This Texas Baby: The Birth Story - Part III

After getting my epidural at 5am I slept until about 7am, which I would have to say was the best sleep ever! I woke up at 7 because of shift change and the nurses coming in to check on me and because I was freezing. When I told the nurse this she brought be a WARM BLANKET! How awesome is that, felt like it just came out of the dryer, it was the best. The new nurse told me that my doctor should be by around 8 to check on me and see where I was at. She also told me that she would not be doing an internal check before my doctor came. Once your water breaks they recommend limiting the number of internal exams you have as to keep the amount of bacteria introduced low. Well, I noticed that I was starting to feel some of the contractions again, granted nothing like the night before, but just lots more pressure than I had been feeling. The epidural did not leave me completely numb, which I was happy for, I never wanted to be completely numb, I wanted to be able to feel some of what my body was going through. The closest I can relate it to is when you sit in one position for too long and your foot/leg falls asleep and gets all tingly and itchy.

Robert's mom and I chatted off and on over the next hour while I dozed in and out of sleep. The pressure of the contractions kept getting more and more pronounced, to where I had to slow down talking during them again, so around 7:45 or so I hit that little "more drugs" button. Around 8 we woke Robert up so he would be awake when the doctor showed up. Also around 8 the nurse came in to let us know that we probably would not be able to donate our cord blood. Donating the cord blood is something that Robert and I decided pretty early on that we wanted to participate in. Cord blood does so much good and can be a life changer in certain situations. Thankfully neither one of us has a family history of anything that would make us privately bank our cord blood, so we wanted to donate it to the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center. The nurse said that they have a 9am cut off on Fridays to collect cord blood because they can not store it over the weekend. We were both pretty bummed about this, but it seemed like everyone was in agreement that there was no way I was going to be having a baby by 9.

My doctor finally showed up around 8:15 and chatted with me a little about how I was feeling and how things went during the night and as she was getting ready to check me out I remembered something the nurse told me after I got my epidural. She told me "let us know if you start feeling any anal pressure." Haha, sorry now if this is TMI, but eh. So, I let the doctor know that I had been feeling that for the past little while. I figured it was just my body saying I need to to go the bathroom and that's why the nurses said to let them know so they could get me up and to the toilet or something. The doctor said that might be what was going on but she would see when she checked me out. Well, the doctor gets down to business and almost as soon as she starts she goes "oh, ok" and then looks and me and says "you're ready to go."

Uhh, excuse me? I'm ready to go? Go where? Go to the bathroom because I need to poop? Nope! Ready to go have a baby! Yeah, even more so than that the doctor said I was at a +1 station, which means baby's head is way down and ready to go, the doctor said a +2 is where you can see the baby's head just by looking. Apparently that pressure I was feeling was the baby's head.

Ok, lets back track just a little... at 5am I was only 3cm dilated with my cervix still facing the back. And now at 8:15am I am a +1?!? And this is the reason I am 100% happy with my decision to get an epidural. I truly believe that the epidural allowed me to relax and not fight my body and just let it do what it needed to do. I think I was fighting the contractions so much before that I was stopping my progression. But, man, that epidural helped me calm down, relax and sleep. Which I think was exactly what I needed. It might not of been what I thought I wanted for my labor but it is what ended up being right for me.

Believe me I am not the only one that reacted a little shocked. My doctor was surprised, Robert was surprised, the nurses were surprised. The nurses were so surprised in fact that they spent the next 15 minutes running around like crazy people getting stuff ready, that they did not already have ready, for the delivery!

At this point Robert went to go tell his mom what was going on and I remember just sitting there in shock. After 9 months the time was finally here. I was finally going to meet this little creature that had been growing inside me. It was surreal. I also remember my doctor just sitting on the stool in front of me calmly waiting for the nurses to finish getting everything ready. I think seeing her so calm helped keep me calm.

Finally around 8:30 everything was ready and I was told on the next contraction I would put my hands on the backs of my thighs and pull back with Robert holding and pushing one foot back and a nurse holding and pushing the other foot. Robert's mom also ended up pushing on my back when I would bear down to push. I am not going to lie, the pushing part was really hard. It was hard to figure out where and how to push. Robert told me later on that when I was pushing the right way you could for sure tell and when I wasn't it was like nothing was happening.What's funny is for most of the pushing it was me telling the nurses and doctor it was time to push, I could just feel that my body was having a contraction and it was time to push, I did not need anyone telling me to push. While pushing the doctor told me to take a deep breath and hold it for 10 seconds and then release it. Let me tell you, those were some of the longest 10 seconds of my life! There were a couple of times I really thought I was going to pass out, thankfully I didn't!

Even though the pushing was hard, I would not say that it hurt. I could still feel my contractions and all the pressure, even though the epidural, but I would say I never really felt any pain or "ring of fire". Once her head was out I knew I still had the shoulders but I figured they would be a breeze compared to the head. Not so much, yes the head took forever to get out but the final push that got it out didn't really hurt. But the shoulders were all pointy and sharp, that was a little uncomfortable. Once her shoulders were out the rest of her slid right out, along with a lot of other gross gushing sounding stuff!

At 9am on Friday, February 11, 2011, after 30 minutes of pushing, my beautiful baby girl was born. It was the most amazing thing when they placed her, all slimy and purple, on my chest. I think I wanted to cry but I was just so drained that working up the tears was near impossible. The main thing I remember is looking at Robert and noticing how he could not stop smiling! He was probably the happiest I have ever seen him. He told me later that if anyone had tried to talk to him or ask him anything he probably would of started crying.

So, there you have it, the story of how Sadie May Morton came into this world.

(If I am feeling up to it I might document our first few days together, in the hospital and at home although they were pretty calm days and my recovery. I have plans to start updating more often with our day to day activities, but  it's kind of crazy how fast the days go by!)