RC Daniels: The Birth

It's not too exciting of a birth story, but I will record it for inquiring minds and for posterity. June basically decided to take her time with every aspect involved in getting here. She was born on Tuesday morning so I was just over 39 weeks.

The Friday before her birth, I woke up feeling great. I went running and ran faster and further than I had in months and I still had lots of energy for the rest of the day. This is exactly what happened when I had Willa, so I thought for sure that June was going to be born the very next day. I had a doctor's appointment Friday afternoon and found out I was almost dilated to a three. It was a sign! The doctor said he would be on call at the hospital on Sunday, if I had the baby then. In my mind I was like, "Hah, Sunday! Yeah right, this baby isn't waiting until then!" Poor little me, I had no idea. I woke up Saturday feeling completely normal, no contractions, no water breaking, nothing. It was a big disappointment. The reason we still wanted to have this baby soon was because Ryan's mom was out here to help and we didn't want her to have to change her flight if the baby hadn't been born. A reason of lesser importance was we figured that if we had her on the weekend, or close to it, then Ryan would have an appropriate excuse to get out of his morning meetings on Sunday.

Sunday, I woke up feeling really tight in my stomach. Something must be happening! I was positive we would be on our way to the hospital in an hour or two, that Ryan ~~could~~ would have to miss his meetings, that the baby could be born while my doctor was on call instead of someone else from the practice. Imagine my surprise when nothing happened. Ryan showered and left. I shockingly found that I had time to shower, get ready, and get to church to play for choir practice. Not only that, but I was even able to attend the entire three hour block of church! My stomach was really tight and uncomfortable the entire day, something was different, but I was not having this baby.

Monday morning I woke up with contractions and the same tight stomach. This was it! Ryan shouldn't go into work, he might not be able to get home in time for the birth if I really went into labor. Of course, by now I had swallowed the bitter pill and despite the irregular contractions and extreme uncomfortableness, I went running, got showered, babysat Bridgett and Abby, and basically planned that this baby was going nowhere soon. I was definitely in early labor, but that type of stuff can last for days.

Finally, Monday evening came and about 8:30 pm I felt something. Sorry if this gets gross, but I went to the bathroom and it was definitely bloody show time. We packed up and headed for the hospital. I was pretty sure it was labor, but I was also a little scared my placenta had detached because there was a LOT more blood than when it happened with Willa. They had to hook up the monitors to determine whether it was just labor or something more serious, and thankfully it was labor! By then, my contractions had definitely become intense and regular. Since Willa had come so fast, I thought it prudent to ask for my epidural as soon as they admitted me. It was evening, but Ryan and I honestly thought and hoped that the baby would be born that night - which was his mom's birthday.

Well, this is where things get interesting (or boring, depending on your perspective - or perhaps you're already bored? No pressure to keep reading). I got my epidural and the doctor promised I'd still be able to feel the pressure and contractions. That was true for about 30 minutes, but whatever he gave me would have knocked out an elephant. Pretty soon I could not feel ANYTHING, I was like Jabba the Hut or a beached whale. Plus, my contractions had stopped! It is actually extremely uncomfortable to not feel anything and I kept calling the nurse and telling her to please turn down the medication. She said she wasn't allowed to and kept saying that it would get better. She also had the gall to tell me that I wasn't in real labor since my contractions had stopped and that at 5 a.m. she would check me and they would give me some pitocin. I was really annoyed at all of this - it was the middle of the night, I'd just been hit by a tranquilizer gun, she didn't have the time or whatever to check me until 5 a.m., and to make matters worse - since it was so late and I was trying to sleep, the blood pressure cuff kept going off. My blood pressure is really low normally, but in that hazy, sleep-induced state, it kept making the alarm go off. It took my blood pressure every 15 minutes and every time the alarm would go off and Ryan would have to get up, walk across the room to shut it down. I ended up doing crunches in my bed and moving my arms a lot whenever I felt the cuff start to tighten. It was a game of trying to get my heart rate up high enough to satisfy the machine.

Finally, around 3 a.m. the nurse said that she could turn the epidural off completely, and if I started feeling a lot of pain then the doctor could come back in and start it up again. Ah, sweet relief! It still took about 90 minutes until I could feel anything or move my legs, and it took over 3 hours before I felt any contractions. They said that maybe I'm more sensitive to the medication, but it just seemed crazy that it affected me so much even if I was a little sensitive to it. She also was nice enough (insert sarcasm) to check me at 5 a.m. and low and behold, I was at an 8. Honestly, I was just annoyed by this point. I had expected to wrap this thing up several hours ago, but I think the epidural just shut everything down. It was annoying that the nurse was never there and that it really hadn't occurred to her that the epidural was the issue and not that this wasn't real labor. Once the contractions started up again, things went quickly. The anesthesiologist came in about 15-20 minutes before I needed to push. The contractions had finally become painful again (painful, but nowhere near what I imagined they should have been since I was at a 9 then). He started the drip, at 7 a.m. I started pushing for about three contractions, and baby June was born at 7:06 a.m.

Let me say, that I LOVED feeling my legs and the pressure. It was a LOT of pressure and very difficult, but it was so much better than being completely dead and not feeling anything like last time. I don't think the epidural masked everything completely because I could definitely feel pinching when the doctor sewed me up, but I felt like I could get up and walk around just as soon as she was born. So, that was the good part about the epidural drama. Still, with all that drama I can't say that I'm ready to go au naturelle without any pain meds. It has made me think a little more about it, but I am just a wimp.

I also have to say that even though I wanted to be done a lot quicker (and I'm slightly embarrassed to have had such a long labor) it was very nice going into the recovery at the beginning of the day instead of the middle of the night. I had SUCH amazing nurses in the recovery and I'm so grateful to them. I didn't have to get a catheter, which I completely attribute to my awesome nurse and her trick of lots of orange juice with lots of added extra sugar (which is disgusting to drink, but very effective!). Also, since I didn't have June until 7 a.m. on Tuesday, the hospital has a 48 hour recovery period. So, I wasn't released until Thursday! Since I went in on Monday night, it was a long time in the hospital, and I was originally going to leave on Wednesday because I was feeling fine, but I am glad I had some extra time to recover before I had to go home to a very clingy toddler. This birth and recovery have been way easier than with Willa, I feel really good and I didn't realize how tired and uncomfortable the pregnancy was.

June has been a doll. She's nine days old today and still not fussy at all. She will just lay and look around. She is a champion nurser and sometimes gets a lot of bubbles because of her enthusiasm, but after about five or ten minutes of getting burps out she is a very calm and happy camper again. I'm crossing my finger that it lasts! The nurses loved June. Two different times they took her away to weigh her. The first time, I walked out of my room a few minutes later and found that they were passing her around the nurses station! The second time was in the middle of the night. They said she would only be gone about 30 minutes (I had told them she needed to eat in about an hour). Well, 2 1/2 hours later I called my nurse to ask if she could check on June. She brought her back and said the nurses in the nursery had just been fighting over her and taking turns holding her the whole time! It might just be flattery, but I'm the mom and I accept that my baby might just be completely sweet and adorable.

Visiting in the hospital: