Korben's Birth Story
Korben's Birth Story
I started the early labor stage at about 7:00 pm on Tuesday night, September 10th. I was having contractions, but they were irregular and of varying intensity. My appetite was screwy, and I was thirstier than usual, and definetly bitchy. We all went to bed, and in the morning when I woke up, the contractions were fairly regular and about 5 minutes apart, so we called my doctor and went to Labor & Delivery at 9:30 am. They checked my cervix, which was dilated to almost 3, and hooked me up to the monitor, and of course my contractions stopped. I didn't have one for 15 minutes after they hooked me up! The nurse had me get up and do laps around L&D with Ryan, which make the contractions much more regular and intense, but as soon as I laid down again, they would slow. The nurse checked me again after all the walking and found I'd dilated almost to 4. She called my doctor, who said that I had a choice. I could stay at the hospital and see how it progressed with more walking, or I could go home and wait for the labor to progress there. Since I was starving and they wouldn't let me eat in the hospital, we went home. Mom and I went shopping at all the dollar stores in the area, and I lost my mucous plug and had a little bit of a bloody show, but the contractions stayed irregular. We rested on Thursday, and went in to my weekly appointment on Friday thinking that my doctor was going to augment my labor that evening. She checked me and said I was firmly at 4, and asked us to come in at 6am on Saturday. Ryan was disappointed because he wanted to have a Friday the 13th baby. ;)
Friday night it was very hard to sleep because I was so excited, but I managed to get a few hours' worth. Saturday morning we all got up and headed to the hospital. We checked in at 6 am and they hooked me up to the monitors again. I was having only about 1 contraction per hour at this point. My nurse was named Bernadette, and we talked a lot. She is from Canada and is studying to get her certified nurse midwife license at the moment. She was fantastic as a nurse, and I'd like her at my next delivery, but more about that later. At 8 am they started me on an IV drip of pitocin, and soon I was having regular contractions. They were bearable, but definetly more intense than the early labor stuff was. At about 10:30, my doctor came in and they broke my water. That was a very interesting sensation. It didn't hurt at all, but it was like wetting my pants only without any control over it whatever. From that point on, every time I had a contraction, I also had a goosh of fluid. The contractions got much stronger after this, and at about 11:15, they were so painful that I was struggling not to cry every time one hit. Right about this time Ryan's dad and Linda arrived. Linda was so excited she couldn't sit still, and Ryan's dad was being his usual smart ass self. I asked for my epidural, so they made everyone leave the room. I can't remember the anasthesiologist's name, but he was pretty funny, and a big geek. The epidural was wonderful, and did not hurt at all. It was uncomfortable with the pressure as he injected it a little bit, but it didn't hurt. However, I understand now why they wait until your labor is painful to give it to you, because it would have really bothered me earlier, but it was so small in comparison to the pain and discomfort of my contractions that it was totally bearable.
After they broke my water, they wouldn't let me get up to walk or use the bathroom because they were worried about having a prolapsed cord, so when I had to pee, Bernie inserted a catheter. It didn't hurt, but it felt pretty strange. My mom and my husband got to watch me pee through a tube. That was about the most embarassing thing I've ever experienced, but I lived. Ryan was fascinated by everything they were doing to my nether regions. as I was progressing through labor, each time Bernie checked me, she would stretch my vagina and perineum, and I felt confident that as long as she kept working with me, I wouldn't need an episiotomy. The epidural made my labor manageable for me again, making the contractions feel more like they had at 9 am: bearable and intense, but not distressing. All through the labor, I was able to continue moving my legs, but my belly and parts of my thighs were completely numb. Bernie was impressed by how much mobility I retained with the full epidural.
Throughout all of this, both my mom and Ryan were being very supportive and rubbing my belly during contractions, and Ryan was there to hold my hand whenever I needed it. At about 2:30, Bernie had to go assist another patient, and a nurse named Debbie came in to assist me with transition. She told me that we needed to move the baby down a little bit before we could call the doctor, since I was now complete. She told me to push against the handlebars and hold my breath while pushing like I had to poop. I was to push through each count to ten, grab a quick breath, and repeat 2 more times through each contraction. At this point, my epidural had run out, but all I felt was a lot of bowel pressure, and didn't feel pain as such. I did exactly as she said, but I could tell something wasn't working right. SHe got irritated with me and told me I was doing it all wrong, and that if I didn't follow her instructions we'd be there all night. I told her that she needed to count just a little bit faster because my vision was going black at the edges by the time she got to ten each time, and that if I passed out I wasn't going to be of any use to anyone. During each contraction my mom would get in my face and tell me what to do, just as she's supposed to, and I would yell at her and tell her to shut up, just as I'm supposed to do ;). Each time I would tell her to shut up or be quiet or stop telling me what to do, the nurse would get all irritated and shake her head at me like I was an ungrateful bitch. She would order me around and was not being supportive at all, and I started bawling because she wouldn't listen to me, she was just yelling at me, and I knew something wasn't working right, but I didn't know what it was.
I pushed through about 6 contractions, trying to get the baby moved down so the doctor could be called. I sobbed through two contractions without pushing because I was so upset that I just couldn't deal with it. Bernie finished her delivery and came in to help. She knew something was wrong right away, and came to my side and held my knee (my hands were busy on the handlebars) and helped my mom hold my head forward. As soon as the next contraction started, she knew what was wrong: Debbie had told me to PUSH against the handlebars, when I should have been PULLING on them instead! I pulled on the handlebars and almost pushed the baby out into Debbie's lap on the first try! She told me to hold it and called the doctor. It took her 5 contractions to get there, but I held it with bernie's encouragement. Debbie gave me a local, and then sat and rubbed the baby's head, since he was crowning, but she didn't use any warm compresses or massage my perineum at all during this time. When the doctor came in, I pushed twice during one contraction, and on the second push, GUSH, out came baby all at once in one big heave. I couldn't believe that I'd only had to push through one contraction to get him out. It just seemed way too easy. It didn't hurt until afterwards, either. As soon as he was out, I felt this warm gush of liquid and I thought "How strange, I didn't think there would be a gush of fluid like that... Oh wait a minute..." - Korben peed all over me and the doctor first thing! Once he was delivered, all I could do was say "Oh my god, oh my god. Oh my god. oh my GOD!" I was in a state of utter disbelief. They laid him on my belly and I was just stunned. I couldn't believe he was really mine. It took me a second to reach out and hold on to him because I was so shocked. He was absolutely COVERED in that cheezy stuff, and he didn't cry at all. He was turning a little blue, so they took him to the warmer and my doctor started working on me. She delivered the placenta, which felt like a big slimy booger when it came out, but made me feel immediately and immesurably better as soon as it was delivered. They gave me a shot of stadol at some point in here, to relax me for the post-birth clean up, so the next hour or so is a little hazy.
I asked her if I'd torn and she said yes, and she cleaned up the site and started stitching. I lost count of how many stitches she gave me, but it was a lot, and it stung when she stitched me up. I started getting worried when she was stitching right around my anus, but someone said something about the sphincter being intact, which made me feel relieved, but then the doctor and Debbie were discussing the tear and trying to decide if it was a 2nd degree or 3rd degree. They decided it was a deep 2nd degree tear.
As soon as they had cleaned him up and made him squeak a few times, they gave Korben to me, and I just couldn't believe he was finally here! Because they had so many deliveries all at the same time, and not all of them were as easy as mine, we got to keep him in the room with us for more than 2 hours, which was nice. Ryan's Dad and Linda came in from the hallway where they'd been waiting, and they really enjoyed being there at the hospital for the birth. The nurse brough me food and I tried to eat it, but it was this scary mystery meat salisbury steak thing and after one bite I felt nauseous, so I just ate the roll and drank the liquids. When they finally came and took him away with Ryan, we were moved over to the maternity ward, and Ryan brought us McDonalds. I swear, cheeseburgers have never tasted so good. In the nursery, Ryan got to trim the cord and do all kinds of other neat dad stuff. Somewhere in here, Trish and her mom and Brendan came by to see Korben, and Trish was moved to tears, which almost set me and my mom off, but I managed not to cry somehow (it hurts to cry with this damn tear) and Marci took Brendan for a walk in the halls while Trish went to the nursery with Ryan.
When they brought Korben to me in the maternity ward, he was ready to nurse. He came out making rooting motions and trying to suck on his hands. He latched on like a pro and nursed for about 20 minutes on each breast on the first try. He was still hungry after that, so I let my mom feed him a supplemental formula bottle. After that he went to sleep, and at about 10 pm the nursery called and I asked them to take him down to the nursery so we could sleep.
We didn't have any visitors on Sunday, but took it easy and rested with the baby. Ryan came to bring us dinner eventually, and he held the baby for a few minutes. He's a little intimidated and afraid he'll hurt the little guy just because he's so big and Korben's so small, but it's really adorable to see my big burly husband cuddling our tiny son. Korben is a very sweet baby and hardly cries at all unless he's STARVING. He has a very very hearty appetite, and a very pleasant disposition. I couldn't have asked for a better baby, and I'm so happy to finally be able to hold him in my arms and kiss him.
Bernie was very upset that I tore, and she felt that if she had stayed with me, that would not have happened. She was so caring and wonderful. I found out during my hospital stay that my OB is getting out of Obstetrics and just going to be a straight Gyno. I was actually relieved when I heard that because all during my labor I thought that I would much rather see Bernie for my next baby, and by the time we want to have one, she should be certified and practicing. I got her name and info, and I'm going to keep that in mind for next time.