A flair for drama!
7 months oldA little background knowledge to begin with. Both of Henry's older brothers were born early so I was fully expecting Henry to arrive around 37 or 38 weeks. In fact, my OB/GYN did too. Due to my previous early deliveries they started checking the cervix at around 36 weeks. Sure enough, I was progressing early. I think at 36 weeks I was dilated to a two and 50% effaced. I actually prayed to hold off on delivering Henry for a few weeks until he was bigger and better developed to handle the big, bad world. 37 weeks, pretty much the same. Maybe 60% effaced (I don't know how they could tell a difference of 10 percent to tell you the truth but when you're a pregnant woman you want to hear something different). 38 weeks and it's Christmas. My parents and my sisters, Maureen and Sarah, come hoping for some excitement. At this point, I'm hoping it's after Christmas so that Seth and Sammy get a fun day and all the attention isn't on the baby. Christmas comes and goes and Sarah and Maureen leave without meeting baby and my mom stays because it's only a matter of time and why make 2 trips. New years comes and goes. Hey. . . free babysitter. 39 weeks and I'm 75% effaced and maybe a 3. I'm totally annoyed and want to be induced. I'm not easy about it though because my labor with both Seth and Sam was fairly easy and I didn't know what to expect with induction. What if it turned into an 18 hour ordeal when a few days later I could have repeated the 4 hour cakewalk I'd come to expect? But enough was enough and I scheduled an induction for Monday which was 1 day before my due date. (For those of you wondering if maybe I'm just off on my dates. . . I'm not off by weeks due to pretty much being limited to conception a week to 10 days after Clomid and the roughly 10 ultrasounds we had done as early as 6 weeks)
Sunday night and I'm sitting on the couch with my mom. It's 8 o'clock and West Wing is starting (although I haven't watched the show since Rob Low left, my mother still watches it). I feel a very strong contraction and grimace. My mom notices and asks if it's different than the trillion other contractions I've had since she's been there. It is and I mention that this might be it. Hold off on making an announcement to Jay since he's already been involved in 2 false alarms. 5 minutes go by and I feel another strong contractions. These are definitely different so I alert Jay that I think we might need to go to the hospital. I don't call my Dr. or his office because it's #3, it's Sunday and they usually do it at the hospital. I just don't want to be a bother. Plus, I'm not totally sure of myself. You'd think with #3 that you would be more confident about real labor vs. false labor but at 40 weeks I was in unfamiliar territory and unsure of anything. We get in the van and drive and I have some major gutbusters on the way. It's about a 15 minute drive and I want an epidural for sure. At the hospital, we park in the emergency room parking log and walk into the building. Jay wants to get me in a wheelchair right away but I ignore him and start down the hall. The Labor and Deliver wing is new and really quite a ways from the emergency room. About 20 ft into the hallway I double over with pain. 2 Radiology techs that know Jay see us and get me a wheelchair. Jay pushes me the rest of the way and I'm totally that woman with one hand covering her eyes and the other on her belly, moaning.
We arrive at Labor and Delivery and the nurse at the front desk informs us that there isn't a clean labor room at the moment and to wait in the waiting room while they prepare one. We sit on a hard, round couch in a room that has several vending machines, a play area for kids, a T.V. playing a football game and several other people that I will describe as loud, vulgar and hyper. I get through each contraction by focusing on a speck of dirt or paper on the carpet and counting. Jay rubs my back and tries to get me to a happy place but the obnoxious crowd is causing quite a scene at the vending machines and they are ruining my groove. 15=20 minutes pass and finally a nurse instructs us to follow her to a bathroom so that I can provide a urine sample. We stand up off the couch and I have a contraction. She waits with us and then we follow her. As soon as I start walking I have another. I manage to get to the bathroom and enter and lock the door (habit - public place). I immediately have another contraction and lean on the sink. On the toilet, it seems impossible to command my body to pee. After a couple of minutes of trying I feel enormous pressure and know that I need to push. I pull the distress cord next to the toilet and start screaming "the baby's coming!" Of course, the door is locked and the nurse and Jay are yelling at me to open the door. It looks so far away but I don't want to have the baby in the bathroom by myself so I manage to stand up and walk the wall over to the door. The nurse yells to someone that "she's having this baby now!" and someone gets a stretcher. I can't remember getting onto it but I do remember being on my back watching the fluorescent lights go by on the ceiling. I am doing a lot of screaming and yelling that I need to push mixed in with groaning and bearing down. Somebody holds my legs together and we make it into a room that I realize is not prepared. They roll me onto the hospital bed so that I am on my hands and knees and several nurses work at getting me undressed. I do remember thinking how awkward that all was and wishing for some dignity. The nurses are looking for the equipment and calling doctors. One resident is assisting a C-section and the other never answers the page. My Dr. is on his way but there is no way I'm going to be able to hold off for 15-20 minutes. All the while is this uncontrollable urge to push. That's the best description of the entire labor -- out of control. I'm freaking out because I cannot stop pushing and the nurses tell me that there is meconium and I need the NICU team there so I have to wait. Jay recognizes the chaos pretty much takes over. He grabs my face with his hands and tells me to "stop yelling" and that I couldn't push. I don't know why but him doing that helps me to refocus enough to listen to a nurse instruct me to pant. Panting keeps me from pushing and I hear Jay say, "I'm a doctor, get me some gloves." The NICU arrives fairly quickly and I get the green light. It really doesn't hurt to deliver without an epidural, it's just really intense. Pressure, effort, feeling...all heightened. At 9:27 pm, Henry is born. Jay delivers the placenta and finally my doctor arrives to take over and Jay gets to be husband and dad. He was a star and gets a lot of credit for remaining calm and professional. Of course, he didn't have a baby coming out of his netheregions on the toilet either so weigh that in as well:)
Henry is an amazing boy. He's so bright and alert and happy. Anyone that knows him loves him. He has a smile for everyone and is very handsome. Totally worth the nausea, vomiting, weight gain, stretchmarks, freakish delivery, nursing woes and colic due to milk intolerance. Henry Carter is worth every bit of it
Oh...so kissable!
4 comments:
I think Henry looks most definitely like a Hatch!
Cutie pie!! And I think he looks like Jay :p
Um, and not that I think Jay isn't cute...I am most definitely not calling Jay a cutie pie. Sheesh- must.go.to.bed.
A few corrections:
While in the bathroom Lucy did not scream, "the baby is coming" in the bathroom. It was more like an unintelligible scream. The nurse and I were banging on the door for about a minute, without her answering us or opening the door. She just kept screaming, "AAAAAAAAAAAAA".
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