Friday, August 22

Labor & Delivery - Part 2

At 10:00 pm, after being examined by my nurse, the on call doctor was called (my doctor was not on call until the morning). It was decided (not by us) that since the OR Staff was short on people, they were not going to induce me further as there was a strong possibility that I would need an emergency c-section. At this point I was in a lot of pain as the contractions were very close together, in my mind I was thinking "just take me in for a c-section now! I don't want to wait anymore!" They gave me a sandwich to eat since I had not eaten all day but it was not what I wanted. I was given a shot of morphine to help with the pain and to help me sleep.

I sent my mother home to get some sleep even though she did not want to leave my side. Scott was able to sleep in a chair in my room. I got a couple hours of sleep but it was very difficult to sleep through the contractions. By 4:00 in the morning, Scott was still sleeping but my contractions were getting worse. At 6:00 am my water broke on its own. Scott called my mom and she was on her way to the hospital.

At 7:00 a new nurse came in, she examined me and I was now dilated to 8 centimeters. She asked if I wanted any pain medications and I said yes, before we could talk about options or what I wanted, she shot me with a syringe and said, "this might make you a little drowsy." I didn't even get a chance to talk about side effects or anything. Whatever she gave me made me so out of it, I wasn't even able to open my eyes! My mother walked into the room right after I was given the drug and she knew I was mad. I had no idea who was in the room since I couldn't open my eyes, I had not met the doctor yet and I didn't know where my husband was.

The nurse told my mom it would probably be another couple of hours but within minutes I felt like I needed to push. She of course did not believe me but examined me and saw I was at 1o centimeters, still had not met the on call doctor yet, and I was still unable to open my eyes. The nurse set me up to get me started until the doctor could get here. Scott came back into the room and didn't leave me side again. He was there, holding my hand and supporting me all the way. My mom was getting ready to leave to room when I started to push, the nurse quickly told her to hold my other leg. She was able to stay and help me out. She was so happy to be ale to watch the birth of her first grandchild.

The pushing was difficult to get started as I was having difficulty processing what they were saying to me. Finally the nurse that went off duty at 7:00, Rachelle, explained to me that I needed to hold my breath and to breath out while pushing in order to get the most out of my push, my mother helped pull me forward to get into position and Scott continued to encourage me. (Rachelle said that she had been here all night waiting for this baby and she was going to stay and see that baby!)

Brendan Matthew was born at 8:26 am. As I was pushing I knew the head was out, all of the sudden I look down and there was my baby, It was an amazing feeling that came over me all at once. Because he was late, there was meconium in utero that needed to be suctioned out of his mouth and nose right away. But he was beautiful!

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