It all started at about 7:00 in the morning…
I woke up, having contractions, but I had been having
contractions for weeks, so this was no different. I got up to go to the bathroom, sat on the toilet,
and then…POP…and out came warm water. My
immediate thought was, of course, did my water break? Then I remembered people saying you couldn’t
stop the flow of this water like you can pee, so I tried to stop it and I did,
so was this it or not? Then my next
thought, how lucky am I to have it break while I am on the toilet…no clean
up! I told Jonathan I though this was
it, so I called the doctor and explained what had happened. She told me to change positions and see if I noticed
any changes, I did, so it was my water breaking. We were having a baby!!!
First I was a little nervous, then excited, and then I had
my first contraction after my water breaking, and OH HELLO THERE CONTRACTION
you were very different than all those before.
Then it set in that this is what an actual contraction feels like, not
too pleasant, but not unbearable…yet. I
had my bag packed, knew what I was going to wear, and was told by the doctor
that there was no need to rush, so I took a shower, made some breakfast, and
then started getting ready to leave. As I
was finishing up making breakfast though, things were starting to get more intense
than I expected, so I told Jonathan it was time to go then, and I was eating my
breakfast in the car…oh, and guess what time it was…about 8:00 on a Friday
morning and we have to go down 400 to Northside Atlanta. Yeah traffic!
So we get on the road and the contractions are getting worse. I am convinced we will be using the emergency
lane and the entire time I am asking Jonathan “should we get over and use the
emergency lane”, and he is saying “should I call a hero unit?” and I am saying,
“I don’t know just get to the hospital as soon as you can”. He goes “I am”, and I ask him to run red
lights (after looking of course) once we are off the highway, and he doesn’t and
is patient. And no, we didn’t need the
emergency lane or to run red lights. Jonathan
is right again.
I am breathing and trying to not be in so much pain, and we
pull up to the front of the hospital and go in.
I waddle, slowly, up to the front desk to check in, and the lady is not
in any hurry. Does she not see I am in
pain?!? Why isn’t she rushing me to my
room?!? I was a little irrational at
this point. This lady sees this all day
everyday and knows there is plenty of time, but all I can think is what is
taking so long!?
We are waiting in the lobby for our room, and next thing you
know…Mary Beth and Smith (our neighbors) walk in! Turns out MB’s water had broken early that
morning, and we were going into labor on the same day! She was a couple of days early, and I was 12
days early, so it was crazy to be there at the same time! We chat with them a bit, and then the
contractions are getting worse. I have
Jonathan ask how much longer it will be.
Tell them I am already dilated!
Like I said, irrational. The nurse
comes out and calmly tells me my room will be ready in 5 minutes, so I try and
breathe through the pain. You are not having
the baby in the lobby Brandy, chill out.
We finally get up to the room and I get changed and hooked up
to the monitors. Family has started to
arrive (we called everyone on our way down), and we are settling in for the
delivery. I went in three centimeters
dilated, and I was still three centimeters at about 10:00, so I was trying to
hold off on the epidural until 5 or 6. I
was doing okay, and then they became much more intense and closer
together. Also, I had to constantly go
to the bathroom, not fun. I was hurting
more than I ever have in my life, but I was trying to breathe through them
because I didn’t want the epidural to early, and I was scared of not being able
to move my legs. My plan was to wait and
see what I was doing as far as the epidural went, but I quickly figured out I was
getting one, I just didn’t know when J The nurses asked me if I wanted one because of
my obvious pain, and I said I didn’t know, and then came the vomit. The pain was getting so intense it was making
me physically sick, so I guess it is time.
I was kind of upset with myself because I figured I was maybe 4 or 5
centimeters, and I wanted to hold out longer, but it wasn’t happening. They came in to give me the epidural, and
when they did, I immediately felt better.
I still could move and feel my legs, and I could still feel the pressure
of the contractions, which I liked, so I was very happy with my decision. The doctor come in and checked me again (it
was probably about 1:00 now), and I was 9 centimeters! I flew through the dilation process, and I was
probably a 6 or 7 when I got the epidural.
So I held out as long as I had wanted!
Yeah for me, and no wonder I was puking J
At this point, the folks who aren’t staying are asked to
leave, and we start prepping to push. And
here starts the long, long process of pushing…2 hours and 45 minutes to be
exact. I dilated like lightning, but our
little man was face up and not fitting through, so the pushing took
forever. The pushing was hard,
confusing, and the pressure, OH THE PRESSURE!
I had an epidural, and was still in tons of pain because of the intense
pressure. I couldn’t believe it hurt as
much as it did, but I was going to be fine, I was going to do this! After pushing for so long, I started to get a
fever, and they started to worry about junior being in there for so long, so
then came “the talk”. My doctor said
that they had to get the baby out now, and that they would try the vacuum two
times, and if he didn’t come out then, it was off for an emergency
C-section. My response was to do
whatever it is they needed because I just wanted a healthy baby! So, in come the whole crew of doctors and
nurses to try the vacuum…but first, I had to be cut to make room. Ouch, and thank goodness I got that
epidural. Well, we try the vacuum the
first time and it doesn’t work, then it pops off on its own (so doc doesn’t
count that one), so here we are at my final push before an emergency
C-section. If he doesn’t come out now, I
will not only be cut “down there”, but also across my stomach. Not cool.
This one nurse comes in, grabs my leg, and tells me this baby is coming
out now! So here we go, I push with all I
have, everybody cheering me on, and then…he comes flying out and there is
instant relief. No more pressure, and
there he is. Jonathan turns to me and
goes its James Macneace, and we find out we have a boy. A little bitty baby boy J 6 lbs, 8 oz, and 20 inches long, but I am
pretty sure three of those inches were due to his giant head from the vacuum!! Jonathan said I wouldn’t have believed how
hard the pulled on that thing to get him out!
They put him on my stomach first, then took him to get his
first check up and bath. They did all
they needed to do to me (get out the placenta and stitch me up) and him (clean
out nose, ears, lungs, bath, etc), then he came to me to be fed for the first
time. That was interesting to say the
least, but he did well and we made a perfect little team.
It was scary, exciting, confusing, intense, difficult, life
changing, but whatever the process was, it didn’t matter because we had a beautiful,
healthy baby boy.
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