River's Birth Part 2

Every time I had a contraction, I felt like I was going to throw up. This emotionally drained me of having any mental strength. This went on for an hour or two. The midwife checked me again and I had only dilated to three centimeters from 8am to about 1pm. Feeling discouraged, I asked everyone to leave so I could talk to Dave alone. I told him I was ready for an epidural. He tried to talk me out of it. That is exactly what he should have done. He knew how much I wanted to do it without pain meds and I probably would have been mad later on that he so easily let me give in.  After awhile he finally understood that I was serious. We asked the midwife for an epidural to which she immediately ordered up. The anesthesiologist was very busy so they gave me fentanyl until he could get there. To get through the pain I just huddled up on my side and squeezed whosever’s hand was there. This too was painful with a stupid iv that hurt my hand the entire delivery. Since I didn’t open my eyes through all of this, I just patted my thumb and fingers together as a sign to someone to grab my hand. I don’t think I opened my eyes until the baby was born. At some point Dave or my mom would push on my tailbone during contractions, which would ease the pain a little. At some point while waiting for the anesthesiologist to arrive, my water broke. I remember them having to lift me to change the sheets, which would have been embarrassing in any other situation. As time passed, I had some really heavy breathing going on that eventually turned into a moan; similar to a dying cow.

AN HOUR LATER, the anesthesiologist arrived to do the epidural. He had to stick me 3 different times. He had a sarcastic personality, which I would have appreciated had I not been in labor. During this time, I bent over and squeezed the life out of the sweetest nurse during every contraction. Mid labor she was assigned to a different floor, which was sad because she was really awesome. I actually didn’t have any bad memories from being stuck three times for the epidural because the contractions were so strong. The only thing the epidural did was take away the nausea. I still felt strong back labor and was beginning to feel the onset of the need to push. The midwife checked me right after the epidural and I was an 8. All in one hour I had gone from a three to an eight- CRAZY!

For about another hour, I fought through contractions. A new nurse was assigned who was very nice and great throughout the rest of delivery. I still preferred the first nurse who had a warm mothering way about her. After the baby was born, she came back the next day to check in on me- so sweet! The new nurse then asked me if I was ready to push. I could have but I knew I needed a stronger feeling until I could wait any longer. About a half hour later I was ready and dilated to 10. I started pushing with Dave, my mom and the nurse with me. After about five pushes, the nurse told me I had to stop. She said the baby was going to come within a few pushes and the midwife was in another labor. Our poor midwife had five deliveries back to back that day. So while I waited, I tried to persuade my mom and the nurse that I had to push. I pleaded with the nurse to just deliver the baby herself. My mom told me to go for it but somehow I waited for 45 minutes. That was horrendous.