Sunday Morning

Last Sunday changed my life forever. Around 5:40 in the morning I noticed fluid seeping down my leg. After much consideration I realized it was my water leaking and not me uncontrollably peeing myself. I called the midwife at the hospital and she said to take a shower, eat breakfast and then come in. I lied back down and the cramping began. It wasn't severe and there was no pattern or consistency. I kept brushing it off and closing my eyes. Meanwhile my husband was violently ill in the bathroom with what was either food poisoning from dinner the night before or a stomach bug. I won't go into what was going on with his body but you can use your imagination. I let him know I might be in labor and he tried his hardest to pull himself together. There was nothing we could do to fix him though so once my contractions became strong enough I called my sister. She came to my rescue and Matt stayed home wishing he were the one driving me to the hospital. I told him that even if I were having the baby that day it would take hours and hours so not to worry about missing much. We got to the hospital around 8:00 or 8:30 am. I filled out paperwork, got asked a bunch of questions and was hooked up to monitors. By this time the pain grew in intensity and in frequency. The doctor came in to see me and said she wasn't going to bother checking how dilated I was since at my last appointment I was 3 cm. I was relieved to hear that as soon as I said the word they would administer the epidural. I wanted to wait until things became too much to handle on my own before I got it because even though they assured me it would not wear off by the time I started pushing I was cautious of that. It didn't take long until I asked for it. My sister was on the phone with Matt giving him updates about what was taking place. I was really nervous about getting the epidural and my body was shaking uncontrollably. I knew I was suppose to sit as still as possible and this made it even harder to stop. The nurse was great though and helped calm me down through it all. They said it would take 10-20 minutes for it to kick in. I got really nauseous and told them I was going to be sick. The nurse held a bag and I threw up. The sick feeling went away. They checked to see how dilated I was and I was at 7 cm. My mom arrived and my sister continued to update Matt. Some interval of time ticked by, it could have been 10, 15 or 30 minutes, I don't know but the pain was then unbearable. I started to feel a burning sensation and knew things were progressing pretty fast. The doctor checked me again and said, "Oh, yep, there's her head!" I couldn't believe it. "Does that mean it's time to push?" I asked. Sure enough it was. They prepared me by having nurses hold my completely numb legs. The doctor told me to push when the contractions came along. I really didn't know how to and had no urge. I couldn't feel anything below the waist (thankfully!) so this was very difficult. Basically it was like doing a sit up though. A very painful sit up. They got Matt on the phone and I let him know she was on her way. He promised to get there as soon as he could. I knew he felt terrible and I did wish he was there but I was on a mission to get my baby out. 20 minutes later at 11:09 am she was in my arms. It was so strange and unreal to finally hold her and see her face. I talked to Matt again and gave him the news. By this time he managed to work up the strength to call his mom and she was by his side with crackers and Pepto Bismol. My mom cut the cord and they cleaned the baby up. She was nice and swaddled as his dad arrived. Soon after that Matt and his mom made it. He held her for a bit before needing to run to the bathroom again. We both were a bit disappointed that he wasn't there. Some things are beyond your control and I guarantee they would have made him leave the room anyway. The whole process went so smoothly and was considerably easy. The labor and delivery staff were wonderful and so supportive. Honestly labor was not how I anticipated. There was so much I expected and definitely a big part I didn't anticipate (my husband not being there) but I flew threw it. It wasn't nearly as emotional as I thought it would be either. I guess it all passed so quickly that I didn't have much time to feel anything other than pain. I feel so proud of myself for getting through it. Even though the circumstances for our family were not ideal the day she was born we certainly have been making it up to her everyday this past week. On top of everything we have a healthy, beautiful, happy baby and there is nothing more we could ask for.