SHE's HERE! - Part 3 - Labor and Deliver

Okay... where was I?

According to Tim, Miss Nurse was chastised a bit by the stand-in doctor... first for calling her in too early... second for calling her in and not having "the table" or other nurses ready.

The contractions were really strong--there was just a LOT of pressure in my pelvis, along with the feeling of needing to push out a huge poop (aka the baby). I don't know if it was the strong pressure that got to me... it was more of the feeling that my legs/feet were cramping up. (I can get warts "burned" off my hands, no problem. But the minute one of my feet begins to cramp up, I'm screaming, "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" So I guess it just depends on what YOU consider "painful".)

Each time a contraction came on, and the "urge to push" began, it was a little hard for me to push "hard" because I felt like if I pushed too hard, it'd make my legs/feet cramp up. Does that make sense?? Anyway...

During each contraction, the doc would slowly count from 1 to 10 in three sets... I had to try and hold up my legs while pushing (AND curl my chin to my chest)... it was a workout! It was nice when Tim could help me hold one of my knees back, but I guess they eventually told him not too... supposedly it "worked" better if I held my own legs... ?

The doc/nurses would tell me "Push, push, push, push, push... Push Hard..." Honestly, it was slightly annoying b/c I had read in one of my books that the body could "push" the baby out on its own, and that if you LET it, you really didn't need to "push". Plus, you're more likely to tear-down-there if you push too fast before your body is ready to deliver the baby.

At one point, my doctor came into the delivery room and switched out the stand-in doctor. (Did I mention that my doc had a family emergency and probably wouldn't be there for the delivery? I guess once her family-thing finished up, she sped back to the hospital and made it just-in-time to deliver Olivia.)

Sometime during the pushing phase, I believe they turned the Pitocin back on to get the contractions more consistent and closer together so the baby would come faster (another "try-to-avoid" situation that some of my books mentioned).

There were points where I was thinking in my head, "I just want this baby OUT! I want this to be over!! When will this end?! Why didn't I just get the epidural? I can't do this anymore! This is all just a bad dream... this is all just a bad dream..." Yeah...I think I repeated the last phrase a few times as I kept my head buried in the pillow next to me. Yes. I kept my eyes closed, my head turned to the left, and my face buried in the pillow. I felt like an ostrich trying to hide my head in the ground (though i don't think ostriches really do that).

It was so annoying (at the time) to hear them say (I'm not exactly sure who "them" is), "Just a couple more pushes. She's almost out," and then to go through one or two SETS of 3 pushing-reps. I thought they said a couple more pushes!! Plus, I overheard someone say something like, "It may be a few more pushes," to someone else in the room.

When the baby was almost born, I think I heard the doctor say that she may need to cut (episiotomy). Honestly, I can't remember exactly what happened around this point... another couple of hard pushes and the baby came out!! (According to Tim, she thought I might tear, so she was thinking she may have needed to cut me... she gave me some numbing shots down there just in case, and then I was able to push the baby out with slight average/"normal" tearing. yeah! no cutting!) Oh, by this time, they had brought out the stirrups, and put my feet/legs in them. I think they made me feel like it was harder to push, though.

I don't remember feeling a "ring of fire" (probably b/c of the shot), but i do remember feeling the baby's limbs pass through... the only way I can imagine describing it would be giving birth to an octopus... it just felt like a lot of limbs being pulled out. Hahaha... kinda gross. sorry. She came out, they wrapped her up, then put her on my stomach. (We can't remember if Tim cut the U. cord before or after this... all he remembers is cutting the cord, and having the doctor tell him to put the scissors down...at least twice. I guess he was in a daze after cutting the cord.)

At the time, I was seriously just thinking, "I'm glad you're OUT!" But it was cool to see the baby's eyes and to see how alert she was. After a few moments, the nurses took the baby to clean her up and take her measurements, and to get a "good cry" out of her. It was a wierd sensation to feel them pull the placenta out.

The nurses began to clean me up, and my doc stitched up my tear. Afterwards, the only male nurse in the room (Rueben) cleaned me up! Slightly wierd...but whatever. My legs and body were shaking. I had gotten so HOT during delivery, but now that it was over, I was freezing! (We had turned down the A/C ealier.) And my body was just SHAKING! It continued to do so for at least an hour afterwards.

We stayed in the Labor/Delivery/Recovery Room for a while afterwards... most of the nurses and my doc left, and a couple nurses stayed behind to clean up and to finish up with Olivia. Tim had a great time watching her in her little bed-table thing.

Finally, our room was ready for us to "move into". I got up, got a new gown, I think I went pee, then got in a wheel chair and wheeled to our room. Finally getting into my hospital bed and getting comfortable was probably one of the happiest moments. :) Haha... the baby was out and healthy, and I could RELAX and ReCOUP!!

Hospital Tour

This past Sunday, we went to the hospital for a tour. After running around a bit to find the classroom, we joined a huge group of people there for the tour. We missed the first half of the "presentation", but still got some valuable information. Then we were off to see the Labor and Delivery floor and rooms.

I had a wheelchair. Yeah! :) When I had signed us up, I requested a wheelchair since I'm on bedrest. I think some of the other moms-to-be were a little jealous. Hahaha... ;)

The hospital was really cool! It's a hospital that has been around for a while, but they have recently built a new wing, and are in the process of renovating the rest of the building. Nice! First we went up and looked at the standard recovery room, and then one of the upgrade suites. Nice, typical hospital room. Poor Tim... the bed/couch/cot looks like it'll be a little small.

Then we headed up a floor to the Labor and delivery area. We went into one of the LDR rooms and our "tour guide" (who was pregnant herself) told us how things would typically go. I guess she also teaches childbirthing classes, and she recommended that once you arrive at the hospital, try and stay off your back (and out of the bed) for as long as possible. She recommended leaning against the bed, or using a birthing ball, or just walking around the room a bit... she told us that the belly monitors had really long cords attached to them, so unless you had an epidural already administered to you, you should try and stay up and about. (Hmmm... as she talked, I got the feeling that she would be a "natural" birther...)

She also went over the "rules" of the hospital (i.e. only 3 guests can be in the delivery room with you), how the nurse-patient situation would work (i.e. one patient per nurse...if you don't "click" with the nurse, request another one), and what exactly might happen after you've given birth (i.e. you can request to hold the baby immediately after birth, or you can have them clean it up first).

As we walked down the hall back to the elevator, we could hear some lady moaning out. :P Ick. hahaha... At one point, we paused in the hallway and a nurse came out of an LDR room. Tim looked in and said he saw a lady with her legs up and everyone surrounding her. He was like, "Woah, I want to watch." hahaha...so maybe he WON't faint. :)

Just before leaving, I asked the tour-guide-lady some questions. She was pregnant with her third child, and her first two did come naturally (w/o an epidural). She said she just used a "wait and see how I feel" stance, and decided that her contractions (aka "birthing waves") weren't too bad, and so declined the use of the epidural. She told us that once we got to the hospital, the nurses would most likely automatically start prepping for an epi, but that we should let them know that I want to "wait and see", or whatever.

As we were leaving, I ran into a coworker of mine who's wife just gave birth (via c-section) to twins that past Wednesday.

I brought my camera...but OBVIOUSLY forgot to take a pic of me in the wheelchair. Darn! Tim says we'll get a picture later. :) it would have been a good one, though...we both had some nasty bedhead.

34 Week Appointment (34 weeks and 3 days)

My appointment was originally for later this afternoon, but the PA I was going to see had a family emergency, so we went in earlier to see my actual doc.

Since it was earlier, Tim came home and we went to grab some fast Chinese food.

After waiting in the waiting room for about 15 mins, we were called back to the exam room. Urine sample. Weight (133! Must be all the rice). Blood pressure. Etc.

Then we waited for almost an hour for the doctor to come in.

My cervix is the same as it has been...about 80% effaced and 1 cm dilated. I'll go back in two weeks for another appointment. Phew!

I asked her some Q's about doulas and epidurals...

She said that the hospital I'll be delivering at has one nurse for each patient, as opposed to other hospitals that might assign 3-4 patients to one nurse.

My doc has two kids, and had epidurals for both. She said with the second one, she was thinking of doing natural, but her contractions were harder than the first so she still got an epi. She said she'd allow me to get an epi from 1cm to 6cm.

Hmmm...

Epi??

So my older sister just told me recently that the spot where she had been given the epideral is sore. Hmmm... tradeoffs. Epideral and POSSIBLY (hopefully) no pain during labor and delivery and possible pain in spine years later... or No Epideral, pain during l&d, but no pain in spine years later. Granted, there are many OTHER pros and cons that can be factored in... hmmm...