaron convinces me to call the doctor.
We got to Circuit City and wait for the doctors return call. (You call the answering service, and they get the doctor to call you). When I talk to the doctor, he says go to the hospital or walk around some more at the shopping plaza and then go to the hospital. Aaron decides to go to the hospital.
When we arrive at the hospital, I am checked and set up to monitors. I still have not dilated anymore than before, but now they notice something about my contractions. They discover my contractions are constant, there are no periods of rest. The contractions peak every three minutes, but they never totally disappear. It took the nurses awhile to notice this because everyone thought the equipment was just poorly placed, but no matter where they placed the equipment they got the same results. Well after all of this was discovered, my doctor said to admit me. I am attached to an IV and begin the fluid drip that will sustain me until I give birth.
Time passes and my contractions still are "wonky" (a word dubbed at the hospital to describe the situation). Still no dilation, and I am beginning to feel even worse.
Well the doctor decides to give me morphine. The idea is that the morphine will relax my body and the contractions will regulate themselves. So I am given the morphine, and am told I will fall asleep. Well I feel the effects of the morphine and never fall asleep. It was a very strange sensation to have contractions on morphine. They felt like they were in slow motion and exaggerated. Well the morphine did not work.
At this time, two nurses are talking to me. One is basically trying to convince me this is still false labor and I should go home. I am on the verge of tears. I know this is not false labor. I know I am in labor and something is just not working right. Well the other nurse says it is up to my doctor what to do.
Time passes and the nice nurse returns. She inform me the doctor has decided I should stay the night and be given two doses of nubain 3 hours apart. The doctor wanted to induce, but because the NICU was fall the hospital could not do selective inductions only medically necessary ones. Well I am given the nubain and try and sleep.
The next morning the hospital doctor comes in to re-check me. She says I have dilated another centimeter or two. I also learn that the nubain did help create a somewhat normal contraction pattern, but the contractions were not very frequent. At this time, I begin complaining of numbness on my left side. I am beginning to panic that I am going to have an MS attack. I do not know if it was my complaining of numbness or just the amount of time that passed, but I got cleared for a medically necessary inducement. At approximately 9:30 a.m. I am given potocin.
Approximately every hour a nurse comes in , asks me how I feel and increase the potocin. I feel fine. Every time I get checked by a nurse I am told I have not dilated anymore. I am even told that the doctor's belief that I was 3-4 centimeters was wrong, and that I am still barely 2.
Since I am on potocin I cannot leave the room. I must be hooked up to a monitor at all times. So I watch TV, a couple episodes of Charmed, the Prices is Right and judge shows. I play Uno with Aaron, and basically watch the clock tick. At about 5 p.m. I am checked by the nurse. As she is checking me I think I pee on her. I then go to the bathroom and no pee comes out. She tells me she is going to call the doctor with an update. (At this time my doctor's office has switched which doctor is on call). At about 5:30 as I am playing Uno with Aaron (at this time I was moved to a chair because the bed was hurting me), I feel a gush. I stand up and look at Aaron and say I couldn't of peed myself, I just went to the bathroom. I am near tears, and then I say, I think my water broke. Aaron calls a nurse in and indeed my water broke. In my mind I am just thinking, in 24 hours I will have this baby, because I know if I have not dilated they will be doing a c-section.
Well time continues to pass. At7:30 I start complaining of gas. I am really uncomfortable and keep trying to move to relieve the pressure. At 8 I start watching How I Met Your Mother, a show I love. During the show I start crying the "gas" pain is just too much. Aaron asks me to tell him when the pain gets bad. I do this twice, when he says "those are your contractions, you complain when the monitor is showing a contraction." At this time I am crying and say I want my epidural. Aaron calls to request the epidural and the nurse rushes in. She tells me they have a standing order for the epidural from my doctor already. (She says they had the order for quite some time already). I am given an quick extra fluid drip and told it will be 10 minutes. During those ten minutes, I say repeatedly I cannot do this, I want to go home. The anesthesiologist comes; I am given my epidural and almost immediately the pain goes away. It was strange because the epidural only helped my right side at first, so I had to change positions to get it to work on my left side.
After I get the epidural the nurse tries to convince me to sleep. I say I am not tired, but that I will go to sleep at 10 p.m. I wanted to watch Heroes. It was the final episode of that specific plotline. We watch Heroes and then I go to sleep. I wake up a bit after 11, and call out to Aaron. He wakes up, and I ask him to lift my left leg because it fell off the bed and I cannot move it. He does this. I then ask him to stay with me. He says he wants to go back to sleep on the couch. I say no. He says why, and I say because I am pregnant and say so.
I turn on the news and we watch the end of it. We then start watching a very old Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Because of the writers strike, they are showing classic episodes of late night TV. The nurse comes in. Aaron thinks we are going to be yelled at because I am not asleep. The nurse just says, she wants to check on me. I tell her I woke up and knew I would not fall back asleep. She asks if I am feeling pressure in my rear. I say yes. I had noticed the pressure and knew that was a sign of impending delivery, but I wanted to wait before asking for a nurse. The nurse checks me and says "we are good to go." Aaron who is still half asleep say, oh she is fully effaced. The nurse say yes. Aaron then asks how dilated am I. The nurses once again says we are ready to go. Arron asks what does that mean. The nurse calmly says, we are going to start pushing. Aaron now wakes up immediately.
The nurse prepares for the delivery. I ask the time and am told it is 11:57. I know my son will be born early Tuesday morning. I begin to push. With each contraction the nurse raises one leg while Aaron raises the other. I have no sense of time. I just feel like I am constantly pushing. At some point the doctor arrives. I continue to push. The doctor tells me the baby is posterior. That means when I push the doctor is trying to turn the baby. I hear them talking about seeing the top of the baby. They ask if I want to look. I say no. Finally I feel this weird feeling like something is stuck in me. I finally ask to look, and a mirror is placed so I can see the baby's head partially sticking out of me. It looks so gross. I then push and maybe my disgust at what I saw, and feeling that the poor baby was stuck in me made that set of pushing the last. The baby is out and immediately placed on my upper stomach. I can only see the baby's back but I am rubbing him saying how much I love him. I am near tears, and I look at Aaron and see that he is just staring at us also on the verge of crying. The baby is taken away to the far side of the room for all his checks. A few minutes later the baby is given back to me. I am able to nurse him, hold him and look at him. I even let Aaron hold the baby. We confirm with each other we are happy with the name, and start to call the baby Charlie. After an hour or so, Charlie is taken to the nursery and I am asked if I want to eat. I am given a few choices and select Macaroni and Cheese. The cafeteria is closed, so it turns out I am given Stouffer's Macaroni and Cheese. It was great. I was starved as I had not eaten in 37 hours. As I eat my food, I begin to realize I am now a Mommy.
My due date was Sunday November 25th. By the time the day was rolling around, I had come to the conclusion I was going to have to wait and be induced. I had been having contractions for over two weeks and nothing had happened, so I just knew nothing was going to happen on its own.
Well I woke up that morning at about 4 a.m. with contractions. These contractions were like all the rest. They were of the same intensity so I just forced my self back to sleep. I then wake up later that morning and I am still having contractions. I tell my husband that maybe we should time the contractions once we are both showered and awake.
So at about 10 a.m., Aaron and I are downstairs watching TV timing my contractions. They are 7 minutes apart. Later we notice the contractions are now 5 minutes apart. At this time Aaron is like maybe we should go to the hospital. I say no because they are the same intensity of the contractions that I were told were false when I went to the hospital, and everyone said the "real" ones would be much stronger. So Aaron convinces me to at least go get lunch and drive to the shopping plazas by the hospital. I agree so off we go. We have lunch at Burger King, and then head to Circuit City. At this time the contractions are 3 minutes apart, but still no stronger. Aaron convinces me to call the doctor.
We got to Circuit City and wait for the doctors return call. (You call the answering service, and they get the doctor to call you). When I talk to the doctor, he says go to the hospital or walk around some more at the shopping plaza and then go to the hospital. Aaron decides to go to the hospital.
When we arrive at the hospital, I am checked and set up to monitors. I still have not dilated anymore than before, but now they notice something about my contractions. They discover my contractions are constant, there are no periods of rest. The contractions peak every three minutes, but they never totally disappear. It took the nurses awhile to notice this because everyone thought the equipment was just poorly placed, but no matter where they placed the equipment they got the same results. Well after all of this was discovered, my doctor said to admit me. I am attached to an IV and begin the fluid drip that will sustain me until I give birth.
Time passes and my contractions still are "wonky" (a word dubbed at the hospital to describe the situation). Still no dilation, and I am beginning to feel even worse.
Well the doctor decides to give me morphine. The idea is that the morphine will relax my body and the contractions will regulate themselves. So I am given the morphine, and am told I will fall asleep. Well I feel the effects of the morphine and never fall asleep. It was a very strange sensation to have contractions on morphine. They felt like they were in slow motion and exaggerated. Well the morphine did not work.
At this time, two nurses are talking to me. One is basically trying to convince me this is still false labor and I should go home. I am on the verge of tears. I know this is not false labor. I know I am in labor and something is just not working right. Well the other nurse says it is up to my doctor what to do.
Time passes and the nice nurse returns. She inform me the doctor has decided I should stay the night and be given two doses of nubain 3 hours apart. The doctor wanted to induce, but because the NICU was fall the hospital could not do selective inductions only medically necessary ones. Well I am given the nubain and try and sleep.
The next morning the hospital doctor comes in to re-check me. She says I have dilated another centimeter or two. I also learn that the nubain did help create a somewhat normal contraction pattern, but the contractions were not very frequent. At this time, I begin complaining of numbness on my left side. I am beginning to panic that I am going to have an MS attack. I do not know if it was my complaining of numbness or just the amount of time that passed, but I got cleared for a medically necessary inducement. At approximately 9:30 a.m. I am given potocin.
Approximately every hour a nurse comes in , asks me how I feel and increase the potocin. I feel fine. Every time I get checked by a nurse I am told I have not dilated anymore. I am even told that the doctor's belief that I was 3-4 centimeters was wrong, and that I am still barely 2.
Since I am on potocin I cannot leave the room. I must be hooked up to a monitor at all times. So I watch TV, a couple episodes of Charmed, the Prices is Right and judge shows. I play Uno with Aaron, and basically watch the clock tick. At about 5 p.m. I am checked by the nurse. As she is checking me I think I pee on her. I then go to the bathroom and no pee comes out. She tells me she is going to call the doctor with an update. (At this time my doctor's office has switched which doctor is on call). At about 5:30 as I am playing Uno with Aaron (at this time I was moved to a chair because the bed was hurting me), I feel a gush. I stand up and look at Aaron and say I couldn't of peed myself, I just went to the bathroom. I am near tears, and then I say, I think my water broke. Aaron calls a nurse in and indeed my water broke. In my mind I am just thinking, in 24 hours I will have this baby, because I know if I have not dilated they will be doing a c-section.
Well time continues to pass. At7:30 I start complaining of gas. I am really uncomfortable and keep trying to move to relieve the pressure. At 8 I start watching How I Met Your Mother, a show I love. During the show I start crying the "gas" pain is just too much. Aaron asks me to tell him when the pain gets bad. I do this twice, when he says "those are your contractions, you complain when the monitor is showing a contraction." At this time I am crying and say I want my epidural. Aaron calls to request the epidural and the nurse rushes in. She tells me they have a standing order for the epidural from my doctor already. (She says they had the order for quite some time already). I am given an quick extra fluid drip and told it will be 10 minutes. During those ten minutes, I say repeatedly I cannot do this, I want to go home. The anesthesiologist comes; I am given my epidural and almost immediately the pain goes away. It was strange because the epidural only helped my right side at first, so I had to change positions to get it to work on my left side.
After I get the epidural the nurse tries to convince me to sleep. I say I am not tired, but that I will go to sleep at 10 p.m. I wanted to watch Heroes. It was the final episode of that specific plotline. We watch Heroes and then I go to sleep. I wake up a bit after 11, and call out to Aaron. He wakes up, and I ask him to lift my left leg because it fell off the bed and I cannot move it. He does this. I then ask him to stay with me. He says he wants to go back to sleep on the couch. I say no. He says why, and I say because I am pregnant and say so.
I turn on the news and we watch the end of it. We then start watching a very old Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Because of the writers strike, they are showing classic episodes of late night TV. The nurse comes in. Aaron thinks we are going to be yelled at because I am not asleep. The nurse just says, she wants to check on me. I tell her I woke up and knew I would not fall back asleep. She asks if I am feeling pressure in my rear. I say yes. I had noticed the pressure and knew that was a sign of impending delivery, but I wanted to wait before asking for a nurse. The nurse checks me and says "we are good to go." Aaron who is still half asleep say, oh she is fully effaced. The nurse say yes. Aaron then asks how dilated am I. The nurses once again says we are ready to go. Arron asks what does that mean. The nurse calmly says, we are going to start pushing. Aaron now wakes up immediately.
The nurse prepares for the delivery. I ask the time and am told it is 11:57. I know my son will be born early Tuesday morning. I begin to push. With each contraction the nurse raises one leg while Aaron raises the other. I have no sense of time. I just feel like I am constantly pushing. At some point the doctor arrives. I continue to push. The doctor tells me the baby is posterior. That means when I push the doctor is trying to turn the baby. I hear them talking about seeing the top of the baby. They ask if I want to look. I say no. Finally I feel this weird feeling like something is stuck in me. I finally ask to look, and a mirror is placed so I can see the baby's head partially sticking out of me. It looks so gross. I then push and maybe my disgust at what I saw, and feeling that the poor baby was stuck in me made that set of pushing the last. The baby is out and immediately placed on my upper stomach. I can only see the baby's back but I am rubbing him saying how much I love him. I am near tears, and I look at Aaron and see that he is just staring at us also on the verge of crying. The baby is taken away to the far side of the room for all his checks. A few minutes later the baby is given back to me. I am able to nurse him, hold him and look at him. I even let Aaron hold the baby. We confirm with each other we are happy with the name, and start to call the baby Charlie. After an hour or so, Charlie is taken to the nursery and I am asked if I want to eat. I am given a few choices and select Macaroni and Cheese. The cafeteria is closed, so it turns out I am given Stouffer's Macaroni and Cheese. It was great. I was starved as I had not eaten in 37 hours. As I eat my food, I begin to realize I am now a Mommy.