Birth Story: According to Brian

We went to the hospital on June 13th at 9:00pm very excited to see Natalie, with checking in and waiting for the pharmacy to bring the drugs for the induction, and we didn’t start inducing until midnight. They checked Joanna and found that she was 1cm dilated and 60% effaced. They brought me a cot to sleep on and Joanna and I tried to uncomfortably sleep through the night. Joanna started to have some pretty big contractions in the morning, which we tried "walking-off" on our way to and back from the cafeteria for breakfast, and by 10am she was raging with contractions that seemed to happen about every 2 minutes or so. We were supposed to wait until 12pm to take out the medicine that she was given the night before, but she had progressed already to 3 cm and 80% effaced.

The nurses have been so nice and helpful - they contacted the doctor and he gave the go ahead! EPIDURAL TIME!! That came as a surprise, but very welcome at that point. I had tried all kinds of things to help Joanna, breathing, massage, etc and was being kept pretty busy for several hours as the contractions had raged on! By noon on the 14th, Joanna looked very peaceful as she got to relax and catch another nap before the doctor comes in to break her bag of water. At 4 o’clock she was 6cm dilated, but has been up and down with her pain levels.  After the Epidural, we have added 2 boosts to it: one at 2 pm and another just recently around 4:15.  Her pain levels returned pretty close to what they were before after each booster.  Unlike earlier though, she wasn’t able to move around, stretch, and the other things that helped her relax. That being said, she’s relaxed enough to take a little nap.  One that I was sure she'd need for the final stage!

At 6:30, Joanna was still writhing in pain so they called in the anesthesiologist for our 3rd booster shot for the epidural. After just a little bit of time, he realized that the darn machine wasn’t on and that none of the medication was actually making it to her!@#@$@$@$@!@#$$......... so after ANOTHER booster shot of pain medication, the actual machine turned on, she is resting comfortably. The anesthesiologist came back in to check on us and apologized that it might be his fault, which we appreciated. Next though Joanna started writhing in pain for a good deal of time, was able to feel her legs again and we were back into the same basic problem that we had before. After a little bit of problem solving, the aesthetician hypothesized that Joanna may not respond well to the drugs in the Epidural. She evidently has issues at the dentist with the pain medication and they think the same thing basically is happening with her now. They put her on a different cocktail of drugs and she felt better again.

At 8:20pm, the room was all set up and ready to go for Natalie to arrive. They brought in all the materials for her birth, turned on all the machines and were checking her blood pressure every 2 minutes. We had AWESOME nurses that have been very understanding and very helpful. Every so often I caught Joanna singing a nursery song quietly to Natalie. As we got closer to 9:30pm, Joanna started to fell the need to push, and we got the go ahead from the doctor to start pushing. Joanna’s Epidural was working well finally; whatever it was that they changed in her medication, it worked. Joanna was a champ; we had no idea that it would be almost 3 hours of pushing though. As we got towards the end, I swear that Joanna would change to the plum color that we have in our nursery when she was pushing!

She was so tired from all the craziness that had happened previously that towards the end she would pretty much fall asleep in between pushes. As we got closer and closer to midnight Joanna realized it and really tried to push Natalie out. I may have been apprehensive about sharing a birthday with my daughter, but as we got closer and closer I wanted more and more to share it with her. With two minutes left, I got a big grin on my face and when it was midnight, the doctor came in for the final delivery. When he came in, Joanna could tell we were almost there and the change in the room gave her renewed vigor.

At 12:17am with one final push Natalie was born. June 15th, 2011. She was 21 inches and 8 pounds 6oz. 10 fingers, 10 toes, hair, PERFECT. She was so beautiful; Joanna and I were so overwhelmed with joy. I was pretty nauseous most of the time, not from the view, but from lunch and possibly from exhaustion. I was surprised that I watched everything. I thought I would only stay on the north side of the delivery view, but I had no problem with anything that happened. I thought that I didn’t want to cut the cord, but as we got closer…I really wanted to be the one to fully bring her into this world. I cut the cord and they plopped her right onto Joanna  for skin-to-skin for bonding.

After much joy, pictures, and video, we finally had Natalie in our arms. Joanna stayed on the medical equipment to be monitored for 2 hours after birth as we had fun with Natalie. We were very tired…very, very tired. We gathered all our stuff and moved from delivery room 21 (lucky number 21) to post partum room where the nurse talked a whole bunch (nice lady). I’m not to sure exactly what she said. Later when we saw her the next day she said not to worry; they say most of the instructions over and over as many patients are so tired and not very focused. Whew!

About 4 o’clock in the morning we finally got a little bit of sleep. Natalie went to the Nursery to take her first bath, and to get checked out more extensively. As the adrenaline wore out, we both pretty much passed out. We woke up fresher in the morning to welcome our family for a visit!