"birth" day

Ok Mrs. Swanson, this one's for you! So as most of you know my pregnancy lasted a little bit longer than I had hoped (9 days to be exact, but who's counting?) In that time my little bundle of love went on a growing spurt. In the end I gave birth to a 9 pound 5 ounce, 22 inch long, sweet baby boy....naturally. Now I'm sure many of you are thinking "Wow! That's one tough lady". Or "She's my hero". Or "HAS SHE LOST HER MIND?" The truth is I am not able to have epidurals due to a back surgery I had in 1997. The thought of this terrified me from the beginning. It was one thing to say I was "choosing" not to have an epidural (knowing I could get it if I needed/wanted it) but to be told I would NOT have an epidural, no questions asked, was quite a hurdle for me. Mike and I practiced lots of relaxation techniques. Massage was my favorite through the pregnancy, labor and delivery. I had prepared a whole play list of music which accompanied me through some of the labor but by 8-9 centimeters and contractions every 1-2 minutes I was done with that. QUIET PLEASE!

We checked in on a Friday night and the nurses began all the paper work, questions and attempted SEVERAL times to run an IV to me. I have terrible veins. Once they finally got one (six pokes and 2 collapsed veins later) it was time to hook up to the fetal monitors. For me, this was the most irritating part of the whole process. I could not seem to get comfy and every time I finally did, Isaiah would move, the alarm would sound and the nurses would come to adjust. Needless to say I got no sleep. Bright and early Saturday morning I was temporarily released from the straps and allowed a nice hot shower and some time to walk before the doctor came in to start the pitocin drip and break my water. I am SO glad I had this time. It was quite refreshing and rejuvenating.

8am enter doctor. Break water.
8:30 am begin pitocin.
....hmmmm, this isn't so bad. Contractions begin. Massage is working. Total relaxation. And they said this was hard....HA!
9:30 am contractions every 2-3 minutes but still not so bad. I am gonna ROCK this.
10:00 am contractions every 2-3 minutes but getting much more intense. A little queasy now but still nothing I can't handle.
10:30 am contractions suddenly begin to send me in to orbit. They are still only every 2-3 minutes but BOY that is some pain I have never felt. Nurse comes in and asks how I am doing. Being the IDIOT I am I tell her "fine". So no check for me. She tells me not to worry if it is night or the next day before I have this baby. Seriously? I can't take this pain all day.
11:00 contractions every 1-2 minutes and much worse. Mike is hanging on for the ride and being a great cheerleader. I continue to tell the nurse I am fine. What was I thinking? I have no clue. No time to be tough girl.
Finally by noon I decide the nurse should know of my pain. This if FOR REAL! She takes one look and RUNS to get the doctor. Next time I will communicate a little better. HA. Having a child is no time to be tough.
At 12:00 pm (3.5 hours after induction began) the real work began. I can honestly say the labor part was worse for me than the delivery part. At this point I could see the end in sight. My husband was absolutely amazing. The worse part was that my vein collapsed and between pushes the nurses attempted 5 times to run a new line (add 3 more collapsed veins) At 1:50 pm we welcomed our beautiful son into this world. I was a fluster of emotions and couldn't wait to get my hands on him. I couldn't believe how big and beautiful he was.
I am still amazed that I housed life inside of me. The whole process is truly amazing to me. I would love to pat myself on the back and tell you what a rock star I am but the truth is I didn't have a choice. The other truth is....God designed me for this purpose. He does not give us anything we can't handle. I would never advise anyone to turn down an epidural because we all have different pain thresh holds but what I will say is that I am glad I didn't have the choice. I am glad that I did it and hopefully I will do it again some day. I am glad that I was up walking and looking at my baby 30 minutes after he was born. I am glad that I am a woman, a wife and a mother!