The Rest of the Story: The Birth Story, Part 2

Let's see. Where was I? Oh, that's right. On Stadol.

Did I mention I was dilated to 5cm when I came back to the hospital?

Okay. At some point, I was put in a real Labor & Delivery room. With fake hardwood floors, a television, and most importantly AIR CONDITIONING! The triage room was unbelievably hot, so I was finally happy to be someplace that at least had the possibility of getting cool. I think I probably froze my husband to death for a minute or two there.

I really don't remember much during this period. I did get an epidural, despite my previous 9 months of telling everybody how much I didn't want one. The pain was just too much. I could have taken it, but I didn't need to. And I knew that I would have a much better experience if I were comfortable. I was already tired from being up the night before...no need to be sleepy and in excruciating pain.

So, at some point after the epidural, I made it to 6cm. It took forever! Well, not forever, but it did take until about midnight. Now we've made it to July 11! Anna's due date! Our nurse sent Joseph out to the waiting room to update my parents and in-laws on our newfound 6 status when I told her that I was experiencing some...pressure. I asked her if that was normal. She got a puzzled look on her face and decided to check me again.

Lo and behold, I was dilated to 10cm and ready to push! I thought this meant that baby Anna would be arriving soon...like in the next 20 minutes. Um. No. It seems that not all of my water had broken and there was a huge bag (?) in Anna's way. So I needed to push in order to break that water before I could push to bear Anna.

Who knew a bag of water could be so tough?!? I pushed and pushed and it didn't budge. The nurse scrapped it with her fingernail and it didn't budge. I pushed some more. No luck. Finally, Nurse A (Susan) sent for Nurse B (Queena) because Queena had "more luck with her fingernails." Heh. About the time Queena got in front of me and told me to push, that bag of water spewed out of me with a gusto I have never seen in anything short of a powerful waterfall! It was amazing. I was mid-push and the force of that water scared me so badly that I stopped pushing and questioned whether or not that was normal! The poor nurse was soaked from top to bottom. She was so funny - she quietly said, "You're a good pusher."

After that little incident, things went much more quickly. I still pushed and pushed and pushed to get Anna into position. The doctor on call (still the same one who sent me home from our first trip) was called about 2 a.m. I pushed and pushed some more. The nurses started wondering where the doctor was...Anna's head was ready to be delivered, but there was no doc in sight. The nurses eventually told me to quit pushing. That was miserable. The epidural masked the pain of the contractions, but it didn't phase the pressure and pain of the pushing. So to stop pushing and continue that pain was horrible. And I was so tired. I attempted to convince the nurses that they knew more than the doctor and that we didn't need him, but they didn't want to continue without him. Bleh.

The doctor (who only needed 10 minutes of lead time...or so he said) finally arrived at 2:25 a.m. and Anna Claire was born at 2:31 a.m. After her delivery, I held her immediately. She was so beautiful!!! Her one-minute APGAR was a 9. I asked what she missed, but nobody answered me. Her five-minute APGAR was a 10. Perfection.

Again, I'm a bit unclear as to the order of events here. I know that Anna was bathed by Nurse Susan and Joseph got to watch. I nursed at some point. My parents and in-laws all came in the room and met Anna. Joseph fell asleep on the couch while the nurse gave me instructions. I can't remember what the instructions were for, though. Oh, well.

By this point, it's around 5:30 a.m. The baby went to the nursery to be checked out, and I ate a turkey sandwich and some orange juice. I was starved! I slept a couple of hours and then a nurse brought Anna back to us at around 7:30 a.m. And so our happily ever after begins...