We arrived at the hospital within 10 minutes… calling family along the way letting them know what was going on. We parked in “stork parking” and headed inside to the second floor. For some reason, the desk didn’t have our file, so check-in took a little longer than expected. Once the paperwork was done, we were directed to the labor and delivery hall. A nurse (Emily) met us at the door, checked my weight, and took us into an exam room where I was given a gown to change into before the examination got started.
The nurse put a blood pressure cuff on my arm and a fetal heart rate monitor on my stomach. She then took a piece of paper to check to see if my membranes had actually broken (some kind of test that changes the color of the paper to blue if a woman’s water has broken). Well, the nurse confirmed that my water had broken, so I would be staying the night. The baby was doing great, but my blood pressure was a little high (which is pretty normal for women to have higher blood pressure when they check-in). So, I was moved from the exam room to a labor and delivery room. The nurse (still Emily) told me that Dr. Lacy was on call for the weekend, and he would come in to meet me soon, but she would be our nurse until 7:00 am. So, I gave her a copy of my birth plan and after looking it over. The main thing I mentioned in the birth plan was that I wanted to hold off on pain meds for as long as I could. I wasn’t against them, but I wanted to see how far I could go on my own… and when I wanted them, I would ask for them. I also mentioned that as long as things were progressing naturally on their own, I would didn’t want to use any augmenting drugs. Emily seemed to be fine with what was in the plan. And when Dr. Lacy came by to introduce himself, he seemed fine with everything too.
Dr. Lacy was not the doctor that I had been seeing for the past 9 months, but I was pretty familiar with who he was… at least by name. At least 3 of the ladies that work with me at City Hall are Dr. Lacy’s patients. In fact, he delivered 3 children years ago for 2 of my 3 co-workers, and he delivered a friend’s baby boy in May. So, even though I had to use an on-call doctor, I was happy that it was someone I had heard so many good things about.
(Back to the labor & delivery…)
When the doctor checked me around 8:00, I was only 1 cm dilated and the baby’s head was still fairly high (-2). Dr. Lacy said that he was going to head home for the evening, but not to worry because he lived close by. He also guessed that I wouldn’t deliver until the morning. So, I was pretty much told to hang out for the night, and if I didn’t progress enough overnight, they would start me on pitocin in the morning. So, the wait started… and the contractions started coming. At first, they weren’t too bad. But as the night continued, so did the contractions with increasing intensity. I tried sitting up, walking around some (usually to the bathroom and back and a few laps around the room), sitting on a birthing/exercise ball, and even trying to push/pull through the contraction pain, but the pain continued and my body started shaking because of it. Around 10:30 or so, my sister (Catherine) showed up. It was great to have her there. She provided some comic relief, and she was a great support system.
The contractions and shaking were getting pretty bad, and I started discussing with Dusty (in between contractions) that I may want to ask for an epidural soon. He started asking questions and trying to make sure that I was sure I wanted to get pain meds since I had stated the whole time that I wanted to go without the pain meds as long as possible. But with each stronger and longer lasting contraction, I was getting more and more confident that I wanted an epidural. Shortly afterwards (around midnight), the nurse came back in to check me again, and I was still only at 1 cm… but Emily mentioned that my cervix was so soft she had stretched it to 4 cm. It was then that I asked for an epidural – being that far away from “push time” and having contractions as strong as they were… there was no way I would be able to handle the pain without help.
By 1:00 am, the anesthesiologist was in my room, finished with the procedure, and talking to Dusty about the Greek system at Clemson. I was amazed at how quickly the epidural started working. The nurse told us that she would leave us alone for a while and let us rest… she would check in on us again around 5:00 am. So, we “rested.” Catherine and Dusty may have gotten a little sleep, but I wouldn’t say that I slept. With a blood pressure cuff going off every 30 minutes, the lights from the monitors by my head shining bright, and the constant thoughts and questions going through my head, it wasn’t possible to get sleep. But the time passed fairly quickly. At 5:00 am, Emily came in to check my progress, and she was surprised to report that I was 10 cm, but the baby’s head is still kind of high. Because of that, Dr. Lacy recommended that we start the pitocin to see if that would bring the baby down a little more. The pitocin certainly did something – it brought on stronger contractions that I could feel pretty strong, so the nurse called in the anesthesiologist’s assistant to increase the dose of medicine I was getting.
At the shift change at 7:00 am, the baby’s head was still high, but I was told that I would be able to start pushing soon. Dr. Lacy came in and said that he wanted me to push for a little while, and hopefully it would bring the baby’s head down. I started pushing around 8:00 am, and the new nurse said that she thought I was making some progress. Dr. Lacy came back in around 9:00 am to check again. According to him, the baby’s head was still too high. He told me that I would be able to push for another hour, but if things didn’t change, he would recommend a c-section. With the determination of not wanting to have a c-section, I pushed with every bit of energy I had left in my body. As I pushed, Dusty and Catherine said they were able to see the baby’s head (which was covered with dark hair)! The nurse said that she could tell I had definitely made some progress. So an hour later, Dr. Lacy came back in and again said he couldn’t see much progress. He would give me another 15 minutes, but he thought a c-section would be the safest way to deliver. When those 15 minutes passed, he checked again, and then he reported that the baby’s head was still high, but the problem was that it hadn’t turned the way it was supposed to. So, he wanted to schedule the operating room to deliver with a c-section. My sister then commented that the good news was, that we would have a baby in 30 minutes… to which the doctor replied it may be more like an hour because of the prep and what not. Well, about that time, I started getting extremely intense pains in my back that didn’t let up. Yep, I was experiencing back labor – and honestly, it was miserable.
Because of that pain… they rushed me back to the operating room and started moving along faster than Dr. Lacy had planned. Within minutes, I was on the operating table, and the procedure was underway. Dr. Lacy saw that I had a scar on my abdomen already from a skin graph, and he must have read my chart from where Dr. Shelley (my doc) and I had discussed making the incision over the same scar that was already there. So, in he went, and out she came! I heard her cry, and it made me cry too. She continued to cry for what seemed like forever, and then the nurse placed her on my chest. I didn’t get to hold her for long… and I don’t even think that counts as holding your baby when you can only use one hand to touch her. Very shortly after they placed her on me, they took her to the nursery. I stayed on the table, got stapled up, and was then moved to recovery.
The nurse who was with me during recovery told me that the only thing I had to do to be able to leave recovery and get to my room and baby was move my feet and lift my knees. So she asked me to try… and I was able to do both right then. She smiled and told me I won’t be there long! But then she took my blood pressure and it was really high. She gave me some kind of meds to help bring it down, but it didn’t work as quickly as she hoped. So, I ended up in recovery longer than either of us expected. She continued to check my blood pressure, and then she explained that she had to press on my stomach to make sure I didn’t have any hemorrhaging. She warned it would hurt (and I had heard it was the worse part of having a baby). The warnings couldn’t prepare me for the pain I felt… it was intense, and every time they did it (which was probably 6 or 7 times while I was there) – it hurt! But after surviving that pain, I was cleared to go to my room (even though my blood pressure was still quite high).
I spent a little time getting in my new bed and getting checked out by my new nurse. My sister came in briefly to tell me that she was taking the grandmothers to get some lunch so that Dusty and I would have some uninterrupted time with the baby. She also mentioned that she was beautiful, and Dusty had done a great job of keeping everyone else from seeing her before I was able to have time with her. Once the nurse was done checking everything possible, Dusty came in with Reese.
For the first time, I was able to actually hold that precious baby girl that had been growing in me for the last 9 months. I couldn’t get over the fact that a couple of hours ago, that priceless baby was in me. And just like that, she was here! She’s absolutely perfect – and I don’t think I have ever seen a more beautiful baby (I know I’m a little bias).
No, things didn’t go the way I wanted them to go. I didn’t want a c-section… and to be honest, I was still upset by it for several days. I didn’t feel like I really had an opinion – in my mind, I could have tried harder, or we could have tried something else. But now, I’m just thankful that this sweet girl is home and seems to be thriving. It’s hard to remember what life was like before her… and though I’m extremely tired most of the time these days, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in this world.
Reese was safely delivered… and at the end of the day, that’s the most important part and the end of this “birth story.”
11.04.2010
11.01.2010
Birth Story... part 1
In between feedings and napping (which isn’t happening as much as I would like)... I have taken some time to finally write out Reese’s birth story.
When we had our first ultrasound, Dusty and I made bets as to when Baby Harrison would arrive. I predicted October 1, even though most of my family predicted she would come in September since it’s such a birthday filled month in my family. I guessed she would hold out until October and come on the 1st. Dusty predicted she would arrive on the 7th. I don’t know if he had a real reason for his prediction, but the 7th was his guess all the same.
Fast forward 7 months. Thursday night (September 30), we went to Anderson (with my hospital bag in tow… just in case) to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Anderson (for those who aren’t familiar with the area) is about 20-30 minutes from our house. It’s also the city where the doctor’s office and hospital I where would deliver is located. After dinner with friends and a quick trip to Best Buy, we headed back to Clemson and unloaded the hospital bag from the car. Later that night, I went to sleep, but when I woke up to use the bathroom, I had trouble falling asleep. The only thing that went through my mind was the fact that it was October 1, and if my prediction was right… I could be a parent REALLY soon. I had so many questions go through my mind that night… Is she really coming today? When will it happen? Will I start having contractions – and what do they feel like? Will my water break? How long will labor last? Who will come down to visit and when? The questions kept coming, and the sleep never came back that night.
That morning, I decided that I might as well go to work for a few hours because sitting around the house thinking about the date and the baby’s possible arrival would drive me crazy. I got a little later start (because I was exhausted), but I made it to work and did what I could while there. Before I left, I made sure I tied up all the loose ends I could think of since my due date was on Sunday (10/3). I said my goodbyes (in case it was the last time for a while) and headed home to hopefully take a nap. But once I got home, the nesting started up again. I cleaned as much as I could and did everything that I could see to do before Dusty got home. When he got home, we decided that we would head to dinner for our anniversary – our three year anniversary was going to be the following Wednesday (10/6), but since we knew that we may not be able to go out then because we could have a baby by then, we thought we might as well celebrate with dinner out while we were baby free.
We headed to Anderson (again with hospital bag in tow… just in case) to have dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. We pulled in to the parking lot, and Dusty got out and waited for me to get out too. As I reached for the door handle I felt a pretty sharp cramp followed by a warm stream of liquid that seemed to be leaking from my body. I quickly opened the door and told Dusty that I was pretty sure my water just broke. I got out of the car, with fluid continuing to run down my leg, and Dusty excitedly asked… So are we going to the hospital now? I thankful had a packed bag in the car, so I told him that I would go inside to the bathroom and make sure it wasn’t just my bladder (which I hadn’t lost control of yet, but just to be on the safe side…), change my undies and get a pad, and we could go from there. But while I was inside, he could go ahead and call my sister to give her the heads up to head to SC.
When entering the restaurant, the hostess asked if we needed a table for two, where I simply asked if I could use her restroom first. She pointed in the direction of the restrooms. In the bathroom, there was a much bigger “gush” when I sat down with a continued trickle, and as I changed, I was pretty confident that it was time to head to the hospital. When I was a little more composed, I met Dusty at the door and told him we should go.
(to be continued…)
When we had our first ultrasound, Dusty and I made bets as to when Baby Harrison would arrive. I predicted October 1, even though most of my family predicted she would come in September since it’s such a birthday filled month in my family. I guessed she would hold out until October and come on the 1st. Dusty predicted she would arrive on the 7th. I don’t know if he had a real reason for his prediction, but the 7th was his guess all the same.
Fast forward 7 months. Thursday night (September 30), we went to Anderson (with my hospital bag in tow… just in case) to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Anderson (for those who aren’t familiar with the area) is about 20-30 minutes from our house. It’s also the city where the doctor’s office and hospital I where would deliver is located. After dinner with friends and a quick trip to Best Buy, we headed back to Clemson and unloaded the hospital bag from the car. Later that night, I went to sleep, but when I woke up to use the bathroom, I had trouble falling asleep. The only thing that went through my mind was the fact that it was October 1, and if my prediction was right… I could be a parent REALLY soon. I had so many questions go through my mind that night… Is she really coming today? When will it happen? Will I start having contractions – and what do they feel like? Will my water break? How long will labor last? Who will come down to visit and when? The questions kept coming, and the sleep never came back that night.
That morning, I decided that I might as well go to work for a few hours because sitting around the house thinking about the date and the baby’s possible arrival would drive me crazy. I got a little later start (because I was exhausted), but I made it to work and did what I could while there. Before I left, I made sure I tied up all the loose ends I could think of since my due date was on Sunday (10/3). I said my goodbyes (in case it was the last time for a while) and headed home to hopefully take a nap. But once I got home, the nesting started up again. I cleaned as much as I could and did everything that I could see to do before Dusty got home. When he got home, we decided that we would head to dinner for our anniversary – our three year anniversary was going to be the following Wednesday (10/6), but since we knew that we may not be able to go out then because we could have a baby by then, we thought we might as well celebrate with dinner out while we were baby free.
We headed to Anderson (again with hospital bag in tow… just in case) to have dinner at a Japanese steakhouse. We pulled in to the parking lot, and Dusty got out and waited for me to get out too. As I reached for the door handle I felt a pretty sharp cramp followed by a warm stream of liquid that seemed to be leaking from my body. I quickly opened the door and told Dusty that I was pretty sure my water just broke. I got out of the car, with fluid continuing to run down my leg, and Dusty excitedly asked… So are we going to the hospital now? I thankful had a packed bag in the car, so I told him that I would go inside to the bathroom and make sure it wasn’t just my bladder (which I hadn’t lost control of yet, but just to be on the safe side…), change my undies and get a pad, and we could go from there. But while I was inside, he could go ahead and call my sister to give her the heads up to head to SC.
When entering the restaurant, the hostess asked if we needed a table for two, where I simply asked if I could use her restroom first. She pointed in the direction of the restrooms. In the bathroom, there was a much bigger “gush” when I sat down with a continued trickle, and as I changed, I was pretty confident that it was time to head to the hospital. When I was a little more composed, I met Dusty at the door and told him we should go.
(to be continued…)
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