The Wait is Over!

The wait for our newest little one ended on Monday, sorry it has taken me all week to update here and let you all know about it. The story isn't long at all, so I'll just spill all the details at once!

I went to the hospital on Monday morning to be induced which was the original plan. I had told my doctor that I would love to not have to be hooked up to an IV in the process this time around as I truly, truly hate getting an IV. So we decided to go with Cervidil to start and see how the day would go. At 9:00am I was 2cm dilated, just like I had been for the past few weeks. At noon my doctor came back and checked on me and I was still at 2cm. Absolutely no change at all. The monitors said I was having regular contractions, but I wasn't feeling them. Nick and I had spent the morning talking and watching 'Knocked Up' on our portable DVD player trying to keep the mood of the day light. After the doctor's noon visit I totally broke down. I just couldn't believe I had been sitting there all morning and my body was doing nothing, absoultely nothing, even with drugs to help it along. To add a little insult to injury there was a lady in the next birthing room screaming to high heaven and I was sure it was going to be a day straight out of Friends, (you know the one where everyone and their dog has a baby while Aniston is in labor.) I excused myself to the bathroom and had a good little cry. Then I put on a smile and headed back to the bed to watch another movie. This time we chose Pirates of The Caribbean, secretly hoping to drown out the laboring woman.

My doctor was supposed to return at 5:00 to check on my progress, but got sidetracked and arrived shortly after 6. I had finally made it to 4cm!! We decided to break my water and wait until 8:00 at which point my doctor would return and hook me up to the pitocin. My doctor when home, minutes away. The laboring woman in the room next to me finally accepted an epidural.

As soon as my water was broken I could feel the contractions I had been having all day and they steadily got more intense. They were coming right on top of each other and lasting about 90 seconds each time. Since we had had such an emotionally exhausting day I told Nick that if this was how intense 4cm was going to be I would need a shot of morphine, just to stay in the game mentally. Now Nick is in the delivery room to talk me out of drugs unless even he thinks I need them. He immediately went to get the nurse. She said I could have the morphine only if I was still at 4, and I was. She returned with the morphine and I rolled to my side, got the shot and breathed a sigh of relief. I was informed it would take about 15 minutes for the morphine to kick in. It was about 6:50 at this point.

I had three or four more contractions that were steadily stronger with a lot of pressure and I began to lose it. In retrospect I should have known I was already fully dilated, but having been told seconds before I was at 4cm I was completely convinced I was having a bowel movement at the most inappropriate time and it was going to kill me before I had the baby. :) In most ladylike fashion I explained to Nick that I was dropping the mother of all bombs and could he please get the nurse so I could be helped to the bathroom to retain my dignity.

The nurse arrived and I rolled to my back and began to roll to my other side to exit the bed when I was gripped by the python that is labor and could not move. The nurse calmly said, 'why don't we take care of this here' and had me assume the usual position to check my nether regions, and all of a sudden two crazy sentences were screamed;

'STOP PUSHING RIGHT NOW!' and 'I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING I CAN STOP!'

The nurse told me to start panting in order to stop pushing, while she put her hand on the baby's head and pushed her back in a bit and held her there. The nurse started calling for another nurse, my doctor had already been called. No help came so my nurse had Nick run out to the hall to get the delivery table, (a table on which is all the stuff needed to cut the cord et cetera). As soon as Nick was back in the room she moved her hand and let me push the baby out. Poor Nick got the doctor's view of our baby entering the world which he never, ever wanted to do.

Our baby let out a single cry and then was quiet, the rest of the world was chaotic enough. The second nurse entered the room and calmly mentioned that perhaps 'we should move the cord from around the baby's neck before we cut it'. Gotta love the calm ones.

Our baby entered the world at 7:05. Our doctor entered the room at 7:06. The morphine kicked in at 7:07. And we became a family of five. Kathryn Elizabeth Franks moved out of my uterus and right into our hearts.

I was moved down to a recovery room around 8:00 and from what I can remember of my drug induced haze the loudly laboring woman was delivering at midnight when they brought me Kathryn to feed her. I'm not sure when she had that baby, but I still heard her screaming at 2:00am.

I am thankful that once my body gets into labor it goes so quickly, but I wouldn't mind getting there without waiting in a backless gown all day.