baby James- a birth story {pt 2}

 James' birth story- part 1 

Suddenly I felt tingling across my forehead and other weird sensations through my body as they gave me different meds. I could feel my body stabilize as I steadily felt better. When I opened my eyes again my nurse said, "I've never had anyone drop that low, that quickly!" with a nervous laugh. My doctor's reply? "I'm really surprised she didn't throw up!" Thank heavens I didn't throw up... I can only imagine how much worse that would have made things, ha ha! A few minutes later, after making sure I really was stabilized, the room cleared out except for my doctor and two nurses. My doctor got right to work with performing the version to flip baby boy. It felt like he was massaging my belly (so weird to feel that even with my epidural) when I suddenly felt the baby turn (but no pain) and saw the movement through my belly. Weirdest thing ever! My doctor wanted to immediately break my water to help prevent baby from turning back to breech, but I had to be on an antibiotic for 4 hours before he could, so the nurses strapped a girdle to my belly and then the waiting game began.

During those 4 hours I was able to relax and rest my eyes (but I never fully fell asleep which was a bummer), Eric watched TV, paced our room and snuck out for a bite to eat. We were bored out of our minds, ha ha! My doctor came in at 11:30, checked me and I was still at a 3 (depressing!) then broke my water. I asked him how much longer he thought this would take because I REALLY wanted lunch. "Do you want something to eat?!" he asked. "No way! Can I have something to eat?!" He totally got my hopes up for a split second until he said, "well, probably not..." ha ha. WHAT THE HECK, MAN?! My nurse smacked him for me ;) But then he asked me if I wanted any apple juice and normally I wouldn't want that, but I was starving so it actually sounded amazing! I told him no though, because I thought that would be the right answer, ha ha. He explained that the glucose might feed my muscles a bit and help speed up delivery when the time came and told my nurse to get me some juice, otter pops if they had them or jello, then he left. I have to write this all out because that conversation lasted less than 2 minutes but I can't even tell you how heavenly that juice and jello was, ha ha! It totally made life happier for a couple hours for me ;) As soon as he walked out of the room I suddenly felt a ton of fluid gush out. Disgusting, I know! But for those few minutes after he broke my water, nothing really happened. My poor nurse... the fluid just kept coming! We were SHOCKED! But she said it totally explained why he was able to turn so much at 39 weeks "he was probably doing backstrokes in there!" she joked. She also referred to his "Olympic size pool" awhile later... It was such a surprise (and really gross) to have that much fluid come out, especially since my belly wasn't measuring any bigger (in fact, the nurses all kept commenting on what a tiny, little belly I had), but it was kind of a relief for me to understand how and why he was still flipping all around in there!

Just as Eric and I were about to lose our minds from boredom, my doctor came back around 3 to check me. I was SO discouraged to learn I had only progressed to a 4. Then he broke the bad news that he probably wasn't going to be able to deliver my baby since he had been at the hospital for 24 hours. Break my heart! (Am I the only one who gets attached to a doctor during all those months of pregnancy? Ha!) He told me he had some paperwork to do so if it was go time before 5, he would come back and deliver! I told my nurse that we had to do something to get the show on the road because 5pm was my new goal to have this baby! I was extremely mobile even with my epidural so she told me to change positions every 20-30 minutes. I alternated from laying on one side, sitting up straight and rocking side to side, then laying on the other side. My epidural ran out during this and my nurse had to change the bag. Shortly after that I started noticing pain with every contraction instead of just the pressure. I let some time pass before calling my nurse to see if the pain would go away but it only got worse. I called her in and she explained that my metabolism was probably burning the epidural off a lot quicker because of how active I was, instead of most women who just lay there (because they are too numb to move) She showed me how to push the button for an extra shot of meds, and told me to let her know if I didn't feel any change after pushing it 3 or 4 times. Oh boy, did I feel change! Not the change I wanted though, the pain became more intense! It was shift change so my previous nurse told me she would send in my new nurse and go find the anesthesiologist. My new nurse came in a few minutes later just as I started to cry during a contraction. I don't know how, but I managed to feel embarrassed through the pain about crying in front of her... what a good first impression I was making, ha ha! But seriously, who cares about first impressions during labor?! She told me she would go find the anesthesiologist and quickly left the room. At this point I was a hot mess, curled up in the fetal position on my side and telling Eric how badly this sucked! I tried squeezing his hand through one contraction, but that brought me no relief and actually hurt him, so that was out. I asked him just to touch my arm through each contraction because it somehow helped to feel the reminder that I wasn't alone in that room through the pain. I was NOT prepared to handle this pain, especially since I had experienced no pain from the very beginning. UGH!

The tears kept flowing as I tried to breath through each contraction and I really couldn't have been a bigger mess! The new doctor (my doctor's partner) came in just then to tell me that my doctor had called to check in at 5 and apologized again for not being able to be there to deliver, introduced himself and who knows what else he said. I basically told him to leave me alone... I couldn't even see straight (my eyes stayed closed as much as possible) let alone talk through the pain... He reminded me to breath through the contraction and told me he was going to check me. If I was at a 10 we would start pushing, if not, he would find the anesthesiologist. I thought I was crushed before when I found out I hadn't progressed much, but when he told me I was only at a 6 I seriously wanted to cry! Oh wait, I was already crying ;) ha ha! I felt so defeated and so... weak! How do people choose to do this natural?! Why was the pain so great to me when I was only at a 6?! Why was a I paying for an epidural when it wasn't doing it's job?! THIS SUCKS! (I never swore once during this process, but "this sucks" came out of my mouth a lot, ha ha!) The doctor told me he would go find the anesthesiologist with an apologetic tone of voice then left the room. He was the third person to tell me that... WHERE WAS THE FREAKIN' ANESTHESIOLOGIST?!

 Let Me See You Sparkle Photography

I had to... I had to stop it here! Things got very intense for me after this and there is still a mouthful to share! But I promise that the next segment of James' birth will be the final segment :)