At 9:50 am on February 4th, Mummy started having VERY strong contractions. After so many false alarms, she was reluctant to tell anyone though, and didn't call Daddy until noon. Daddy told her to call the doctor one more time, and he prepared to come home just in case. At 1:00, Mummy called Daddy again. The contractions had been coming at 4 minutes apart for over 2 hours now and were getting stronger. The doctors felt that she ought to come in now. By the time Daddy got home, my brother was packed to go to Gramma's house, and Gramma had been called. They all piled into the car and dropped Steven off, then headed back to the hospital.
Once they got there, the nurses hooked Mummy up to the fetal monitors and said that while Mummy WAS in labor now, she was not far enough along yet and that she ought to go home. Because the roads were so icy and the hospital 1/2 hour from home, Daddy asked if they could please stay there and just walk the halls rather than go home again. The nurses agreed, and Mummy and Daddy started pacing the halls at around 2 pm. Once an hour, a nurse would stop them, make Mummy drink more water and check on my progress. The walking was working, but it was also wearing Mummy out. By 7:00, five hours later, Daddy was practically DRAGGING Mummy through the halls, but they kept moving, with Mummy repeating "I will NOT be sent home... I will NOT be sent home..."
At 7:30 a new shift of nurses came on duty, and Mummy was assigned to a room. FINALLY she was offered a bath, which she climbed into silently hoping to never have to leave. The doctor came in all too soon though and explained that if Mummy wanted, they could break her water to help speed things up. After over 4 weeks of NOTHING going quickly, Mummy and Daddy quickly agreed. They were a little worried about it, but at that point they were more worried about Mummy any strength left if this lasted any longer. At 9:17 Mummy's water was broken. She was amazed at how much seemed to come out, but the nurse said that there was plenty more where that came from. At 10:00, Mummy was allowed to get up again, as long as she stayed in the room. They brought her a birthing ball and a rocking chair. The birthing ball looked interesting, but Mummy was so worn out that she kept slipping and decided to try rocking instead. She rocked for what seemed like hours, while looking at an I Spy book with Daddy to pass the time. Every 15 minutes, a HUGE flood of water would flood the entire floor! Mummy was shocked and mortified, but the nurse just laughed and said it was normal and pointed out the drains in the floor. Daddy didn't say anything... Mummy thinks he was laughing at her, but he wouldn't admit it. At midnight, Mummy Daddy and the nurse quietly cheered; I was going to be born during the year of the dragon... A very lucky thing! (Daddy worked with several Hmong women who had urged Mummy to "cross her legs until midnight."
At 12:30, Mummy could barely rock anymore, and climbed back into bed. At 1:00, she started going into shock, and told Daddy she thought that some pain relief sounded good. As they had discussed before, he suggested that she hold on for 5 more contractions. At 1:15, Daddy asked the nurse for medication for Mummy, and the nurse consented. She gave Mummy some Nubain almost immediately. At 1:45, the doctor came in with some bad news. The Nubain had stopped the contractions, and because Mummy's water had already been broken, she felt that they needed to give her Pitocin to restart the labor. This scared Mummy a little, but Daddy talked to her and she agreed. The doctor gave Mummy the smallest dosage of pitocin that was available at 1:55 am.
With the VERY next contraction, Mummy felt that she needed to push. The nurse quickly called the doctor, as she and Daddy worked on setting up the bed together. THe doctor tried to tell the nurse that it was too soon, but the nurse and Daddy started yelling at the same time... They could see my curly dark brown hair, and I was on the way OUT!!! The doctor rushed into the room just in time to clean out my nose and mouth, and tell Mummy to push me the rest of the way out. I was born at 2:23 am. As soon as the doctor unwound my cord, she placed me on Mummy's tummy. Daddy and Mummy stared at me, too tired to talk. After a few minutes, Daddy cut my cord and went with me to be washed up and weighed. While we were away, Mummy was busy examining the placenta... my home for the last 9 months. She was very interested in it, and the nurse explained the different parts of it to her. |
