Birth Story: The Best And Worst Day Of My Life

I still hold our wedding day as the best day of my life, but the day we brought a baby into the world together takes the title for "BEST and WORST Day of my life". Everyone kept telling me that my labor would be so easy, and the doctor even swaggered in thinking that it was going to be a breeze after bragging to my nurse friend that he wished all of his patients were like me. They said this would be a great labor experience with my health and fitness, however, that's not exactly how things turned out...but let's go back a few days.

On June 30th I went in for my last OB appointment a day after our original due date. I was 2 cm, 60% effaced, so we came to the agreement that we would Strip the Membranes {natural way to induce labor}, and if that didn't work, I would be scheduled for an induction. I hadn't wanted to be induced because that's just more drugs, but we also knew that leaving her in there for too long without knowing a true due date was a gamble too. So basically, we scheduled it, gave the family notice to head this way, and we were rarin' to go. My parents and Natalie {Charlie's Godmother} even arrived the night before, so we all had a nice dinner and a very sleepless night. Natalie and I giggled over the fact that we were basically having a sleepover like the old days, only now we were whispering about babies rather than  boys and instead of staying up until 4AM, we were getting up at that time to go to the hospital.

It didn't take long to check in, but emotions were high as we got the process started. Dressing gowns, IV's, Monitors, and going over and over the process filled the time until the doctor arrived, and then the Pitocin drip started about 8AM. Just in time for Will to finish up his academics and meet us at the hospital. {We couldn't have him missing class if we could help it!} Slowly the contractions started, and I realized that the day would not pass as quickly for everyone else as it was for me, so I sent them off to get some rest, which left time for Will and I to rest in between contractions. As you can imagine, we didn't have much success with that, so around 11:30 I was ready for the Epidural. I had been a little apprehensive about it, but I can honestly tell you that the lidocaine they use to numb you is the only thing that I felt. As a matter of fact, I didn't feel anything for the rest of the day and not in a good way. Well, good in that I wasn't feeling any pain, but bad because I didn't have any feeling from the ribs down. I was pretty worried when I touched anywhere below my ribs and I felt like I was touching a corpse. When they would move my legs I would say "What legs? I don't have any legs", and if only they had believed me...

Fast forward to 6:02pm, and the pushing began. I had no reference for how to push, but I listened to every bit of advice to start getting her down the birth canal. In spite of the fact that I had zero feeling, she was moving down and things were looking good up until we realized that she was turned to the side and didn't want to budge past my pelvic bone. After thirty minutes I suggested turning off the epidural, but the doctor seemed apprehensive. Instead, they pulled out extra handlebars, gave me every option known to man about how to push/pull/contort my body, and had Will and Natalie wrangling both my legs. This lead to another thirty minutes of pushing that got us nowhere until I could tell my doctor was getting frustrated. He was telling me to push where I felt his hand, so I told him I would if I could feel where he was pushing. I think it finally clicked that I did not have enough feeling to do what needed to be done and the epidural was then turned off. It would have been nice to take a break until it wore off, but nope...we kept pushing, and they kept telling me I was doing sooo great. I had to be on oxygen, was getting conflicting advice on how to push, and simply emotionally and physically drained, so I snapped back "I don't believe any of you". Luckily, it only took another thirty or so for me to tell that things were coming along, and as Natalie started getting bucked every time I pushed with growing strength in my legs, I at least felt like we were getting somewhere.

It was when I regained feeling in my abs that I knew we were in business. A nurse took over the leg opposite Will, and although I had barely any strength left, it only took one push for the doctor to realize it was time to pull out the safety net and put his delivery gown on. Two more pushes and he threatened mentioned that he may have to open me up to give her more room. Apparently that was just the push I needed to get her out, because he wasn't getting anywhere near me with those scissors. One more push and a tiny little human was placed on my chest. I was exhausted, they were sewing me up from a small tear on the left side, among a few other minor complications, but I could care less. I just was happy to be done with the hardest two hour workout I'd ever had in my life.

While they cleaned her across the room, we marveled at how long she was. We were thinking she would be 6 pounds and change, maybe 19 inches, and instead she was 7.13, 21 inches, and all legs! Actually, not all legs at the time because she had the WORST cone head I'd ever seen. I told Natalie to get her hat ready, because baby girl was not going to meet everyone like that. I know it's normal, but I totally had a "what have I done to my baby?!" moment. Poor thing hung out under my pelvic bone for so long that it was inevitable. I was only thankful that her face was perfect from being turned, and all that really mattered was she was healthy and loved.

Finally, once everybody had gone home, the three of us began our new life together. We clung to the natural instincts we didn't know we had, and hoped that would be enough to get us through the night, and well, the rest of her life.