Adventure #36: The Day We Became Parents!!!

"A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, a home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten and the future worth living for." - Unknown 

July 2015

It was Friday morning and our induction was scheduled for 7:30am. We were both so giddy while we were getting ready and heading out the door. Today was the day! We arrived at the hospital and thanks to the stress test we had a few weeks ago, they had all of our info ready to go. The nurses took their time getting me all settled in for the long day ahead. I am terrible with needles and blood, so I wasn't thrilled about the IV. I let the nurse know, but sure enough, I nearly passed out as they were putting the IV in. By the time they hooked me up with Petocin it was 8:30. They started me off with a very, very low dosage, and it didn't do anything. At least, I couldn't feel anything. The nurse assigned to us was so kind and helpful.

At 9:30 my doctor came in and broke my water. That was when the contractions really started! Jordan read to me "The Lost World" by Michael Crichton. We had already finished "Jurassic Park" during the last few months. While dinosaurs were a good choice for distracting me from the pain, after a couple hours I decided it was time to get an epidural. I couldn't concentrate on anything when the contractions came and they were coming every couple of minutes. I had progressed enough so the nurse called for the anesthesiologist. 

Jordan had already helped me come up with my coping mechanism for the day: singing "The Lord is my Light" in my head. The anesthesiologist came in and nurse had me lean over and relax. Jordan started humming the hymn and the nurse let me lean my head on her shoulder. The anesthesiologist told me that it would just take a minute. I was so focused on trying to relax and singing the hymn in my head, that I never felt a thing! The anesthesiologist said he was done and I couldn't believe it. Then I felt sheepish that the IV was more traumatizing than the epidural...

The next 5 or so hours were total bliss. I couldn't feel any pain at all. Jordan continued to read to me, we talked about our baby girl who would be here soon, and Jordan ate some snacks since he hadn't eaten for almost 8 hours. I was feeling great just having water. I progressed from a dilation of 5 to a 9 within an hour. And then a 9 to a 10 the next hour. Once I reached a 10 we were told that we were going to do a "rest and descend" method. Basically you just let your body do most of the work instead of you trying to push for hours and hours.

The nurse had told me that she thought my pelvic bone may be an issue (not large enough for the baby to pass through), but she wasn't sure. After waiting for my body to push the baby down, I started to feel the baby pushing on me down there. The nurse came in and had me start doing "practice pushing" and said she would call the doctor soon. Unfortunately it was during our practice pushing that the nurse had to leave and we got another nurse assigned to us. 

The new nurse was a little annoying, but we could deal with it. She just kept talking about her x-husband the whole time. After pushing for nearly an hour, the nurse said she could see the baby's head! She said we had to keep pushing until we could see the baby's head to the size of a quarter. I started to bleed a little, but the nurse said it was normal. Jordan was anxiously watching everything.

 I kept pushing and then the nurse suddenly started swearing and said there was too much blood now. She couldn't tell where it was coming from either. She told me to stop pushing immediately. She kept cursing and asked us how to call for assistance. That was when I really started to worry. How does a nurse not know how to call for assistance?!?! Does she really know how to help me?!?! It also didn't help that the baby's heart monitor slipped off at the same time. This nurse handed the monitor to Jordan and told him to find the heartbeat. He was also really nervous at this point, but he found the heartbeat and the baby was just fine. As a matter of fact, her heartbeat was not elevated at all, it was as if she was sleeping! Such a good girl.

So the nurse was finally able to call for assistance and some other nurses came in. Our nurse kept saying things like, "I've got a really bad feeling about this." I knew that for the baby's sake, I needed to stay calm. By now there were five or six nurses in the room and they had just heard from our Doctor that he was on his way. With all the chaos in the room, I shut my eyes and sang the hymn in my head. 

The Lord is my light, then why should I fear? 

By day and by night his presence is near. 

He is my salvation from sorrow and sin;

 this blessed assurance the Spirit doth bring.

I repeated it over and over again in my head until the doctor finally arrived. He looked at me and showed the nurse where the bleeding was coming from and told her she should have gotten the baby out a long time ago. He looked at me and told me to push with the next contraction. After two pushes I finally felt relief and I looked down and saw our beautiful baby girl for the first time. Jordan and I looked at each other and saw the tears of joy in each other's eyes. It was a magical and miraculous moment. For that short moment, I felt no pain. Just overwhelming joy. 

The pain returned, so as they took our baby to be checked, I laid back and closed my eyes, just so grateful our baby made it here safely. I could hear her sweet cry, but it lasted less than a minute so I looked over towards our baby. She was fine and Jordan was waiting right next to her, ready to hold her for the first time.

The doctor told me I had the worst second degree tear he had ever seen, and that it would take a while to stitch up. The stitching was painful as well, but I thought that I just needed to grin and bear it. The doctor saw my white knuckles clinging onto the bed and told me I could get more pain medication if I wanted. I didn't know it was an option, so I was happy I could have more. The anesthesiologist was already there waiting and after the extra dosage I was finally able to concentrate on our baby girl. 

Jordan was standing next to me, holding our sweet girl. Her eyes were wide open and staring at me. Staring back at her dulled the pain even more than all of the pain medication. The doctor even stopped stitching to watch our alert baby girl. It took about an hour to an hour and a half for the doc to finish stitching, but when he did he said I looked better than he thought I would after the tear I had. He said it was some of the best stitching he had ever done. Our baby girl was wide awake and content the whole time I was being stitched up. Seriously, nothing could upset this baby! 

I was so grateful for the doctor's hard work and patience. And more than that, I was grateful I was finally able to hold our baby. I had some much needed skin to skin and fed her for the first time. She was just perfect in every way. 

I was also feeling a lot better, so we invited my family in to come visit. Everyone got a chance to hold her and we took lots of pictures. It was my parents first grandchild and my brothers' first niece or nephew, so it was a new experience for all of us. 

           

 

Our angel Maria weighed 6lbs 9oz and was 20" long. She was a tiny little bundle sent from heaven and we couldn't be happier. :)