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.

Another Birth Story: Part One

In the wee small hours of the next morning, I began to feel contractions.  Nothing I hadn't felt over the past few weeks.  So, while it woke me, I thought it was just false labor and went back to sleep. 

For seven minutes.

Then, I felt another.  Stronger but, I still felt that it was just a tease.  So, again, I went back to sleep. 

I remember having a dream in which I was having regular contractions and trying to decide whether or not to call the doctor.  It was interrupted by a contraction so intense that I sat straight up and realized any contraction that I had in the past was not really a contraction at all. 

I was finally in labor.

I woke 'The Hubs' from his sleep about ten minutes later and told him that I was calling the doctor.  He asked me if I had been timing the contractions.  I told him that I didn't have to.  They were so intense and lasting for what seemed forever and coming faster than I could press the start button on my IPhone app.  I called Dr. D. and she said, at this point, if I had so much as a gas bubble I should go to the hospital. 

What happened next was exactly what happens in the movies when the mom says "it's time".  

'The Hubs' started racing to get the few things we had brought in from the car together. I ow-ow-owed my way through a super quick shower.  We got dressed and ran out the door, so thankful that 'The Littles' were not at home.  I called my parents and told them to hurry up and meet us at the hospital and 'The Hubs' raced us there (though I swear I had never seen him drive any slower).

We arrived at the hospital at 6:15 am.  I had to stop in the lobby to breathe through a contraction.  We were escorted to the labor and delivery unit and told to wait for a nurse to take us to our room.  My parents arrived five minutes later.  We chatted.  I winced and breathed through the pain which was getting more and more intense. 

Thirty minutes later, the nurse who had wait listed me the night before showed us to our room.  She told me that she was so glad I was the one in active labor because she wasn't looking forward to calling me to let me know that my induction had, again, been postponed. 

I got into my gown, hooked up to the monitors and took in the room where we would meet our son. 

Twas the Night Before Liam

Well, February 19th came and went with no action from 'Mister'.  So did the 20th.  I tried so hard to just live my life like I normally do but I was growing desperate to have 'Mister' evacuate my uterus.  I filled my days up with running after 'The Littles', grocery shopping, and crafting.  I sat on the couch night after night willing my uterus to contract or my amniotic sac to rupture.  Nothing.  Zip.Zilch.Nada.

On the 21st, I waddled into my OB's office and waited for two hours to see her and beg for her to give 'Mister' an eviction notice.  I patiently sat in the examining room when I heard the worst possible thing on the other side of the wall.  She was yelling at someone on the phone, "what do you mean she's not on the schedule?  I scheduled her last week!" 

Apparently, she had set up an induction but the hospital hadn't taken note of it.  It was supposed to happen on Thursday at noon.  The best they could give me was the same day at 6 pm.  No big deal.  It was only six hours later.

Though I wanted to go into labor on my own, I had become so desperate that I took what I could get and prayed that nature would take its course before then.

I excitedly posted a picture of my orders (on a wrinkle Post-it no less) with the announcement that our son would be here soon.

Late Thursday afternoon, we packed up the car and dropped 'The Littles' off at Mimi and Papa's for a sleepover.  We had about an hour and a half to spare before 6pm so we decided to grab some dinner.  I called the hospital just to make sure they were ready for us.  And then, the worst possible thing happened.

The labor and delivery unit was full with women whose bodies knew how to have a baby without medical intervention.  They asked me to call back in an hour.

We went to Yardhouse for dinner.  The same place we dined before we checked in for our induction with 'Munchkin'.  Maybe it would bring us luck. 

 'The Hubs' had a half yard of Dark Castle.

  I drank water and pretended it tasted as good as a Dark Castle.

We called the hospital at 7 pm.  They had no good news for us.  They told us to call back in another hour.  We went to Golden Spoon and rented a movie from Redbox to watch on the laptop.  We drove to the hospital and sat in the parking lot.  It was on the way home so we thought, 'why not?'  We were pretty sure we'd end up home anyway.

We called at 8 pm.  We got wait listed.  Wait listed!  Like I was trying to get into a class in college!  The nurse told us to call at 8 in the morning.  I was bummed but not totally devastated.  At least I was going to get a good night of sleep.

We went home, watched our movie and went to bed.  As I fell asleep I prayed that we would be able to get in the next morning.  Turned out, 'Mister' had other plans.

Meet Our Mister!

 Liam Jacob Johnson

Born Februrary 24, at 2:55 pm.

8 lbs. 8 oz., 20 1/2 in.