Another Birth Story: Part Two

This birth experience was ridiculously wonderful in comparison to that with 'Munchkin'.  I was totally surprised by my body's ability to withstand pain, my positive attitude during the whole process and the excellent staff at the (totally different) hospital.  Completely the opposite of my last experience.

Just as I had settled into my hospital bed, I politely ordered my epidural only to be told that the anesthesiologist had just gone into a C-section.  I was told that I would have to wait until 9:30.  It was 7:30.  I panicked for a brief moment thinking that, if things progressed quickly, I may not be getting relief at all.  My fantastic nurse offered me pain medicine for in the meantime but I declined.  I remember what a good friend had said about natural childbirth.  God had prepared my body to handle this and it was nothing that I couldn't get through. 

For the next two hours, I breathed (the hee-hee, hoo-hoo kind) cried, trembled, and moaned through each contraction.  'The Hubs', my mom and  my step-dad enjoyed their breakfast and coffee with eyes glued to the contraction monitor, foreshadowing each painful peak and announcing every decline to relief.  And just when I thought I could take no more, my angel of an anesthesiologist walked through the door.

The insertion of my epidural catheter went without a hitch and with in a half an hour, I was numb.  On both sides.  And, I remember telling the anesthesiologist that I loved him.  Because I did.

For the rest of the morning, I watched TV, chatted with 'The Hubs', my mom and my mother-in-law, took a nap and waited to meet our son.  We each predicted what time we thought he would make his arrival.  'The Hubs' ended up being the closest.  I progressed slowly but wasn't bothered because I felt so good.  I was just a little hungry. 

In the early afternoon, my nurse announced that I was 10 cm dilated.  But, my water still hadn't broken.  She had me do a few test pushes to see if I could break it myself.  She tried to break it with the hook like contraption.  Nothing.  She joked that I needed Edward (you know, the vampire) to rip open my amniotic sac. 

A half an hour later, it still had not broken.  My doctor was just finishing her day in the office and was headed over to try to help break it.  Just before she walked in, it broke on its own. 

Dr. D. checked me when she arrived and thought the baby was still a bit high so we waited another half hour to see if gravity would help him come down.  And that is when my epidural wore off.  Nothing, not even a booster dose, was able to compete with my continuous contractions.  In the end, I felt the whole thing.  At least I got a little break in between.

The baby only came down very slightly so Dr. D. had me try a test push to see if he would come down.  And he did. 

The actual delivery is a painful blur.  I pushed for what felt like forever and, for the first time, screamed through the whole thing.  I felt my body rip in half as he was born and wondered if he had an abnormally large head.  Turns out, he had his hand on his head and his arm on his face as he made his arrival.  I was shocked when they placed this huge, bruiser of a baby on my chest.  He looked humongous compared to my other seven pounders.

And just when I thought I didn't know how I would handle our little surprise being here...I fell in love with my child for the very third time.