The Birth Story Part 3: Go Time

Her Side:

The time to get this party started was finally here... it was go time or game time or whatever you want to call it.  It was about 1:30am on July 3rd.  40.5 hours since my last full nights sleep.  26 hours since my water broke.  24 hours since I had eaten anything other than the Jello and apple pie.  17.5 hours since Daniel arrived from the east coast.  17 hours since starting Pitocin.  11 hours since starting the Epidural.  1.5 hours since the Epidural refresher.  35.5 weeks since finding out that we would be having a baby.

My doctor arrived and sat on the foot of my bed.  And we started to chat between contractions/pushing.  She shared some of the doozies that she has seen for names, such as La-a (pronounced Ladasha) and Abcd.  She also decided to guess girl for the baby.  The staff was all about the suspense of what gender this little one was going to be, our daytime nurse said when she left for the day that she was going to have to check the next day to find out. 

I had intended to create a playlist of songs that help me find strength in tough runs but never got to it... honestly I felt so crappy that the dim lights and silence were what I wanted.  I had taken my ponytail out earlier and now that my arm was not able to lift up that high I had Dan redo my ponytail... um yeah.  He has no idea how to put a ponytail in!  It was comical.

For some reason I had the impression that having an epidural would mean that you wouldn't feel anything or be fully present during the birth.  That was not the case at all.  I felt every contraction.  Maybe not the same as if I wasn't medicated but it was still me saying when another contraction had started and it was time to push.  My doctor and I would look at each other and I would say "yup, one started."

The arm that had gotten so that I couldn't lift it had gotten worse and was really painful now.  All I wanted was for that damn IV to come out and the the blood pressure cuff to come off.  I started to feel extremely warm and sick.  The last time they took my temp was at 2am and it was 100 so not quite to a fever.  I threw up the apple pie.  The nurse put a cold wash cloth on my neck... um, no way!  Even about to pass out in labor I can't stand to have anything touching my neck so I found the strength to move it to my forehead... Dan laughed at me.

I am not sure exactly when it started but roughly an hour in my upper back started to spazm.  It progressed over the next hour to being almost continuous and causing me to sit out contractions because I simply couldn't move.  That hour was the most painful hour of my life.  The back and shoulder pain was far worse than the contractions or even the eventual delivery.  The one and only point where I snapped at Dan (or anyone) was when he started to explain to me why my back was spasming... my response was "are you kidding me - now is not the time."  Otherwise I acted the same way I would have expected - I was quiet and tried to keep the pain to myself without making a show.  The anesthesiologist was called to monitor me.   

My doctor asked if I was okay with forceps being used.  The baby was slightly turned at an odd angle which was stopping him at his current position and although she didn't say it as she was an excellent cheerleader, I was about done.  I was okay with whatever would get us to the end of this story!

The anesthesiologist arrived along with about six other doctors and nurses.  It became dramatic.  Next thing I knew there was a baby crying and everyone shouting "It's a boy!" and my doctor exclaiming that he was perfect and "he even has little baby rolls already!"  It was 3:35 am. They asked what his name was and I said, in almost a whisper, it was James. 

As they monitored me to see if I would stabilize they did the APGAR (Jaime scored 9 out of 9) and footprints and all of that on little James.  Dan became the photographer.  The staff was still buzzing about.  My epidural was removed. 

And then James was layed on my chest and almost instantly stopped crying.  I barely remember what was said from that point on... my doctor was all excited about James and was talking to me about becoming a mom (totally can't remember what she was saying), the nurse mentioned something at some point about reaching the point of a fever, and I also caught something about almost being an emergency c-section.  

Jaime and I snuggled.  Dan then snuggled with Jaime.  We had a son and he was beautiful.  I ate the turkey sandwich that they brought because I felt like I probably needed to.  And then our room on the maternity floor was ready for us.  Our little family of three made our way to our recovery room and all promptly fell asleep.

His Side:

After a few naps, usually around an hour since nurses continuously come in to check stats, the doctor came in and said it was time.  I shot out of the father bed (a tiny couch that sort of folds out), got my shoes on and took my place on the side of Tara's bed.  The doctor proceeded to assess the situation and determined that the kid didn't fully drop as low as they would like but the contractions were strong enough to proceed. 

The doctor gave me a task; to hold Tara's foot and leg so she could push against me during each contraction pushing session.  Not the task I was thinking I would have.  I was baffled; in the movies the guy just holds her hand and gives her little words of encouragement while she swears at him.  I am in the action!  What's that about?  Taking my job seriously, I grabbed her leg and helped her push.  Both the doctor and nurse were giving Tara so much encouragement and cheerleading I felt I would just be an idiot if I did it too.  Tara agreed. 

After a little while Tara began to get back spasms.  Really bad ones, that were making her job of pushing during the contraction extremely painful, and there was  nothing I or the doctor could do.  When the kid still hadn't lined up properly the call was made to use forceps in order to guide him out.  Basically salad tongs.  As we were at the point of emergency c-section. 

At once a rush of 6 nurses and doctors came in, just like in a movie.  Lots of big words and fast talking.  My only concern was my wife in a lot of pain and the kid that wouldn't evacuate her body.  Little one is already being a pain. Manning my post on the side of Tara, everyone proceeded to make a final push attempt at getting the kid out.  She managed a few good ones before she was completely spent, but that's all that it took with the help of the tongs to get the kid out. The doctors took the kid to the exam table and I got some pictures of the action, of course once he was cleaned off cause no one wants pictures of that. 

The giant baby was finally out!  Tara (now Mommy) was incredibly strong, she did an amazing job and the kid is perfect, I'm proud of both of them.

Comments

[jen]

congratulations! you did fantastic! it's all so surreal and amazing and i'm sitting here in tears of joy for you both! our son, jack, had a similar evacuation issue and we had the crazy stream of doctors and nurses rush in - i, almost unaware, was scared but wanted him out, healthy, safe, sound, however that happened! so happy for you, and welcome james! he is adorable!!