Our son, Nathan David Moses, entered the world on Monday February 2, 2015 at 4:43 pm. He weighed 7lbs 5oz and was 19″. Our hearts have never been so filled with love and this overwhelming sense of all is right in the world now that he is here with us.
Friday I felt off. Very, very off. I left work early telling my manager that I just felt like crap, which was very true. I couldn’t focus, my mind felt weird, my body felt weird- I just didn’t feel right. All I wanted to do was go home and sleep. But, there were still a few last minute errands that needed to be run, so I ran them. Saturday was much the same way with errands, homework, and laundry.
Sunday, I should have known something was going to happen. I was so emotionally inconsolable. Everything seemed to irritate me to anger or tears (sometimes both) and poor Adam just wanted a relaxing day off. We went to a show for his Dad’s band (check our Larry Moses and the Latin Explosion- they rock!) and then over to his Dad and Step-Mom’s for dinner. When we finally got home we just sort of sat in the car for awhile daydreaming about winning the lotto so we decided we should go get some scratch offs…. A wing and a prayer, right? Well we got back home and piddly puddled around until we went to bed around midnight.
At 1:20 in the morning I woke up for some reason. I figured hey, I’m already awake- might as well go pee. I went to the ladies room and there were signs of my water having broken but I wasn’t really sure because hey- I’ve never done this before. I quickly woke Adam up and told him something was going on and we called and spoke with the on call doctor who said I should come in and get checked out.
Easy peasy, right? Nope! We were in the midst of a snow storm. Jessica, who was to go to the hospital with us and be our ride wasn’t responding to calls and texts and the snow was really starting to come down. I wasn’t having any contractions so we weren’t even sure if this was going to be a fools run or not, so we just hopped in the car and I drove us to the hospital. On the way there I had a few “contractions” but doubted that’s what they were because they were no worse than period cramps.
It felt like we were in triage on the labor and delivery floor forever. After all vitals were recorded and I got hooked up to the monitors I was checked- and yup, my water had definitely broken! The nurse told me that we wouldn’t be leaving the hospital without a baby. I burst into tears. I was so scared in that moment. Were we ready? Did I have enough baby stuff? Was there enough food in the house? Did we remember to feed the cats? So much all at once. I think Adam may have had a slight moment of panic as well, but he hid it. Adam went down to the car to get all the bags while I was transferred into the room I would give birth in.
I started contracting a bit more regularly and although they hurt, it was more of an uncomfortable hurt than it was an excruciating hurt. We were all settled into our room by about 4:30 in the morning. At this point we started to let family know. Adam and I really didn’t want guests in the waiting room while I was in labor. Well, the snow storm took care of that for me as no one could get there. I labored some more and was 5cm dilated when my doctor, Dr. Menges came on shift at 8 a.m. When he checked me he promised my baby would be born before 5pm that night. I burst into tears again at relief that MY doctor would be delivering Nathan and not a doctor I’d never met.
Labored some more…. 11 a.m. comes around, a midwife comes around and I get checked again. 7cm this time. At this point out of boredom I’d put on makeup and attempted to fix up my hair. I hadn’t really been moaning or screaming with contractions although there were some grunts here and there. The midwife called me a rock star for making it so far with such little pain and with hair and makeup done.She had me jump in the shower and spend a half hour there thinking that within the next hour with the help of the shower relaxing me I could get to 10cm quickly. So, I showered and it felt GREAT!!
I think it was around 2 when Dr. Menges came back in and re-checked me. I was waiting to hear good news- but he told me I was still at 7cm. I wanted to cry. He explained that my water had only partially broken because the baby’s head ended up sealing things off and that he would like to break the remaining water in hopes that it would make my contractions stronger since they were so mild. So, water was broken completely. Let me tell you- grossest feeling ever but I was really glad to hear that the water was clear and that Nathan hadn’t gone to the bathroom inside me.
That’s when all hell broke lose. Contractions came on STRONG! This was just about the time that Adam started freaking out. He looked like a deer caught in head lights, but he never complained. He rubbed my feet, got me cold rags, held the cup while I puked…. And then his Dad called him and asked if it was okay if they came up because the snow had slowed down. Adam looked up at me with those big brown eyes and asked if it was okay with me and I could see how much he wanted someone there so I said sure. I was in full blown labor when Larry and Michelle popped their heads in, gave me a hug and wished me good luck. They then gracefully went to the waiting room and only got updates as Adam texted them.
I asked for pain medication. They were going to give me an IV drip of morphine. I started to get scared that a) morphine wouldn’t help enough and b) that by the time I wanted the epidural it would be too late. I was also nervous that morphine would make Nathan really tired and groggy and I wanted an awake baby! So epidural was ordered. Sitting still long enough for it to get inserted was one of the hardest things to do- I was in PAIN like nothing I’d ever felt before. And I was tired. There isn’t a word in the English language that fully describes how exhausted I was. t
Slowly, oh so slowly, the contractions got better. And then within 20 minutes they felt worse again. The doctor who inserted the epidural waited to see if it just needed more time to kick in- and Dr. Menges checked me and I was at 10 cm. Finally. However, Nathan was still very high up and Dr. Menges wanted to give me pitocin to strengthen my contractions now that I couldn’t feel them so that my body would labor Nathan down on it’s own without me having to push yet. I labored this way until about 4:00 p.m. when suddenly I just had to deliver this baby because I wanted him to be born with MY doctor not some stranger. I began pushing and after 25 minutes or so Nathan’s heart rate started dropping as I would push.
Dr. Menges became concerned and words like vacuum extraction, NICU on standby, and emergency C-Section began to be tossed around. I was told if the vacuum popped off of Nathan’s head three times it would mean an automatic C-section. Dr. Menges started wondering if Nathan was a big baby and went over ultrasound statistics debating his size. As if terms like C-section and vacuum extraction weren’t bad enough- I was mostly concerned with NICU on standby. That was about 4:30. Oxygen was strapped to my face and I was told to push with all my might- and boy did I. Because they wanted Nathan out as quickly as possible I was given an episiotomy and what appeared to be a few minutes more of attempting to get him out without any interventions. Nathan entered the world at 4:43 p.m.
I didn’t even realize he was out I was so focused on pushing. But once he was out and Adam was crying and I saw Nathan- nothing else mattered.
