Jude's Birth Story: Part 3

The nurse quickly started wiping up the blood from placing the IV port.  I started to feel faint.

"I'm going to get some wipes to clean this up.  Don't look down," she said as she jogged over to the supply closet.

"This happened last time too.  Why does it always do that?," I asked the nurse as I stared at the wall.

"You just have really good veins!" she answered.

The nurse began cleaning up the tray table (which got covered in blood), the floor, and my arm.  The smell of the alcohol made my head spin.  I thought for sure I was going to pass out or throw up.  Was I sure I could have a natural child birth?  At this point I definitely wasn't so sure.  I started to wonder if I should just ask for the epidural, get the Pitocin, and not feel a thing.  It was something I was considering.

At 7:50, I wrote this entry in my phone: IV port in place.  Hooked up to monitors.  Waiting on my midwife to come break my water.

A few minutes later, the anesthesiologist came in.  She had me fill out some papers in case I decided to get an epidural.  She explained how it would work and how the catheter would work.  I told her that I was planning to try to go without the epidural.  I don't remember what her response was to that, but I could tell that she had heard that before and that she wasn't buying it.  I decided I wanted to have the baby naturally just to show her that I could.

"Well, you will probably still be getting a catheter.  You won't want to be up having to empty your bladder every few minutes while you're in labor."

I looked at Adam.  I have never even heard of that.  I didn't know people got catheters without having an epidural, except for when you are on Magnesium Sulfate or something like that.  That doesn't even make sense to me.  Anyway, I knew she would not be invited back into the room.  I will happily empty my bladder before I will take a catheter.

My nurse came back in a little while later, and for the next hour I sat watching the monitor and answering her questions.  To be honest, I can't remember her name.  She was very sweet and would be my nurse all the way until the baby came.   

At 8:45, my midwife arrived.  I got really nervous when I saw her, but she was very cheerful and upbeat.  She lowered the bed back to check me.

"You are at about a 3," she said.  "I am going to go ahead and break your water.  Take a deep breath and relax."

I saw her remove the amniotic hook from the plastic wrapper, and then I found a spot to stare at on the wall.  I told Adam about the amniotic hook the night before.  He thought the midwife just used her fingernail to pop the bag of water.  I don't think he realized how tough the bag of water is.  It took my midwife a few tries, but she finally got it to break.  I didn't even feel it.  I exhaled a big sigh of relief.  About as soon as I felt the relief, I felt a lump in my throat.  Now he has to come out.  There is no going back.  He will be born today. 

"Alright, I will be back to check on you at lunch.  If you need anything, let them know."

"How long do you think it will take?" I asked, hoping she was thinking somewhere along the lines of a couple hours.

"Well there is no way to tell, but I think you are ready.  It didn't take long with August, right?"

"Right.  I went from 3 to 8 centimeters pretty quickly," I replied.

"Well, it probably won't take too long then," she smiled.  "I'll be back at lunch. Let your nurse know if you need anything."  She gave another smile and a wave as she left the room. 

My nurse explained to me that my contractions would soon be picking up in intensity.  She told me that she would not offer me any pain medication during labor, but I was to let her know if I wanted anything.  She unhooked me from the monitor next to my bed and began getting me on the wireless monitor.  It consisted of 4 sticky pads that attached to my belly and a necklace with a little black receiver on the end to communicate with the monitor next to my bed.  They had to "exfoliate" my belly where they needed to stick the pads to make sure they would stay in place.  They basically used a fine grit sandpaper to do this, and that part did not feel good.

Once the wireless monitor was working, the nurse left us, and I got out of bed to go to the bathroom and walk the halls.  When I stood up, water went EVERYWHERE.  I soaked the entire bed and the floor all around the bed.  We had to call the nurse back in to clean it up.  I felt so embarrassed, and I really felt bad that she had to clean it up.  She told me not to apologize and that it is part of her job.  I still felt really bad.  I went on to the bathroom, put on the giant mesh underwear and pad, slipped on my flip flops, and we headed out to the halls.

The labor and delivery part of the hospital was very small.  The hallway I was on was very short.  We started walking up and down the short hallway.  There were visitors coming down the hallway headed to different rooms.  I wondered if they thought it was odd that I was in such good spirits, walking the hall with no IV cart, in a hospital gown.  They probably wondered what I was doing there.  I started to wonder the same thing.  I felt really silly.

After a few minutes of hallway strolling, I told Adam we needed to step it up.  Power walking or something.  But there wasn't really anywhere to power walk.  My contractions were very irregular at this point, and they still didn't hurt.  I had a little more sensation with them after having my water broken, but still, nothing was really going on.

"I don't feel like we should even be here," I told Adam.  "Nothing is happening.  This isn't working.  I wish we could go home."

I used to always have the same dream when I was pregnant with August.  My plan has always been to go to the hospital at the last minute.  I have always planned to labor at home as long as possible.  But I kept having a recurring dream where I would check in at the hospital and realize that I wasn't in labor.  Once I was there, they wouldn't let me go back home. 

This felt exactly like that. 

Click here for Part 4