Omg We’re Really About to be Parents!! Continued-The Final Moments!

I felt so clean afterwards and was definitely ready for that epidural!  Nurse Anna told me it would be a 20 minute wait for his arrival and that was before my enema, so I figured I only had about 10-15 minutes left, thank goodness!  After about 30 minutes I just couldn’t take it and in my nicest voice asked where he was.  I guess she could see the panic in my face and apologized, telling me he will be on his way soon hopefully.  When she left that room the sailor in me came out because all I kept saying to Jon was, “Where the F*** is that epidural man?!!!  I neeeeed the drugs NOW!!! I can’t take this F***** pain anymore, what does he think is going on here?!  He is being so inconsiderate!”  Poor Jon would just nod and agree.  Then as soon as Nurse Anna would come back in, I would put on a front and ask politely where he was, but inside I was a raging bull!  You know how it is ladies, when you’re so mad at your significant other, but don’t want to make a scene in public so you wait until you’re alone to let him have a verbal lashing, yeah this was what I was going through, except my anger was directed at the epidural man. 

We were able to see my contractions on the monitor and they were crazy strong with only 30 second breaks in between so I was dying!  During this time, Jon was on his computer doing who knows what and I had to yell at him during a contraction telling him he needed to come rub my lower back before my contraction started.  He would go back and forth every 30 seconds between his computer and me!   Who does that???  I guess he realized I was on edge and stayed there rubbing my lower back and even started to breathe with me.  The pain got so bad that during one of our breathing sessions I thought he was off, but then after seeing him look at me crazy and then the spit from his mouth hit my face from his laughter, I couldn’t help but crack up during my contraction!  I was laughing and crying at the same time.  Apparently, my breathing was really off.  He said I looked super crazy because my hair was everywhere, my breathing was all over the place and I had a crazed look in my eyes.  I will always remember this because despite me being in agonizing pain, we were still able to crack up with one another as we normally do.

Finally, the epidural man came and I couldn’t wait to get that needle in my back!  They had me sit on the edge of the bed hugging a pillow and told me to be very still or else I could face being paralyzed if I moved.  Moreover, I was having contractions and I had to bear it and stay still even though I wanted to scream.  Epidural man cleaned my back and inserted this tiny tiny tube via a large needle that released the feel good drugs.  I didn’t look at the needle because I didn’t want to freak myself out, but Jon saw it and told me it was huge!  To be honest, I didn’t even feel it go in my back because the contractions were a painful distraction.  Just so you know the needle doesn’t go in your spine, it goes in the layer before your spine.  Also, if you get the epidural you also have a small tube or catheter inserted as well so that you don’t pee on yourself (you can’t get up since you’re numb).  I felt some pressure with this.  However, after 10 minutes I was numb from the waist down and felt great!!  There was only mild pressure when I had those pesky contractions and this gave me an opportunity to rest because it caused them to slow down as well.  Nurse Anna also checked my cervix and I was dilated 8 cm by the time the epidural man came (you are 10cm when you give birth), insane!  I didn’t know this at the time , but you have to be 5-6 cm dilated before they can administer the epidural to you.  I was close to having my baby and that’s why my pain was crazy strong and coming so fast!  It was around 12am at this point and I was given the okay to sleep until it was time.  I had intermittent naps because Nurse Anna would wake me to change the sides on which I slept and continuously check our baby’s heart rate and mine. 

It was around 4:30am when I felt a pop and woke up.  I knew my water that broke and immediately called Nurse Anna.  She checked and sure enough it did break and I was 10cm dilated!  She told me to get ready and went to call my OBGYN.  I was about to have a “Knocked Up” moment when I saw that another doctor in my OBGYN’s practice was going to deliver my baby, but she seemed pretty nice and we’re easygoing so we just went with it.  For some reason I started shivering and running a fever right before delivering so Dr. Taylor wanted us to get the baby out stat to avoid any infection.  My besties, who came for the delivery, were told to leave the room and only my hubby was allowed.

We had discussed where my hubby would be prior to labor and he wanted to be above all the action near my face.  Well, that’s not exactly what happened, lol!  Dr. Taylor told him to help hold one of my legs back, where my knees were in my face and I was told to tuck my chin into my upper chest and do a practice push.  During that practice, I pushed some of the baby’s head out.  As I was doing another push, all I could hear was Jon shouting, “Oh junk!  He’s ripping you at the side sooo bad!”  With maniacal laughter following. Now ladies, this is not something you want to hear while pushing.  I stopped pushing at that point and said, “Huh?!”  Dr Taylor jumped right in and said keep pushing don’t worry we’ll fix everything after.  After two pushes and help from the vacuum, baby Isaac came into the world at 5:06am weighing 6lbs 10 oz and 20.5 inches long.  Jon cut the umbilical cord, which was tough and they immediately took Isaac to get the mucus out of his lungs and clean him up while Daddy watched.  Soon after the afterbirth came out as well, which sorry this is gross, looked like a big chunk of bloody meat.  We were soo happy and I couldn’t wait to get Isaac into my arms!

Check out some of the pics below:

Here I am prior to delivering

Here's Daddy's corner of the room

Here we are with Nurse Anna!  Check out the contraction machine to the far right!

Here they are cleaning up our little Isaac!

Getting weighed and measured

Me with Dr. Taylor.  As you can see I'm worn out!

Proud parents and happy family!

Omg We’re Really About to be Parents!!

During the ride to the hospital, my contractions were intensifying. I was trying to be a trooper so I kept doing my breathing exercises learned in our labor class and that really helped me!  I planned to deliver drug and epidural free.  However, after the four days of torture, I was too exhausted to even try.  Initially, I was disappointed in myself because I really wanted to do this, but after giving birth I have to say get that dang epidural!!! 

When we arrived at labor and delivery at Northside we knew the drill because we took a tour prior to giving birth so that we wouldn’t be clueless once it was go time.  I highly recommend you do this as well and what’s more, it’s free!!  Gotta love whatever freebee you can get!  We checked in once more and we knew that we would be staying in the hospital this time.  I wanted to stay standing up and walking because that really helped me with the pain, but they had to hook up all of the contraction and heart rate monitors, forcing me to lie down. 

The room for labor and delivery is actually really big, well at least it is in Northside and you can have as many as 4 people at a time.  It’s important you find out how many people are allowed in the room prior to delivery in case you want more than one other person in there.  In addition, when you get there you have to put on a hospital gown with no undies.  I wore a sports bra under mine, but I know that some women feel more comfy nakey, so it’s all about your preference. 

My nurse Anna was super helpful and this was a relief because my hubby and I were clueless!  She asked if I wanted the epidural and I was like, “ YES!!  Please have the man hurry because the pain is getting worse!”  She understood and told me she would put the order in, but she had to check my cervix for dilation.  It was uncomfy and painful, but not as much because I was 3 cm dilated this time.  It was at this time that I brought up having an enema to her.  I learned about this in our labor class as well.  I told her that I wanted one because I didn’t want to have to deal with poop while pushing, yuckers!  Important note, if you want an enema make sure you let your nurse know this as soon as possible because you need to have this before getting the epidural. 

Now I don’t know about you, but I never had an enema before this, so I didn’t know what was in store!  Nurse Anna came back with this bag full of clear fluid and a long tube that had to go up my butt!  I looked at Jon like omg what the heck?!  He looked back at me and busted out laughing.  I thought I was going to digest something or they were going to inject me with something to make me go.  This is 2011, I didn’t think I would have to do this!  My poor Nurse Anna asked me if I still wanted to go through with it.  I debated for about five minutes and decided to be like Nike and just do it!  Well, I thought she would be the one to insert the tube up my bootay, but no, I had to do it, gasp!  She told me that once the tube is inserted then the liquid goes up my booty and that is going to make me have to go, but to try to hold it for as long as possible.  Nurse Anna also informed me to try to get at least have the bag of liquid in me to make it most effective.  I was so traumatized by this whole process that I didn’t even want to look at the bag because that was going to freak me out even more, especially while holding a tube up my booty!  It was not pleasant and I was trying my best to hold in the dirty goods.  I guess I don’t have strong sphincter muscles because after what seemed like 10 seconds I was about to go all over the place!  I yelled I’m ready, jumped off that bed like a mad woman and ran to the bathroom with all the cords and everything dangling behind me.  I made it just in time too or that would have been disastrous!  Tmi moment, but I just kept going and going and got a bit scared and I could tell by Jon’s expression he was too!  That’s when I heard him go out and ask Nurse Anna, “Umm is she going to poop out the baby??”  I just heard her laugh and say no, they’ll be ok.  Whew, that was a relief because I was thinking that this was going to be an episode of “I Didn’t Know I was Pregnant” with me having my baby in the toilet!  Keep in mind; I’m still having contractions during all of this.