The Delivery

It is Sunday, December 13th. Joey and I had gone to bed just a couple minutes before. At midnight I felt the first contraction. "That kind of hurt," I thought. Several minutes later another one. I had to breathe through it. "Hmmm, I wonder if this is it?" So, I take a look at the clock to start timing them. It was 12:15am. Nine minutes later another. At 12:30 another.

(Side note: The doctor's office tells you that you are suppose to wait until your contractions are four to five minutes apart for an hour, then call the office before heading to the hospital. It had only been a little over thirty minutes and though they were getting closer together, I didn't know if this was really it.)

Then I feel a little wet. I wake up Joey (which is not easy) and say, "I think my water just broke." "Are you serious?" "I don't know, it's either that or I just wet the bed." Another contraction three minutes later. So, I tell Joey that I am just going to lay back and wait a few more minutes. A contraction and then a gush of water. It was 12:40am.

I grab my phone to call the doctor's office (answering service, of course since it is the middle of the night) and wait for the doctor to call back. The doc calls back and after relating to him all that had happened he said to come on in.

In the meantime, Joey had gotten up and starts grabbing everything I tell him to as I lay there moaning on the bed, the contractions are coming every two minutes or less. No, I had not packed my bag yet. I had planned to that day, but didn't get around to it. It was still five days before my due date and Anna had been five days late. I get up in between contractions and go into Anna's room to pack her. Joey calls his parents to have them meet us at the hospital to get Anna. I keep rattling things off for Joey to get and he just says to forget it and let's go before I have the baby in the car. The hospital is about a fifteen or so minute drive, but at one in the morning and running a red light or two (of course after stopping to make sure no one was coming) we got there in about ten.

Contractions are still coming within two minutes of each other. From the back seat we hear a little moan and then we all laugh as we realize that Anna is imitating me. We pull up to the hospital at 1:20am. Joey runs in to have them come out with a wheelchair. Joey's parents pull in right behind us. I say hi and thank you to them as they wheel me in. Anna loves her Oma and Opa, so she was not sad to see me go.

They wheel me into the exam room. After quite some time, they come back in to get me and the baby hooked up to the monitor. Then the doctor comes in to check on me. (Another side note: I really didn't want to have the baby tonight as my least favorite doctor in the office was on call. Just so you know, he is still my least favorite doctor.) I am dilated 4cm. Another nurse comes in to get the IV going. She tells me to calm down, open my eyes, and to unclench my fist and then proceeds to take her sweet time to figure out that she can't get the IV in my right arm so she is going to try my left. After she finally gets it in, they wheel me into the labor and delivery room. Still no pain medicine.

The nurses keep yelling my name to get me to open my eyes and look at them so they could get me to calm down and relax. Kind of hard when the contractions are right on top of each other. The doctor comes back in and I am dilated to 6cm and says the anesthesiologist is on his way. The doctor barely walks out of the room when I let out a big scream. I see through squinted eyes, the nurse at my feet turn to me and yell, "Are you pushing?" I respond only with screaming and she turns to another nurse and yells to get the doctor back in here. He walks in and says, "Oh, there's the head." I had gone from a six to a ten almost instantaneously. They tell me to pull my knees towards my chest, but instead I push them away with my hands. I say I need pain medicine. She can't come it is going to hurt too bad is all I am thinking. After two more pushes they tell me to open my eyes. There she was! They were holding her up. I couldn't believe it. She was here!

They took her to clean her up weigh her and all that good stuff. I just laid back down and said "I did it." I couldn't believe I had done it. I apologized to the nurses for screaming and they all were just so nice now and said I did really great. Sure didn't feel like they were thinking that before. It was 2:24am.

Joey was great! He stood at my side. I remember seeing his face the few times I would barely open my eyes. I had told him before that I am not the type who likes to be caressed and talked to, but to just be there at my side and ready to respond when I needed him to. He did exactly that! He went over to be with the baby while I was getting cleaned up. I was still clinging onto the bed rails and was shaking uncontrollably. They say that is from the shock of the pain.

Joey brought her over all bundled up. She is so tiny in his arms. I feel like I am still shaking too bad to hold her. A nurse says it may help me to settle down if I do and she is right. I can’t believe she is here and came so quickly. WOW! We did it! She is just beautiful! A little more hair than Anna's was and it is darker. She has her own look. She weighed 7 lbs. 3 oz and was 18 3/4 inches long.

Now that she was here, I think I may have been able to handle things a little better had I known that things were going to go so quickly. Having had an epidural before, I knew I didn't have to feel pain like this so that was all I could think about. I wish I tried to "enjoy" the moment. Now which way will I decide to go with the next delivery??? Surprisingly, I am thinking no epidural...