Life As Leland: My Birthday

Well, I woke mom up about 2:30am with painful contractions. They didn't stop...ever. Mom sent Dad to work, telling him it could be days of contractions and Grandma came up to be with Mom and help clean the house, etc. About 3pm, Mom and Grandma decide they should eat and Grandma heads to Panera Bread for some broccoli cheese soup. When Grandma came back, Mom's contractions had sped up to about 6-8 minutes and were pretty painful. She decided she should NOT eat as she did NOT want to see the soup again. They packed up, made a phone call to Dad that we were going to the hospital and away we went.

At the hospital, they were all very nice to Mom. They checked her in Triage and let her know she was only about 1cm dilated. Dad got there and the three of them went for an hour walk around the hospital. Mom wasn't a fan. Upon returning to Triage, she was checked again and still only at 1. Doctor Neubeck, her OB/GYN said she could either be admitted or go home. She decided to stay, since being at home with contractions that close together would only cause her to worry that she should be at the hospital.

(Mom and Dad in Triage. )

Once in the Labor and Delivery room (which was HUGE and SWEET) mom was hooked to monitors and there was all kinds of loud beeping and people trying to touch my head.

Mom tried everything she could to have a drug and intervention free birth; walking, using the exercise ball, sitting in the warm shower, self-hypnosis and breathing exercises.

(Mom eating Popsicles while sitting on the exercise ball. She's trying to smile through a contraction)

However, after hours and hours of laboring, breaking the water and gaining no ground, the contractions finally got to be a bit much for Mom and she decided to opt for Stadol, a pain medication, administered through her I.V..

(Mom looks muuuch happier after the Stadol)

Mom ended up with 2 rounds of Stadol; still trying to avoid the evil epidural. Though, in the end, and after asking several times (she thought it might have been a dream that she asked more than once) she finally got an epidural.

The family had to leave the room because it needed to be a sterile environment, and the Anesthesiologist came in and poked Mom a bunch. She said she could feel the burning of the medication down her spine, but only on the left side. He disregarded her statements and went on his merry way. The family entered the room again, to see a much more calm, serene Mom and nurse.

After hitting 6cm and progressing no further for at least 1-2 hours, they decided to start Pitocin. Yet another drug Mom wanted to avoid. However, because of the epidural, she decided to go with it as the pain wouldn't be nearly as intense as originally thought, pre-epidural.

Later however, contractions became MUCH more intense, especially on the right side, the side I was on, because my phantom twin, the fibroid was on the other. After a few complaints from Mom; that she couldn't lift her left leg, that she thought she could feel everything, it was the last statement of "I feel like something is picking my back at the injection site" that worried the nurse. Right away, the options were given for a new epidural or to go without. Mom decided on a new one. Family exits stage right. Doctor enters stage right, un-tapes the first Doctor's work, it falls right out, he says in a thick accent "holy moly, I'm sorry." Poke poke poke, tears, tears, amniotic fluid EVERYWHERE, numbness, YES. Mom is calm again. Doctor exits and family enters stage right again. Ahhhh, happiness.

Our Super Awesome Fantastical Doula, Rachel was present, helping to hit all the right points to help Mom's uterus squeeze the hell out of me, trying to speed things up.

(Rachel on the ball, hitting all of Mom's uterine points while Mom is probably Tweeting about how awesome drugs are)

After being checked again, for the like, 45th time (I didn't tell you about the others...how long would this post have been?!) the nurses decide they didn't like my heart rate and put mom on Oxygen.

(Dad and Rachel looking at Mom. I think the nurse just shoved an internal fetal monitor into my home and stuck me in the head so they could better keep track)

Turns out, when Mom was on her back, my heart rate would drop so dramatically, the nurses would come to see what we were doing. She had to spend most of her active labor on her side. She even had to push on her side, which she says is MUCH more comfortable.

The nurse decided to check Mom again, she touched my head and was surprised that I had made it down the canal as far as I had after the second epidural. She called for the doctors who also wanted to check her again and again. One said she wasn't ready to push another said she was. They called Doctor Perry, who works with Doctor Neubeck, and he also said she wasn't ready to push and went quickly to another room where another woman was also in active labor. There were three other women doing the same at the time. Doctor Perry also stated that it takes first time Mom's an average of 1-2 hours of pushing for delivery and that he wasn't too worried at that time.

Actually, mom WAS ready to push and yelled for the Doctors to come back. She pretty much started on her own, with the nurse. The staff Doctors weren't so ready. Dad held Mom's hand, Rachel held Mom's very numb, heavy left leg and Grandma stood down by the Doctors for a bit. Rachel and Mom were in tune with her contractions, and started pushing and counting at the right time. Most of the pushing was done with us on our side, until my head started to get cold, Then Mom was told to lie on her back for the rest. Grandma grabbed the other, very numb, very heavy right leg and Mom continued. The staff Doctor would tell Mom to take a deep breath and started counting when Mom and Rachel were on about 6. Mom didn't listen to that Doctor. Not at all. She also didn't listen to Doctor Perry's 1-2 hour estimation and she pushed HARD for only 45 minutes and I was born.

(Yep, that's me. Curly hair, goopey eyes and all.)

The cord was wrapped around my neck twice, so right when I was born, there was a fury of activity in the room. It was unwrapped, I was handed off to a specialist and then another. Finally, I started to cry and everyone was relieved. I heard my Mom speak, stopped crying and looked her way as best I could with blurry eyes.