Disclaimer: You may be uncomfortable with some personal information given within my Birth Story.
God's Timing is Perfect!
First, for school, I had to get through May 3rd to not have to come back the last few days of school for insurance reasons. May 3rd rolls around and I feel a sense of relief knowing I made it! That day, I start having slight labor pains hours apart. I did not know if they "braxton hics" or REAL labor pains. I prayed and prayed to just make it though the school day, and I did! I knew I might not be coming back so I even stayed late to make sure all my long-term substitute stuff was out and in order.
During the evening on May 3rd, I start having harder and more frequent labor pains, so I start getting antsy and anxious because it was happening! As the evening unfolds they continually get closer and worse. The doctor instructs not to call until contractions are 5 minutes apart for an entire hour and the contractions have to be severe enough to not be able to talk or walk through them. We were not quite there at that point, but because they were slowly getting worse and closer, I knew it has begun!
I told Matt to go to bed early, and since the pain was bad enough I could not sleep, I just paced the entire night. Finally at 4:00 am I woke Matt up and told him he should start timing them because they were getting near 5 minutes apart. As we were timing them, my water broke at 5:00 am. To the hospital we go!
The ride to the hospital seemed like it took forever! We had to go through the ER, and get in the ugly robe. Matt is starting to have to coach me through the contractions because my whole body would tense up and my natural instinct was to hold my breath, which is the opposite of what you are suppose to do! Contractions were much worse and more scary then I even imagined.
They emit me to the Labor and Deliver Room around 6:00 am and I was at 3cm dilated. (You have to be at 10 cm dilated to push). I was asking for my epidural immediately! I went in this thinking I would try a natural birth, HAHAHA yeah right! :) My suggestion to the ladies who want to have a completely natural birth, practice breathing and Lamaze more than once!
The Epidural was awful to administer because they kick Matt out, and the nurse breaths you through the contractions as they are trying to find the appropriate place in your back. Then they inform you : DO NOT MOVE or we could seriously hurt you by hitting a nerve. This sounds simple, but for a women having contraction pains, it is very difficult and a little scary!
20 minutes after my Epidural, I do not feel a thing! Yay! My nurse tells me to rest, and I fall asleep for three hours! Hooray!
She wakes me up around 10:00 to clean me up and to see if I have progressed. She checks and I am surprisingly 9 cm! That means I slept through the hard part of labor. I feel no pressure, which means it is not time to push however. So they treat me to a popsicle, and I relax for a little longer.
Around an hour later, my doctor arrives and my nurse, Matt, and an EMT guy in training begin pushing. You have to imagine this first: I can not feel my legs so Matt and Mr. EMT have to hold my legs up so high that my knees are touching my ears. With every contraction I push three times. Pushing involves every muscle and fiber of my being to push. Your private area is out for everybody to see with a light shining right on it. With every contraction the nurse has to clean you up from "bloody show". Often she even had to change the sheet under me. Your sense of dignity is out the window!
For an hour or so, pushing seems to be going well and I am getting the hang of it. Two hours roll around and I am getting exhausted, and I am starting to wonder if I am doing this right. I start asking "how much longer", "What am I doing wrong", and I start to lose confidence.
The resident doctor and my OBGYN start to come in and watch me push because this is starting to take too long and they are starting to deduce something is not going right. My doctor puts an ungodly amount of pressure in there as he pokes around to see if the baby is positioned correctly.
At this point, it is going on 3 hours of pushing, I am exhausted, and I am asking the doctor about other options. The options he gives me:
1. C-Section
2. Forceps
3. Suction
I seriously do not want to deal with an incision and do a C-Section after all of this hard pushing, so that is out. I choose Suction, but I ask to rest a little first because I did not have it in me to push anymore, and my feeling is coming back because the epidural is wearing off.
They agree to let me rest for a while, so they give me another dose of epidural and I rest for an hour.
After an hour, 10 + people come into the room to watch the action! How intimidating! There are extra nurses there for Micah because of the extra risks that go with using the suction. There is my doctor's assistant, the Resident, my Doctor, my Nurse, and several extra nurses for Micah. I even think there were some nurses in training that needed to see the suction in use.
As I push, the room goes silent and the doctor helps me out with the suction. As he does the suction he realizes what was causing the delay: Micah has his chin tucked in his chest, which means he was trying to come out with the back of his head first instead of the top of it. This obviously did not work. The doctor uses the suction to simply adjust his head, and Micah is out in less than 10 pushes!
The nurses take him and clean him up then I enjoyed skin-to-skin time! I was crying when I saw Micah, Matt kept saying "You did it! You did it!" and I did! It was so nice to finally have him with me!
The only downfall of the suction: I did tear funny down there, which caused extra stitches and quite a bit more soreness and healing time, but I would take that over the C-Section any day!
Micah Alexander Smucker
May 4th 2012
3:39 pm
7 pounds 7 ounces
20 inches long
