MY story. . .that did NOT go as planned!

Disclaimer: I LOVE to hear others' birth stories, and I always look forward to the day my kids are born to see how everything goes down. . .so if this is a little long or a little TMI, sorry, I'll be sharing all the details I love to hear from others. :)

Can I just say "NO EPIDURAL"?!!!!!!!!!!! OK, let me back up a bit. . .I woke up at 1:15am to, what else, pee, of course. So, after I finished I started walking back to bed and noticed I was still peeing! It took me a second, but when I realized my water had broken I started shaking with fear. I ran out to the kitchen to call Dave from downstairs where he was still up watching fights, and then ran back to the bedroom to put some clothes on. I wasn't sure what to do about the water leaking, but quickly I realized that I didn't have time to care that I was dripping all over, I just pulled on some pants--which were quickly soaked, a shirt, grabbed my backpack, and started running out the door yelling to Dave that we had to HURRY. I was SO SCARED that we weren't going to make it to the hospital (which is about 15 minutes away) before I had the baby. He asked what we were going to do about the kids, and I told him we'd just have to leave the front door unlocked and call Rachel (my sister) on the way. By now it was past 1:20. We only ran one red light (which was BARELY red, by the way) and I had to remind Dave that he could go 70mph on the highway as the speed limit was 60! :) About now we looked down and noticed the gas light was on! Holy Cow, how is it even possible that we didn't make sure the car was always FULL of gas?! Then, as Dave worried whether we had enough gas to make it there or not, he told me that he had gone grocery shopping after I went to bed and had just gotten home around midnight. What if he had been at Wal-Mart when my water broke?! Well, I was pleasantly surprised that my contractions hadn't started right away! At about 1:35 I had my first contraction, which was pretty hard. The next two came quickly and I told Dave to pull up to the ER as I didn't know where the Women's Center entrance was and I didn't want to deliver in the parking lot as we looked for it. Dave kept telling me to calm down, we were going to be ok, etc, but I didn't feel ok! We pulled up to the ER as I was having my 4th contraction. As I jumped out to get into the wheel chair I realized I didn't have any shoes. . .not that I cared, but I noticed. They wheeled me to my room as I cried for them to "hurry, it's going to come fast, and I have to get an epidural first, oh no, it's hurting, hurry!!!!" I must've seemed quite hysterical. . .but, I guess I kind of was. The nurses helped me undress and lay on the bed as the contractions continued back to back. I told her I was dilated to a 6 two weeks earlier and I knew the baby would be coming fast. She checked me and seemed to relax as she told me I was still "just a 6". She said "oh, I thought we had an emergency on our hands!" I was like, “we DO, now get me an epidural!” She continued to tell me that she had to get the IV in first and then she could call the anesthesiologist. OK, so hurry! She tried a few times in my right arm as she told me how thick my skin is and how I must be dehydrated because it wasn't easy finding my vein. . .blah, blah, blah. . ."JUST HURRY would ya?!" She moved to the other arm to try there. "Oh no, I'm feeling the pressure, help, I need an epidural"! She stuck it in and checked me, it's 1:50 by now! "It's OK honey, you're to an 8, the anesthesiologist is coming." He came in quickly and started asking some questions and preparing the stuff. Suddenly I felt that HORRIBLE pressure like my guts were coming out! "Help, it hurts!" "I don't want to push!!!" "I need an epidural!!" Then the nurse just looked at me and said, "he's coming out, he'll be here in just a second, just give me one push." "WHAT??? NO! I'M NOT PUSHING!!!" Number one, there's already WAY too much pressure for me to want to add to it, and number two. . .I WANT AN EPIDURAL FIRST, this HURTS!!!!! It BURNED and hurt soooooooooooo bad! I was so mad! But, what could I or they do? He was already here! It was 2:02am. My doctor didn't arrive until about 2:30. They left the placenta for her to deliver, so I continued having contractions until she came and about killed me pushing and pulling and pushing on my belly some more, then she starts numbing--"Really? Would the stitching hurt THIS bad? Maybe you should skip the "numbing" shots and just stitch me up!" Why would ANYONE choose this over the comfort of an epidural? Oh, wait a minute, where's my baby? Did he even let out a cry? Did Dave even cut the umbilical cord? See? All that pain basically made me not notice anything that was going on with the baby. I suddenly remembered my other babies and how I blissfully and painlessly watched them be born, watched Dave cut the cord, and without any pain, reached out to hold and snuggle my baby for the first time. But, by the time I could quit focusing on the pain, my little boy had already cried, had the cord cut, been cleaned, weighed, and been wrapped up! Obviously, I still LOVED holding and kissing him and could not believe how precious he was. . .I just couldn't believe I missed all that! Well, here I am smiling so I guess I lived through it!

A little side note: he was born with a KNOT in the umbilical cord. Many of the nurses had never seen one and came to check it out. One nurse, who had been around longer, told us a few times how lucky we were! Almost every time she had seen a knot, the baby had been still-born! She said usually when there's a knot, it tightens when the baby drops into the birth canal, and by the time they're born they've been without oxygen for too long. Also, sometimes there's not enough elastin in the umbilical cord and it collapses on itself, when that happens the babies die sometime before labor. Apparently we are very lucky to have our little Kaleb!

Well, there you have it. Everything happened in just 45 minutes, beginning to end! We made it to the hospital. I did it all without and epidural. I'll never do that again. Next time (yes, we hope there will be ONE more time) I'll just ask for the epidural in the 8th month of pregnancy and I'll not turn my doctor down when she offers to put me into labor before I go on my own. We ALL survived. Dave was calm and steady the whole time telling me I'd be ok and everything would be over soon (and he was right). I think somehow Kaleb saw that I predicted in my last post that he'd be born at 2:00 and was just a bit confused about the whole am/pm thing, so he was probably just trying to make my prediction come true. . .he just came exactly 12 hours early! :) I recovered quickly. By the first night I was dressed, sitting in a chair, and chatting with my visitors when the new nurse came in and asked "um, is the patient in here?" I'm still feeling great, minus being tired. Kaleb had a high bilirubin count so we had to come home with the Bilibed and he HATED laying in it, so he wailed ALL NIGHT LONG last night, and I had to take him to get his blood checked again this morning. So, we're all tired, but I had to record this before too much time passed and I forget how determined I am to NOT go through non-medicated birth again. I do have to say though, I've never been one who has to learn things through personal experience, I'm more than happy to learn from others' mistakes or experiences, BUT, that being said, now that I've gone through this, it's kind of nice to know first hand what I've chosen, and what I'm choosing, NOT to do again! :)