(Originally written in bits and pieces in the week following Max's birth)

At about 7:30am on Friday July 10^th I got up and suspected that my water had broken. I gave it another half hour to see if I got more leakage and did. I called Dr. Wharton’s office, but it didn’t open for another hour. The answering service paged the doctor and we heard back from him within the hour. Dr. Wharton told me to put my feet up and take it easy. He said to watch for contractions and that if labor didn’t start on it’s own within 12-18 hours of water breaking he said he’d start me on Pitosin.

John made arrangements to take the day off work and we started to wait. And wait we did! We got so bored hanging around the apartment! John mostly played on the computer and I watched tv. I did take about a half hour nap. Throughout the day I made notes of some pains I thought might be contractions, but they didn’t come regularly. They were from 10-30 minutes apart, and none of them very painful. Dr. Wharton checked in with me about every 4 hours. He eventually told us to go in to the hospital to get checked to make sure baby was still happy and I was healthy.

John and I said a prayer together before we left. I had an overwhelming feeling of comfort that everything would turn out okay.

We arrived at the hospital at about 6pm. John walked me in to the main entrance then went to park the car. He came back with his hands full of all our luggage so a security guy pushed my wheelchair up to labor and delivery.

I checked in with Triage where first they asked me for a urine sample. I remember laughing out loud in the bathroom because I the gushes of amniotic fluid were uncontrollable. We had a nice nurse named Robin. She hooked two bands around my abdomen. One to monitor the baby’s heartbeat and one to measure my contractions. Apparently the strongest part of the uterus is at the top so that’s where they watched for the abdomen to tense up. It was a small room with a curtain closing it off from the busy office. At one point we heard a woman screaming down the hall. Apparently she had just made it in and the baby was crowning! We heard one nurse say, “that must have been a horrible car ride.” Robin checked in with Dr. Wharton who suggested sending me back home to wait for labor, but Robin suggested they admit me because there were some irregularities in the baby’s heart beat. Not a serious concern, she just wanted to be safe. I asked Robin if I could eat and she said “only if I don’t see you” so John hooked me up with some snacks from the snack bag. Once admitted I was on clear liquids. Clear liquid of choice? Apple juice.

Nurse Tonisty (Named after her parents, Tony and Misty) came and took us to a labor and delivery room. We asked for one “with a long couch” so John could lay down should he have the opportunity. My bed was much more comfortable than the one in triage! I think we got settled in there around 8:30pm. John and I took a walk around the floor then Tonisty hooked me up to the same monitors.

At that point John wondered why no one had checked to see how dialated I was. Tonisty explained that when the water has broken they try to limit those checks to avoid introducing bacteria to the area and they had been looking at other signs (like no consistent contractions) to see that I was not in active labor. Tonisty tried to start an IV in my right arm and wasn’t successful, so she had to put it in my left hand.

The night nurse Angie was no nonsense. I LOVED her. She did my first exam of the cervix- I was only at a 1. Rather than let me sit around waiting she made me get out and walk- for an hour. I had contractions pretty regularly as we walked around the floor (maybe every 5 mins or so?) and John would just hold me while we waited for them to pass. I started having him count for me. Somehow that helped me know there’d be an end. After that (what I thought at the time) hard hour Angie checked me again- a 2. I knew it would be a long night.

At some point I got some Fentanyl. Some delicious drug that didn’t get rid of the pain, it just took the edge off. I LOVED it. Just made my head spin. Too bad it only lasted about 30 mins. At somewhere around a 3 or 4 I got an Epidural. The anestesialogist (Dr Donovon) that came in to do it was really nice and I was making him laugh. Then Angie said to try to get some sleep. We did get to sleep for an hour or two (John was on the long couch). Angie started me on Pitosin at around 5am. That was supposed to help the contractions get going because somehow the epidural had stopped them.

The contractions got stronger and stronger and I kept pushing the little button to give myself more drugs. The daytime nurse eventually tracked down another anesthesiologist to redose me. He fiddled with the thing in my back and I thought it helped- for a while.

Dr Nishemene had come in to check me a couple of times. I was slowly dialating. Then it got quick and I was at a very painful 10! As I write now it’s really a blur and I don’t remember a lot of details. It was more painful that I’d ever imagined it would be—I kept having John push that extra dose of epidural button and couldn’t imagine what it would be like without that pain medication. I began feeling to urge to push and the nurse and John kept telling me not to. They were trying to track down the doctor. Soon I couldn’t hold back anymore. I began pushing with two nurses and John. Dr Nishemene didn’t make it in time so the on call doctor rushed in for the last few minutes of delivery. I remember realizing that the only way I was going to get through the ordeal was to push. So I did. And Max came very quickly. He arrived at 11:19am weighing 7 lbs 11 oz. 20 inches long. They say I only pushed for 20 minutes. I tore my vagina and perineum in the process. Dr Nishemene came in after the delivery to sew me up. That’s when he discovered that I was not numb. The epidural had some how come out or unhooked. They had to re drug me before he started his stiches.

No wonder it hurt like heck! No drugs for delivery. Nice. I remember at one point really thinking that I would not be able to handle having any more children because of the pain. But if the epidural really does work then maybe I can do it! Oh, and we found out later that the reason Dr. Nishemene wasn’t there was he was out buying a garden hose. And the doctor that did deliver Max (can’t remember his name but it starts with an S!) is the staff doctor who deals with surgery and high risk pregnancies. We overheard him afterwards telling the nurse that this was the first delivery he’d performed in 5 years.