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| Is she not the cutest? |
I had gone to my weekly doctor's visit April 26, 2012 and was informed by my doctor that I was already 3 centimeters dilated. Since I was already considered full term, he said that if I went into labor now that the baby would be okay. With that piece of information in mind, I heading to work to get cracking on tying up loose ends before the baby arrived, which included completing a desk guide that I created for my program and training my co-op to run my program during my maternity leave. My co-op, by the way, was awesome. She helped me with the desk guide and ran the program smoothly in my absence, even leaving her stamp on the program.
Speed up to May 3, 2012...
It was a pretty bad night. I couldn't get comfortable, tossing and turning from the time I laid down. I started to realize that my contractions were getting progressively stronger and longer. At about 4:00 am, I woke my husband up and informed him that I think I was going into labor. See, I didn't actually know what it was like to go into labor because with my last three pregnancies I was induced and had my water broken by my doctor. With it being so early in the morning, I told my husband to meet me at the hospital after he dropped the girls off at the daycare. There was no reason to wake them up and drag them to the hospital, especially since there wouldn't have been anyone to watch them while Anthony was in the delivery room with me. That was one biology lesson that I wasn't ready for them to learn (or see) about just yet!
After getting my hospital bag, I drove myself, contractions and all, to the hospital, and not the first time, I might add. Yeah, I'm kind of a badass like that! LOL
I called my doctor's office, left a message with the answering service and made my way to the hospital. I parked the car and made my way inside, only to remember that the front entrance was closed, as well as the out patient door, after the fact that I had already walked around a third of the hospital. Luckily another lady had done the same thing as me and offered to walk with me to Labor and Delivery, via the Emergency Room entrance. That just happen to be at the back of the hospital, which required a lot more walking than I had anticipated doing. Finally making it into a delivery room around 4:30 am, I was in a lot of pain and so ready for it to be over and be holding my baby girl in my arms. Having small veins and from past experiences, I already knew that it would be difficult to have an IVstarted. When the nurse started feeling for a good vein, I told her exactly where to put it, and of course, she didn't listen, but somehow ended up using the arm and vein which I recommended. Just that alone took about 10 minutes.
From that moment on, I had a feeling that it was going to be a long day. Boy was I wrong. My contractions started hurting more and were starting to last longer. Crying didn't help, but that was all I could do. I don't think they even notified the anesthesiologist, through I was at 5 centimeters. I tried the breathing technique, but it's kind of hard when you are in that much pain. What I really wanted to do was tell the nurse to shut the hell up and give me my damn epidural, not ask me questions to answers that I had already provided during pre-registration. They kept telling me to breathe through the pain and not to push because the doctor would be there soon, but I couldn't.
All I could think about was getting the baby out and stopping the paid. So, with one deep breath in, I pushed as hard as I could, causing my water to break. That finally got all the nurses' attentions. They starting prepping and suiting up, but even that was too late. The nurse closest to me was putting on her second glove, and before she could pull it up past her wrist, Malia was completely out and flopped onto the bed in front of me. Thank God that the nurse hadn't removed the bottom part of the bed; otherwise, my baby would have been on the nasty "sterile" floor. At 5:37 PM, on May 3, 2012, Miss Malia took her first breath and let out a loud, shrill cry, letting the world know she had arrived!
Afterwards, the paid that followed was bearable, compared to what I had just experienced, it was a piece of cake. I couldn't imagine how women who've had natural births could do it for more than the hour. Boy am I glad that I didn't have to find that out the hard way. One hour was more than enough for me.
About 20 minutes after giving birth minion #4, I called my husband to check in with him. He told me he had just dropped of the girls at daycare and was heading to the hospital. I told him to take his time and get my breakfast because I was done. He paused a moment and said, "Say what?" I repeated myself, and it took him a couple of seconds to register what I had just told him.
And that, my friends is how my Lovebug came into this world! No drugs before, during or after the labor and delivery. I might have been in a lot of pain, but having no drugs in my system helped me to bounce back quicker than any of my other pregnancies. The human body is a fascinating and wonderous work of art. It's amazing how our body adapts and functions.
If I were ever to get pregnant again, Lord forbid...LOL, I would probably go the same route, but don't quote me on that!
Do you, or someone you know, have an interesting story about a birth you'd like to share? I would love to read about them below!
~Sharon~
