This labor progressed slowly, as do most first births.
We walked a little, rested a little, ate a little.
The contractions were still irregular after
nine hours of this. We then decided to go to the
hospital and see what was happening, was I dialating?
We arrived at the hospital at 9:30 am
(It didn't take us long to get there since my husband
thought it would be neat to speed.
He said we had a good excuse to
do so...his wife was in labor!)We arrived at the front
doors of the New Life Center. A nurse came out
with a wheelchair and asked if I wanted to hop on.
My husband kindly replied for me "No, that's okay,
she'd much rather walk from the parking lot
to the main doors. She doesn't want a wheelchair."
(He said this thinking the walk would help labor progress)
Okay...thanks honey...I didn't really want
the wheelchair anyway.

Next, we checked in, then they took me upstairs
to the 'Triage' area. This is where
they check you out to see how much you've dialated,
blood pressure, baby's heartbeat, etc.
They told me that since it was a full moon,
27 other women were in labor also.
The place was packed!
After they did a thorough check of me,
they gave me the bad news...
only dialated 1 cm and 50% effaced. I thought
I was going to cry!
My doctor happened to be on call, and was at the
hospital, they said they wanted her to check me out.
By this time, ALL contractions had
stopped. (It didn't matter...they weren't registering on the
graph anyway...) My doctor examined me and said
I was beginning to get toxemia...they were going to induce.
Yikes!! All I could think of was
"When can I get my epidural"??

They gave me an oxytocin suppository,
the hormone your body releases when you're
in labor. They said it might not work, if not, then they'd start
pitocin. I was really scared now!
After all of this lovely information,
my doctor proceeded to explain that I may not actually
give birth untill midnight...it was going to be a long day,
and so far it was only 10:30 am!

Praise God, the oxytocin started to work immediatly.
The contractions were actually registering now!
The only problem was that I was not in a
delivery room yet...they were all still
preoccupied with other laboring women.
They told me they were waiting on two different
women who were in the 'pushing stage'.
At that moment, I could hear one screaming...

I labored in the 'triage' for 2 hours
(Very small bed tucked away in a corner
of a room with 10 other women in the same position...not fun!)
Finally they said my room was ready. I got in, they immediatly
broke my water, gave me my epidural
(Praise the Lord it worked and my pain was almost
non-existant!) I developed a rather intense
case of the shakes... the nurse said it was normal.
Finally, at 3:25 pm, the nurse said I was fully effaced
and 10 cm dialated...I could finally push!
(Thank God because the urge was rather great)
I pushed untill 4:00 pm when Zachary entered the world...my
doctor almost didn't make it to the delivery! (Although she was
just in time to perform a major episiotomy. Oh my!)
Zachary weighed 9 pounds and 8 ounces.
He was 21 1/4 inches long, and
he was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen!

Unfortunatly, I did not try to nurse him immediatly
after his birth, and when I finally tried (2 hours later),
he was too tired. I know next time I'll do it immediatly.
After all that, he did latch on very well
and had no other problems nursing.

My mother and my husband were presant at the birth
and my husband got the cut the embilical cord.
(He thought that was neat!)
I felt that everything went very well. I know that
alot of people are against epidurals, but for me, it was the best
decision I made that day.
I labored in peace, and after he was born, I had enough
energy to reallyenjoy and appreciate him.
Maybe *some* day I'll try it all natural :)
If I had the opportunity to change anything, I would
only change the decision of going to the hospital when I knew
I wasn't really in hard labor yet. I feel we went way too early,
and I could have labored in my comfy home instead of
the hospital.

Here are some great pregnancy/birth related sites:

Olen Pregnancy, Ovulation, and Childbirth Calendar
The Life and Times of Cheetoh Jones
Online Birth Center
Page for Pregnant Women

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