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Charlie's Birth Story
By Kim
My husband Charles and I married in 1997. We had planned to wait a
couple more years to start our family but had a surprise. I found out I
was pregnant in March 2001. I felt really good for a couple weeks ( I was
only 4 wks pregnant when I had a positive test). I thought that maybe I
wouldn't have any morning sickness. Well, I didn't have morning sickness,
I had all day and night sickness. I didn't throw up very much but I felt
like I had a stomach virus 24/7. At about seven weeks I started spotting,
the doctor told me not to worry unless it got worse. Well, what can go
wrong will go wrong. I was home alone one night (hubby out of town on
business) when I began having SEVERE abdominal pain. I managed to make it
to the bathroom and had a large gush of blood. I was so scared. I called
my doctor and was told I was probably having a miscarriage and to lie down
and to come in the next day unless the bleeding was severe enough to come
to the ER. I called my Mom who was 2 hours away, she drove to my house in
the middle of the night to stay with me. (Mother's love!) We went to the
doctor's office the next morning. I was already sure that I had had a
miscarriage. I went back with the nurse to have an ultrasound. The
doctor began moving the probe over my belly and there was the heartbeat.
I couldn't believe it! There was my baby alive and well. They never
discovered what caused all the bleeding and I ended up on bed rest for
2wks to be safe. After this I never had any more problems with the
bleeding.
The nausea lasted for about eight weeks. I couldn't even brush my
teeth without gagging. To make matters worse, I work as a nurse in a
pediatric office, you can imagine the offending odors in that place! But
then magically it all went away. I woke up one morning, I was about 12-13
wks pregnant, and I could brush my teeth without gagging again. I don't
know how I went to work everyday. I never called in sick, I just got up
and went in and went home at the end of the day and went to sleep.
The rest of my pregnancy went smoothly. We found out we were having
a boy at 18 weeks. We really wanted to know, mostly so I could go
shopping. I didn't even gain any weight until I was 20 weeks along
(thanks to morning sickness). I gained about 30 pounds total.
My due date was December 19, 2001. I was really hoping he would come
a couple weeks early so that his birthday wouldn't be right at Christmas.
I went shopping the weekend after Thanksgiving. I walked for 14 hours
hoping to encourage labor. No such luck! I just ended up very tired with
really swollen feet. I went for a spa day on December 1, I had a
pregnancy massage and a pedicure. I would reccomend this for all pregnant
women. It was so relaxing.
I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions off/on since 33 weeks.
I went to the doctor on Wednesday, December 5, and was told I was 3 cm
dilated. I was so excited. I began having contractions every 30 minutes
for the rest of the day. Then on Thursday they stopped. I was soooo
disappointed. I figured I was going to be pregnant for another week or
so. I went to work on Thursday but was so tired my wonderful co-workers
told me to go home and rest at about 11:00 am. My last day at work was
scheduled for December 14. Another whole week away! I was really tired
of work, being on my feet all day was very tiring. Plus my feet were so
swollen I only had one pair of shoes I could wear.
I cooked a big supper Thursday night and told my husband I was tired
and went to bed early. I woke up at 3:00 am (Friday Dec. 7) with what I
thought was a contraction. I got up and went to the living room to work
on a cross-stitch I had been doing for the baby, and to time
contractions. I had another one at 3:05 am. They continued coming every
five minutes for the next hour. I had been told by my Dr.'s office to
call when the contractions had been coming about five minutes apart
consistently for an hour. I called by doctor at 4:00 am and he told me to
go on to the hospital. Thankfully I had packed my bag the weekend
before. I told my husband that we should wait to call our families. I
wanted to make sure it wasn't false labor. Our families live two hours
away and I didn't want them to make an uneccesary trip. We arrived at the
hospital at 4:30 am. We parked in the parking deck and walked over to the
birth center. In hindsight this was a bad idea. I was thinking that the
walking would help my labor along. (I had no idea how much!). We had to
stop at the registration desk to verify our information even though we had
preregistered. By the time we got to the birthing room my contractions
were 2-3 minutes apart and right on top of each other. The nurse told me
to get undressed and put the gown on and get into bed. All I could hear
was a woman screaming in the next room. The nurse came back into the room
and was asking me all these questions and I was hurting so bad I couldn't
think straight. I told her that I wanted drugs! I had planned to wait
and see if I needed them, and I did. She put in my IV and gave me
Stadol. All it did was make me feel lightheaded for a few minutes. I had
to wait for my labwork to come back before receiving my epidural. She
checked me and I was at 5 cm. I told my husband to call our parents and
let them know they should come on to the hospital. My mom wanted to be
there when the baby was born. My best friend also wanted to be there but
my labor was so quick I never got the chance to call her. The
contractions were getting so bad that the nurse had the doctor paged.
They were so close together I never got a break between them. The doctor
came in and checked me and I was 7 cm. My favorite doctor was on call, I
was so lucky! He asked when my water had broken and I told him I didn't
know that it had, I don't know how I missed that! He checked me again and
I was at 9 cm a few minutes later. The whole time I was thinking that
they had better hurry up with my lab work so I could get my epidural. My
husband later told me that the nurse shook her head no to him. There was
not going to be time for an epidural. I knew that epidurals are not
normally given when you are already 9 cm dilated, but I couldn't think
straight at the time. When the doctor told me I could start pushing when
I felt I needed to, all I could think about was that I hadn't had my
epidural yet. While I was pregnant I was so worried about pushing the
baby out. I was sure I would be really embarrased and was worried about
having a BM on the delivery table. When you are in hard labor you will
not be thinking about any of these things, I PROMISE! I was obsessed with
worry while I was pregnant and then it didn't even matter when the time
came. I had read that pushing is a relief but I never believed it. This
is really true though. The contractions hurt so bad but the pushing made
them feel better. The baby's heart rate was going down so the doctor
decided to use the vaccum to help him out. I think I only pushed about 5
times and there he was. The cord had been wrapped around his neck. I had
a small episiotomy which I hardly noticed. I only felt a small prick when
the doctor numbed me. Charlie was born at 6:05am. Only THREE hours
after labor began. I was only in the hospital for a little over an hour
before he was born. The whole time I was pregnant I had said that if I
had a short labor maybe I could get by without drugs. Be careful what you
wish for. I ended up with natural childbirth without wanting to. But it
really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think I will go drug
free next time. Although I had better not waste any time getting to the
hospital or my husband may be delivering the baby himself.
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