Birth Story

OK, it all started when I woke up Thursday, May 10th to some mild cramping pain. I’d been having this pain for several days and didn’t think much of it until I noticed they were coming every 8-10 min consistently. Andy was already up and getting ready for work so I waited until I was sure they were consistent and suggested he stay home from work and come with me to my doctor’s appointment that morning just in case this was the real deal. So my appointment was at 10:00 and we see the NP because my pediatrician was on vacation and I told her I’d been having contractions pretty consistently and that we were wondering if this could be the real thing. She checks me and I’m only dilated to a 2 and effaced 60%. She actually wasn’t very helpful as she said this could be real labor or it could go on for another 12-24 hrs before real labor kicked in. So after the appointment Andy and I debated about whether or not he should go back to work and finally we decided that just in case he should stay home. So I take a little rest on the couch when we get home and then eat some lunch and then we go on a walk. By this time the contractions are coming every 4-6 min and are starting to be painful. By the end of the walk (around 1:00 PM) the contractions are every 4 min consistently. By this time I am on the birth ball and needing Andy’s support to get through the contractions while trying to distract myself by watching a movie. After 4 hours of this I decide that it’s time to go to the hospital. Now, in our labor prep classes we were taught that the active labor pattern would be 4-1-1; that is the contractions would be 4 min apart lasting at least a minute for an hour. Since we had waited 4 hours of this we thought we were golden! So we pack up, drop the dog off, call our parents and let them know we’re headed to the hospital and we are on our merry way. Well in the car I notice the contractions slowed to 5 min apart and when we arrive and they triage us they spaced out to anywhere from 4-8 min. When the midwife arrived to check me she told me I was just a 2 still and effaced 70% and that I wasn’t in active labor! I couldn’t believe it, I was hoping to be at least a 5! We felt so confused and just dumb. Here we were with all our stuff ready to be admitted and they were turning us away! The midwife then explained that generally they don’t see cervical dilation until contractions are 3 min apart and that in active labor my contractions wouldn’t ever slow or widen apart despite changes in activity and that this labor pattern I was having could continue for another 12-24 hours. She then suggested that I go home, take a couple Benadryl and try to get some sleep! I felt very misunderstood and thought that I must be a wimp. If this was just how it could be for the next 12-24 hrs how was I ever going to make it! We insisted this is not what we were told by Kaiser in our class! She then suggested we walk around for an hour then come back and see if anything had changed. So we walked around feeling all dejected and put out, came back and got checked just to find I was still a 2 but effaced to 80%. So they kicked us out and told us to come back when contractions are 3-4 min apart but unchanging with activity. Well it’s 9:00 PM by this point and we were both starving so we picked up Subway. So I’m trying to order a Subway sandwich in between contractions when the girl behind the counter says, “Is your wife having contractions? Is she in labor? She needs to go to the hospital!” Andy and I just look at each other and without going into too much detail exasperatedly explain that we just got back from the hospital. While at home my contractions ramp up in intensity a bit and I start to feel nauseas and can’t eat my sandwich. On top of it all Charlotte started moving in such a way that would send spasms of pain in between the contractions as well and that’s when I lose it and start to cry and get a little hysterical! At this point I’m thinking I have to get through the entire night like this in this kind of pain and I told Andy, “I’m done, I’m not doing this anymore!” So Andy being the good coach that he was refocused me and got me in the shower on the birth ball and he ate his footlong sub sandwich plus my 6 inch in between my contractions. By this time it’s 11:00 PM, I take 2 benadryl hoping against hope I can possibly sleep somewhat! Andy was actually sick this day as well so he needed his rest in a bad way if he was going to be any help to me tomorrow so he conks out right away and I’m left on my own. And for the next 3 hours it was wave after wave of pain with intense contractions ranging from 4-6 min. I keep looking at the clock and every time I’m about to fall asleep another contraction comes. I’m bunched up in bed gripping the headboard with each contraction and just praying for help through this! Andy wakes up every once in a while and asks how I’m doing and all I can say is “It’s really hard” to which he replies, “Just try and get some sleep.” Afterwards Andy admitted to secretly thinking that I was a bit of a wimp and just needed to “suck it up”. The whole time too I’m thinking that as soon as I can go to the hospital I’m getting the epidural and it will take this all away, that was the only thought that got me through it! Then finally I feel a trickle and I know I didn’t pee so it must be my water breaking and I’m thinking, “Hallelujah, now I can go to the hospital and get my epidural!” So I wake up Andy and he starts to get everything ready again. I’m trying to get dressed putting on articles of clothing in between each contraction and start walking to the car when all of a sudden in our hallway I feel a huge gush of fluid and that’s when I know that all my water has broken. Now, here’s the kicker…with that contraction and my water breaking I feel the urge to push. I tell Andy this and he just stares at me in disbelief and says disbelievingly, “No you don’t!” To which I emphatically reply, “Yes, I do! Get me to the hospital now!” By this time the contractions are coming ever 3-4 min and I’m pushing with each contraction and I can feel the baby moving down and I feel like I need to have a bowel movement (sorry, might be TMI!). Now I’m a nurse and I remember from my labor and delivery rotations that when you start to feel like you need to have a bowel movement the baby is imminent and Andy knows this as well. So Andy just throws the rest of our stuff in the car along with myself and we are careening down the freeway at 95 mph to get to the hospital, all the time with me yelling at Andy that I’m pushing and the baby’s coming and Andy yelling back, “Don’t push! Just relax, stay calm, just don’t push!” I can laugh now but at the time it wasn’t very funny! In between the yelling Andy called the hospital to let them know that his wife was about to give birth in the car and to get a room ready. So we make the 20 min drive in 10 min and pull up to the ER as the hospital main entrance was closed this late at night. Andy flies out the car door to the ER entrance to grab a wheel chair and pulls the security guard aside to let him know that we had arrived and needed immediate assistance. The security guard takes one look at me and asks, “Is she in labor?” To which Andy replies, “Yes we were told to come here please help us!” To which the security guard replies, “Uh, we don’t do that here, you need to go to labor and delivery!” To which Andy replies, “What do you mean ‘You don’t do that here’!” The security guard just repeats, “We don’t do that here” and backs away from us like we have the plague or something. Andy wasn’t too pleased with this response and let the security guard know it and then takes off down the hall at break neck speed with me huffing and puffing in the wheel chair and all this time I’m thinking that I’m going to have this baby in the hallway! Not to mention our car was left completely illegally parked with keys in the car and car door open! We pass some cleaning crew and you can just see the look on their face as they smile at us. I can only guess what was going through their head watching this scene of a panicked father and very pregnant mother careening down the hallways, it was like a scene from a movie! Well labor and delivery is down two long hallways and up the elevator but we make it to the room that the nurses were getting ready for our arrival. I have another huge contraction in the wheelchair and I inform the whole room that I am pushing to which everyone yells at me, “Don’t push!” They casually ask Andy which pregnancy this is and as he tells them it’s the first one they all kind of calm down and seem less panicked because the first one usually doesn’t go quickly and you can tell that they think we are overreacting…until she checks me…then the energy level in the room sky-rockets as the nurse says “Call the doctor stat!” All of a sudden the room shifts into action and someone starts an IV on me and then the charge nurse is at my bedside instructing me how to push. Andy actually said, “I am way illegally parked I need to move my car!” To which the nurse responded, “Do you want to move your car or see your child be born!” You can bet he took option two! Well at this point I have tunnel vision and all I can remember is focusing on the charge nurse who was telling me how to push, I don’t even remember seeing the doctor or anyone else, I was completely focused on this nurse, I don’t even remember Andy being in the room! Well, with some screaming on my part and with three pushes later Charlotte was born into this world with a big lusty cry, fist first! Only 18 minutes had elapsed between our arrival at the hospital and her birth and it was the most intense and powerful experience of my life! It seemed so surreal. As I held our new baby girl in my arms and the doctor stitched me up (which took an hour by the way!) all I could think of is that I was so glad it was over and I could finally meet our baby girl, she was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen! As the doc is stitching me up Andy walks over to my side and has tears of joy running down his cheeks all I can think of is how happy I am! Andy then took the opportunity to ask me if I was mad at him for sleeping through the hardest part of my labor! How could I be angry with the guy, we all thought this was going to go down way differently than it did. Two hours later I was still shaking from the adrenaline rush and on love cloud nine. I didn’t know I could love her so much! So there you have it, sorry it was so long but it was one heck of a ride!