I would like to go back and start at the beginning about my children, since I have missed quite a few years before I came up with this idea.
I was living in Phoenix at the time I found out I was pregnant - my husband had taken a job in Tucson. I resigned my job the following week, and left 2 weeks later. Luckily, it all coincided with the sale of our home in Phoenix, so I was able to just stay at home for the remainder of my pregnancy. We had a few events planned - my brother was getting married overseas, and I didn't want to miss that! My pregnancy was fairly uneventful. At about 7 months along, during a scheduled doctor's visit, the doctor was not sure that the heartbeat was steady, so I had to go to the hospital and do a non-stress test, which turned out fine - it just completely stressed me out that there might be something wrong!
I had always heard that the first baby comes late, so we did not expect her until close to her due date. On a Sunday morning about 8 AM, when I was 37 1/2 weeks along, I was sitting there talking to my husband, and I sneezed. I felt my water break right then, and ran for the bathroom! He had no idea what was going on, so I told him that my water had broken, and that we needed to go to the hospital. His response was "Can't we go to church first?" Apparently, he had not read the paper I had given him to read! We packed a suitcase, and got ready to leave. I was quite nervous at this time, but very excited. My contractions had not yet started.
We got to the hospital about 9 AM, and still no contractions. The nurse that came in first wanted to put the IV in, and I agreed. A student nurse asked to watch, and I didn't have any problem with this, either. The nurse stuck the needle in my hand, and it hurt, and I mean, really hurt. I felt the pain, kind of like a shock go all the way down my first 2 fingers, and it just kept on. I started crying, but didn't say anything, because I didn't realize that it wasn't supposed to be painful (this was my first time ever in the hospital). She then explained that she had "blown the vein", and told me to give her my other hand. Of course, I refused, and said that I would rather wait for the IV until I needed it. They had to go and check with the doctor, and the doctor said that it was necessary to be set up because my blood pressure was high . . . ummmm hello, I was nervous . . . who wouldn't have high blood pressure at this point??? Anyhow, another nurse came in and put the IV in, and it was practically painless.
The contractions started around 10 AM. I was already dilated to 4 CM when I went in. After a few hours, the contractions were getting harder and closer together, but I was not dilating any further, so I decided it didn't look like this was going to be a fast delivery. I requested the epidural at that time. It took them forever before they came and gave it to me. By this time, the contractions were getting really close together, and were quite painful, but I still had not dilated past 4 cm. As soon as they gave me the epidural, I completely relaxed, and dilated another cm immediately. My husband said, "We are going to do this right away next time!" (meaning the epidural).
I was able to just relax for the remainder of the day while my body did all of the work. When I was about 7 cm dilated and had been that way for a while, they came in and said that they were going to give me Pitocin to get things going again. They gave me the Pitocin, and one nurse told me that I should stop taking the epidural so that I would be able to push when the time came. Then, they all left the room, so it was just me and my husband in there. Of course, I obeyed her instructions because I wanted to be able to do everything right.
A little bit later, all of a sudden, the door opened and several nurses came rushing in, and asking me what was going on! By this point, I was in so much pain that I was not coherent enough to answer their questions, and I had no idea why they were even asking. One of the nurses pulled the oxygen mask over my face, and another one reached over and pushed the epidural button (that they weren't supposed to touch!) Thankfully, she did, because then I could at least focus on what was happening. Apparently, the pain was so bad that I was holding my breath, and it caused the baby's heart to stop beating. After that, I only took as much epidural as I needed to cope with the pain. At this point, they said that I was dilated to 10 cm, and I could start pushing.
I tried with everything I had, and nothing happened. The doctor finally left and told me to rest awhile. She came back sometime later, and told me to start pushing again. Again, I tried as hard as I could, and nothing happened. This same thing happened 4 times, before she suggested a c-section. The baby was just not dropping at all. I agreed to the c-section, even though it was not really what I wanted. I did not feel that I had a choice, if the baby was ever going to come out!
They prepared me for the c-section, and a short while later, at 11:03 PM, I had a beautiful baby girl!
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