May 16th, 2014
Today wasn't much different than Wednesday of this week. I kept myself busy doing chores around the house, and swaying side-to-side on all fours to keep her off of my spine. She wasn't as active as the last two days, but that was fine by me, I needed a break!
Tyler got home around 5pm and we had dinner, relaxed, played with Tessa, all of the usual thing. I was absolutely exhausted however, so he drug the couch from the front room into the living room - that way I could lay down and sleep while he played video games. :) I fell asleep around 8:00pm. I woke up at 10:30 with EXCRUCIATING low back pain. It was the worst pain I had experienced yet. Tyler turned to see if I was okay, and he could tell this was not the 'normal' contraction pain I had experienced thus far. Shoot, he even paused his game to hold my hand and talk me through it! <3 As soon as the pain subsided, I felt like I could jump off the couch, and go about my night as if I weren't pregnant at all - I felt great! As I was telling him this, I then felt as though the pain had made me pee my pants. When I tried to stop peeing, it kept coming. "Umm, I think my water broke." He walked me to the bathroom, as per my request, to try and allow for any other water to escape my body before heading to the hospital. I informed him, "Go get yourself ready, and grab all of the things in the front room (I had everything packed and ready to go since week 35). Don't freak out and rush, we have some time." I attempted to go to the bathroom, but found that when I tried to pee, my body wanted to push. Holy shit! Not yet! I leaned against the bathroom wall with my shoulder and pulled up my pants. I braced myself on the bathroom door, hallway wall, and piano to holler upstairs, "I don't know what the hell you're doing up there, but we need to go, NOW!" I grabbed my phone and slipped on some shoes. I walked to the garage door and leaned my head against the wall and focused on breathing. Poor hubby had to get everything, lock up the dog, and grab any miscellaneous items I mentioned.
One the way to the hospital, which is only two miles away, I had myself braced -hovering above my seat the entire way. At our childbirth class, they taught us the best way to prevent baby from coming is to breathe as if you are blowing out a candle. So, while Tyler drove us to the hospital, he held his index finger out as a "candle" for me to "blow out" all the way there. The contractions were 3-4 minutes apart. Not long enough for me! Because it was 10:50pm when we arrived at the hospital, we had to go into the Emergency Room entrance. As a first time mom, I made him bring in all of our crap too. haha. :) I walked into the check,-in counter, OBVIOUSLY in labor, and the receptionist reminded me that I was "A first time mom, and it isn't as bad as I think," etc. She's lucky there was plexiglass in front of her face. Although, I wouldn't have been able to hit her, as I was barely able to say a word between breathing through contractions. We waited, for what felt like ten minutes, for a nurse to get a wheelchair to bring me back to the delivery room. While we waited, I was told to "sit down and wait." hah. Right. If I tried to sit, my body wanted me to push! I leaned against the chair/wall with my eyes close taking deep, focused breaths until the chair arrived. I couldn't talk to that nurse as she strolled through the halls as if she were out on a Sunday drive - I wanted Tyler to push the chair in a dead sprint to the destination!
Once in the delivery room, they immediately had me strip down, get into a gown, and on the table to check how far along I was: 100% and 7cm. There were three nurses getting myself and the room prepped. During our hospital tour, they informed us that when we saw the baby cart come out of the closet in the delivery room that the staff was expecting a baby VERY soon. Great- I no more than had the nurse's hand out of my crotch when the damn baby cart came out. Shit. The nurse *trying* to get the computers and IV ready was too preoccupied helping me keep calm and effectively breathe through contractions to actually get anything else prepared. Tyler was frustrated with me not breathing like I was blowing out a candle. Another nurse was preparing tools that may be needed for delivery while the final nurse made a phone call, "We need a high-risk team in here now!" What?! High-risk? What had I done wrong?! ... Apparently I was progressing much too quickly for three staff to get myself and the room properly ready for a baby! Another 2-3 nurses came in to help. My 'coach' nurse, finally got an IV in me, but just barely. (I learned later that even though I didn't need an IV, they HAD to put one in, in case of emergency.) I tried squeezing Tyler's hand during contractions but he was much too sweaty to try to grip. I decided to use the bed rails. The IV was very quickly put into my had between contractions, but didn't get taped down in time and came out during the next contraction. She had to put it back in and taped quickly before another contraction happened. One of the new nurses leaned over me with her hand on my shoulder and asked if I wanted an epidural. I explained, "I don't know, I'm kind of on the fence." "Well, I'm glad you're okay with either option, because we don't really have time to give you one now. You are too far along." *Shrug* Okay! That helped me make that decision. :)
My body wanted me to push, SO BADLY, but I was informed I was not ready. While my cervix was completely dilated, the top of my vaginal canal was not. We waited a while, while I was still having serious, active labor contractions. They didn't want me to push through these contractions yet, because it could cause me to tear inside - they said that would take months to heal and would be very painful. Okay, I'll keep breathing and squeezing the bed rails to death while I wait for the green light. Let me tell you, being told you can't push when you're having an unmedicated natural birth is pretty much the same as someone saying, 'I know you have explosive diarrhea, but you can't poop right now."
Seriously.
After -Lord knows how long, they finally said I could push. HALLE -FREAKIN'- LUJAH! The next contraction I pushed, it was difficult, but it felt better than suffering through it! Another new nurse decided now would be a good time to explain that my doctor was at least 15 minutes away, and probably wouldn't make it for the delivery. I didn't care. I just wanted someone to make sure the baby didn't fall on the floor. Ha! After the first push, some lady, I found out later was a doctor, walked into the room with her arms straight out, a nurse put a gown with gloves on her and she walked over to my bed. I pushed twice more and then we had a baby! Yeah, three pushes for a baby. Holy crap. Once this random doctor was cleaned up, she walked up to me, shook my hand and introduced herself. We all laughed at the unorthodox way we went about introductions, and events of the evening. It was 11:48pm and I was a mom!
Even though it was offered, I declined the staff doing much to baby before I got her (footprint, Vitamin D, cleaning her skin, etc). We did skin-to-skin for an hour or so. I didn't care how "dirty" she was, she was my baby. I kissed her messy head and didn't care one bit! While we waited for the after-birth, which also only took three pushes, Tyler and I got to snuggle our fresh little baby girl. The beautiful moment was slightly tarnished by the nurse waiting for the after-birth who was holding the umbilical cord. She kept lowering her arm and made it dangle by my butthole. It was SO uncomfortable/gross/weird. I told her to move it, and she did. The third time I asked her to move it, all of the nurses laughed, and said they'd never heard anyone complain about that before. Well, I was fully aware of everything going on down there, as I didn't have any pain medications, numbing agents, or anything the entire time. As Tyler got to cut the cord and watch as they cleaned up, weighed, and measured baby girl, I got a few stitches for my third degree tear.
We had planned on having two babies that day, and the only names picked out were for if we had two girls, or two boys, or one of each. It was difficult to choose just one name for this birth day.
We announced this baby's name would be Morgan Jean Barna. <3
