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Zachary Kenneth Brown
When I went back for my first monthly (10 weeks) check up the doctor checked for the heartbeat but as of yet couldn’t find it. He seemed concerned but not really, so to be on the safe side he sent me to have an ultrasound. We were so amazed to see for the first time a picture of our baby. What a miracle. It was such an easy pregnancy. No morning sickness, no swelling, and I only gained 13 pounds. I was somewhat concerned about the weight gain, since I consider myself slightly overweight to begin with. I didn’t want to be as big as a house. I thought for sure I would either have the worst labor in the world or the worst child in the world. Pregnancy couldn’t be this easy. My due date was February 9, 1997 and I was sure I would go late. Throughout the pregnancy I was determined that I would go late so that I wouldn’t get my hopes up to go on time or early. I was so sure of being late that I had planned to attend a series of meetings at work during that whole week following my due date. At least it would keep my mind off of being pregnant and overdue. Well as the time got closer and closer, I got more and more anxious to have this pregnancy over with. Even though I didn’t gain a lot of weight I began to feel subhuman. I just wanted to get it over and meet this much anticipated child. We had waited what seemed like such a long time for this child and I wanted it done with now. On my last doctor’s visit on Friday, I was 1 cm and about 75% effaced. At least I felt I was making progress. So, on Saturday morning (the day before my due date), I called my mom and asked her to "entertain" me (my husband had worked all night and was ready to sleep). After having read so many birth stories I knew that if I walked that day that hopefully it would "help" things along. So she picked me up around 11:00 am and off we went to walk around every department store we could find in our town. We didn’t do a lot of shopping (since we didn’t know what we were having), but we looked at every baby department we came across. After spending the whole day with my mom, I went home to retire for the night, in hopes of going into labor. Morning broke and not a single sign of labor. I was crushed. Here it was my due date and I just knew this pregnancy would go on forever!! So we spent the day just relaxing around the house. I knew it would be a long week for me being 9+ months pregnant and in meetings, so I better get my rest while I could. So I went to bed around 8:30pm Sunday night to get a good nights sleep. I woke up at 4:00 am and had to go to the bathroom (as usual). When I rolled over to get out of bed I felt a small gush of water. I knew I had either just wet the bed or my water had broke. So I scurried off to the bathroom, and sure enough my water had broke. It wasn’t gushing all over but it was leaking heavily. I made my way to the phone and called my husband at work and told him to come home. I knew it wasn’t going to happen quickly (I hadn’t even had a contraction yet) but I wanted him with me through out the whole thing (and he wanted to witness every bit of it). After I hung up the phone I decided to take a shower and get cleaned up and ready to go to the hospital when the time came. After I was dressed I called the hospital to see if I should come in or just wait at home. Our child birth instructor had always told us if your water breaks go to the hospital 1) to check for a prolapsed cord and 2) to prevent infection. So I talked to the nurse at the hospital and she said to come on in and they would check to make sure that my water and really broken. So at 5:00 am we were off to the hospital. I was in really good spirits when I got to the hospital, I knew the end was in sight. The nurse that picked me up at admitting commented that I couldn’t be in labor since I was in such a good mood. Well I got to my labor/delivery room and got into one of those beautiful hospital gowns and the nurse checked me. Sure enough my water had broken so I was there to stay until this baby came. I was still only 1 cm (darn) and no contractions. I knew we probably had come to the hospital too early but since this was the first time I felt much more comfortable in the hospital rather than at home. Finally about 6:00 am I started having contractions nothing major but I did notice them. We watched TV for a while and we both tried to sleep a little bit, but we were too excited to get much rest. Finally about 7:00 we called my parents to let them know where we were and that they were going to be grandparents again. My mom said she would stop by on her way to work and bring my husband some breakfast (I wasn’t allowed to eat and I was hungry). Throughout the morning we walked the halls of the maternity ward and as I did my contractions were about 3-5 minutes apart and lasted 45-60 seconds. I had to be on the monitor for 20 minutes of every hour and when I got back into bed for that time my contractions would slow down from 6-10 minutes apart and 30-45 seconds long. Around noon my mom and dad came by and my dad took my husband down to the cafeteria to get something to eat and my mom walked the halls with me. Rick (my husband) was great. He didn’t want to leave my side, but he also needed to keep his strength up, so he reluctantly went but in the long run was glad he did. After lunch my contractions were getting stronger and stronger, so we decided to take a shower and see if I could relax as much as I could throughout the contractions. It felt good to have the warm water run over my body and relax. It really gave me a boost to get through for a while. After my shower, the nurse said she had to check me again and call the doctor about my progress. I was about 4-5 cm. I thought okay we can do this! Around 3:00pm the doctor came in and checked me, for himself, and he said I was a "solid" 3cm. I began to cry. The nurse that had been with me all day was so nice. She apologized up and down. She kept telling me I could do it and my husband kept encouraging me as well. By this time I just wanted it all over with and NOW!! Because I wasn’t progressing and because my contractions were still erratic he was putting me on Pitocin. This was the one thing I dreaded. I had heard all of the horror stories about Pitocin and I didn’t want to go through that, but I didn’t have much choice. My doctor said I could keep going as I was but I would be there forever. I was beginning to get tired and I just wanted it over with. So around 4:00 pm they started the IV and that was when things started to get a little crazy. Before they put in my IV they asked if I wanted something for the pain and I gave in. I had wanted to go without pain medication but I knew I couldn’t take much more without a little relief. So they gave me a shot of Demerrol (right in my arm OUCH!!!) which helped to take the edge off of the contractions but they were still strong. The next couple of hours were bad and became somewhat of a blur. After the Demerrol the baby’s heartbeat started slowing down, so they put me on my left side for awhile (very uncomfortable), then the fetal monitor kept coming off so they had to put an internal monitor on the baby’s head and an interuterine monitor on me to get a better reading of my contractions. I felt like I was wired for the electric chair. My parents had been in and out during the afternoon and evening and had left around 6:30 to go get something to eat and my dad had a brief meeting to go to. They said they would stop back before they went home. They thought too that I was in for a long night yet. Around 7:00 pm the contractions started getting unbearable. I kept telling my husband that I couldn’t do it anymore but he kept me going. At 7:40 I began to feel the urge to push. The nurse checked me and said I was only 7cm and I couldn’t push yet. I about lost it. I couldn’t take it anymore. I wanted to push sooooo bad and I couldn’t. Rick kept telling me to listen to him breathe and I did. At 8:00 I told them again that I wanted to push and I couldn’t stop. The nurse checked me and I just had a lip left of my cervix. She said she would hold it back and I could start to push. While I started to push, they hurried around and started to get the room ready. Before I knew it I was up in the stirrups and my doctor was there and the end was really in sight. In the mean time my parents had returned and were waiting in the hall. They could hear everything and were so excited to be there (even if it was outside the door). After only 15 minutes of pushing, our beautiful little boy entered this world. When his head came out the cord was wrapped around his neck twice. Everyone in the room yelled at me to stop pushing (it didn’t register what they were saying at first). My mom from the hallway says I told them to go to hell when they told me to stop pushing (I don’t remember that part). Then one more push and he was all the way out. After the doctor suctioned out his mouth and nose, he let out a HUGE wail. What a blessed sound!! Only six stiches to sew up the episiotomy and I felt great. Zachary scored 8 & 9 and had lots of black hair (just like his Daddy). It was hard to believe he was finally there. Zac is the best thing that has ever happened to either one of us. He is a great baby who after nine weeks sleeps through the night. He is growing like a weed and is spoiled rotten by all of his grandparents, aunts and uncles. We wouldn’t trade him for the world. For being a first time Mom, I thought for sure labor would be worse than it was. But, I know I could do it again and don’t regret anything that happened.
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