Birth Story Part Two

I had made it to 6cm. So, the man with the meds came in just before 3am. The nurse made Greg have a seat and she had me hunch over the edge of the bed. The process to get the epidural seemed like only minutes. And, honestly - it didn't hurt a bit. Maybe that's because my back labor had been so bad, this didn't hurt at all. As soon as it went in it felt as if water was running down my legs. And in just a matter of seconds the contractions were not so bad.

The nurse hooked me back up to the contraction monitor and the fetal monitor...and that's when she said "I can't find the baby's heartbeat - every thing's fine, but...I'm paging the doctor" - and I was so afraid! I kept looking at Greg who kept saying "he's fine, everything will be fine" - Dr. Littleton arrive very quickly and said "I'm going to break your water, then put an internal monitor in on the baby's head for his heartbeat" - and in just a matter of seconds I heard the sweet sound of "beep, beep, beep" on the monitor that was measuring baby's heart. Whew. Talk about scary. And, FYI, not only can you not get up if you've had the epidural, but if you get the internal monitor, you can't get up with that either.

I then had to lay in the bed on one side for a bit and then about 15 minutes later on the other side (to move the meds around).

It was about 3:30am and the nurse dimmed the lights and told us to try and rest. I didn't sleep - but, I did "rest" - it was nice to relax. Although I could feel contractions, they weren't even nearly as painful as the back pain I had experienced all day.

Right at 6am Doctor Little came in and said "has the nurse checked you in a while?" and I said "no, not since the epidural" - so, he checks and says "alright, you're ready. Are you ready to push?!" - everything that seemed to move so slow quickly picked up in pace. The next thing we know the nurse comes in, the stirrups come out, the table for doctor gets wheeled in and the baby station (where baby is evaluated or goes if there are complications) got turned on, too. Next thing you know, we're counting and pushing.

As ready to push as I was ever going to be.

Honestly, the pushing was the easy part! Although we pushed for two hours, it was on and off since my contractions were sometimes 5-8 minutes apart. And around 7:15am, we were getting really close and the doctor came in.

Sweet baby boy arrived at 8:04am. I can't tell you how much relief and joy I felt when they placed him under my hospital gown on my chest. Just to know that he had all fingers and toes - and that he was breathing, and crying - nothing was sweeter than that moment - looking at Greg and crying...knowing we made this sweet baby - and we've loved him for so long while he was on the inside - and now he's here. We can see him, smell him and touch him. What a gift from God!

Our parents and my brother and a few others had been gathered in the lobby since about midnight. They came up during the contractions (prior to the epidural) to say hello. And once baby was cleaned up and we were moved to our recovery room, everyone came to see him. What a proud moment for us, mom and dad - which we could call ourselves now.