The Birth Story

When last I blogged my water had broken about noon on September 15th. There are time lines and such   involved when your water breaks at the beginning of labor rather than later on, actually only 3% of women have their water break first. It turns out that I come from a long time of water breaking women, my mom, my aunts, my grandmother, so no real surprise that mine broke too except of course to me. Anywho, we stayed home for about 8 hours before heading to the hospital because I had to be admitted before the 12 hour mark to get antibiotics to avoid infection. We arrived at Bayfront BayPlace and we escorted to the Labor and Delivery room 4 where my nurse checked me and I was about 3-4cm. Everything looked good. I walked around for awhile and rested. We watched Friends on TV, everything was relatively nonchalant. Until of course, at midnight the nurse checked again and I was only 4cm. Then again at 4am still 4cm. So it was time to get the pitocin. I had to deliver by noon the next day to avoid infection to the baby.

As all the literature says the pitocin intensifies the contractions. Having your water break also intensifies your contractions. One plus the other created a great deal of pain. This may be putting it a little lightly, the bruises on Eliot's hand and the complete and utter sense of panic in my mother's eyes were perhaps a better indicator. I was cursing in  multiple languages and beginning to want to eat people's faces off. So I decided that in order to take the edge off I would use a narcotic called Staydol, still in hopes of avoiding the epidural and doing this naturally. The Staydol is an opiate and many folks have immediate reactions to it, normally it is vomiting. For me it was full on hallucinations. Everyone had an afro and was wearing Welcome Back Carter era shorts, my midwife was a bouncing bunny rabbit. At one point, I actually had visions of my contractions as massive blobs that were dancing towards me and latching on to my back. The Staydol, for me, did not serve it's ultimate purpose and at times was creating a greater sense of panic. At one point, I could still feel the pain, and I looked over at Eliot who had taken a nap on the loveseat provided in the room, and screamed "Your sleeping is pissing me off!!" He immediately jumped up and returned to my side.

My next decision was whether or not to get the epidural. The pain was intense and though, it is hard now to put into words, I remember grabbing on the side of the bed, the bed rail, and shaking it to hard that it made a cracking noise. I asked the nurse to return to see how far along we had gotten, and figured I would make my decision then. Statistically the further along you are in your dilation the less complications there are with the epidural. I just kept thinking that if I wanted to have a c-section, I would have preferred to schedule it and have the benefits of it, I certainly had no intentions of having to go through both. Before the nurse even was able to check me, I asked her to put in the order for the epidural. It turned out I was 6cm dilated which was my mental bench mark. It took about an hour for the epidural guy to get there, which solidified those 6cm.

The process of getting the epidural is no picnic either. There is some one sticking a hole in your spine, not my idea of fun though desperately begging for it. The thing was that just as he started to get the area ready for it I had another contraction which caused me to jump, so we had to wait it out. After that it went swimmingly. The pain subsided from then on I could watch the monitor and see colossal sized contractions and smile happily knowing that I could not feel a thing. At 10am I was only 7cm, I still had to be ready in 2 hours to give birth, no pressure on my cervix.

You may imagine that because you can not feel the pain that it may be difficult to determine when it's time to push but that is not the case at all. When it was time, I knew it. I looked at Eliot and said it was time to push. He went to get my swarming day nurse who came in and said, well we really aren't suppose to check you until your midwife returns. I insisted it was time and that I was going to push regardless of who was there and who was on board. She checked me and sure enough (surprise) it was time!

The pushing portion of the experience was certainly the most animalistic. I just needed her out. I could zone out everything else and just push. Everyone left the room except the nurses, Eliot and my midwife. Eliot was an amazing coach! Encouraging and supportive. Within 45 minutes, Lydia Violet Gaurkee came into the world. It was the most miraculous blessing! My eyes were crying with joy to the point that they were almost squirting out the tears.

After Lydia was checked they immediately placed her on my chest, such an amazing gift. Eliot went to get the grandmas first! I have never experienced a prouder moment. My mom came in and she saw her and she saw us and it was the pure joy. Lydia Violet Gaurkee had instantly captured the hearts of all of us. We are so thankful for all the support, prayers and love, it's hard to express how much. We are so blessed!