Matthew's Birth Story, Part II

Continued from yesterday:

I had decided that I would like to see if I could go without an epidural (I have this thing about needles in my spine), but I wasn’t above taking some other drugs like Staydol or something similar, which is why I had an I.V. hooked up in me earlier. About 20 minutes into the wonderful hydro-tub, what they call transitional labor hit me, and the first thing I asked for was drugs! I had about 3 of those nasty contractions before they managed to get me back in the bed and hooked up to the monitor. Staydol was administered thru my I.V., and not too long after that, everyone but my two nurses, Angie and Mary Jo, and Keith was kicked out. (Kristina was there by then, so it must have been around 2 or 2:30 p.m.)

The Staydol helped a little, mainly my contractions never got any more painful than they already were, but they never diminished in pain. I have no idea how long this part lasted, I lost all track of time. But I went from being 7 cm dilated to 10 cm pretty fast. Probably in about an hour. I did learn that breathing really helped, and I think I would have done better if I could have focused more on that. This being my first time and all, it was really hard for me to do.

Toward the end of transitional labor, as they were getting the bed ready for me to push (the leg holders, etc…), the automatic blood pressure cuff attached to my arm decided it needed to check my blood pressure right in the middle of a contraction. Needless to say, this did not make me a happy camper. I didn’t like the damn thing when I was in early labor, let alone in the middle of a contraction at the end of transitional labor! I ripped the cuff off so fast, I almost took my I.V. with it! I think I threw it, too, but it was attached to the damn monitor, so it didn’t go very far.

Finally, they let me start pushing. The pain went away, and I was in my own shiny, sparkly, blue world. Those wonderful endorphins finally kicked in! I think I actually slept between some of the contractions! I do remember Angie and Keith telling me the baby had really dark brown hair. I opened my eyes, looked around, and I wondered where everyone was, cause all I saw was Angie, Keith, and Mary Jo. I figured if they could see his hair, there should be more people in the room!

Not too long after this, other nurses and the doctor finally came in. (BTW, did I mention that my doctor was in Oregon on vacation for the week???? I got the nazi replacement, of course.)

My wonderful replacement doctor was Dr. Shlichter. She looked like a 6 foot Viking with blonde hair and no make-up.

I finally started to feel the “ring of fire” that the books talk about. As I was preparing myself to accept the pain, the doctor decided to insert two fingers from each hand and stretch me. Everyone in the waiting room heard me scream. I came up far enough to see what the doctor was doing. It was the first time I’d seen my crotch in over three months. I really wanted to punch her and call her a bitch, but about that time, Keith started saying “he’s here, he’s here”, and then they handed me my precious new angel. Of course, she said all that pain that I had felt was the baby, but I know better. If she’d have given me just a few more seconds instead of hurrying the process, I’m sure my endorphins would have blurred quite a bit of what I felt. Damn nazi doctor.

Matthew Kerac arrived at 4:08 p.m.,
weighing 7 lbs, 12 oz, 19 inches long.

Pretty much everything after that is documented by Keith with the camera. And yes, I know I looked stoned in most of them, that was the endorphins. (Sparkly blue world, remember?)

On a funny note, Dr. Batty, my ob., was landing at the airport about the time I was delivering Matthew. He came in early Monday morning, and Keith told him he really liked his Zen method of delivering by not delivering!

Hopefully, this will inspire me to actually write Josie's birth story sometime this month!