birth story

We woke up at 4:58, two minutes before we were supposed to be at the hospital. Whoops. I was dilated to a three and having strong contractions about 4-6 minutes apart when I got to the hospital. After explaining to the nurse that I am in painful false labor for the entire last month of my pregnancy, they gave me prostaglandin gel. Within seconds I was in hard labor. Very hard. I wanted to go get in the Japanese soaking tub, but I collapsed in pain after taking about three steps. I endured another couple hours of intense pain (including sciatic nerve pain which I had never before experienced) before giving in and getting an epidural.

Epidurals are the best invention ever. The combination of pitocin/having my water broken produces deadly pain. I'm pretty sure I would have died from pain if I didn't abandon my hopes of a natural birth during Max's delivery. Anyway, I was progressing at a couple of centimeters an hour. When I got to a six the doctor broke my water. Assuming that it would be another couple of hours, the doctor left, my nurse took her lunch break, and J-P went to the cafeteria to get lunch.

Fifteen minutes later a different nurse walked in because the baby's heart rate was dropping. As she started to put the oxygen mask on my face I told her that I was feeling a LOT of pressure. Then she checked me. I saw her eyes open wide with panic as she said "you're at a 10...DON"T PUSH!" I felt the urge to push so strongly (even through the epidural) that I couldn't stop. I started screaming and told the nurse that I couldn't stop. She turned my epidural all the way up and soon I felt nothing. Neither J-P nor the doctor answered their phones. J-P walked in as they were paging him. The doctor (luckily) decided to come check on me just in time. The page to come came through on his phone as he was sewing me up.

Upon first glance she looked just like Max, only white. Really white. Her vernix was very thick and everyone commented that she had to be more than a week early. Her apgar score was a 9.9, only because they "never give 10's".