Giving Birth, Chapter 5

It took a few minutes for the anesthesiologist to arrive.  To me, it felt like forever.  But, arrive he did, and then they asked me to sit up.

As soon as I did, the pain eased somewhat.  Again, if I'd been better able to think, I may have just asked if I could labor in that position for awhile, without the epidural.  At the same time, having already asked for an epidural, maybe I would have just gone through with it.  I hate being wishy-washy.

The anesthesiologist was, I believe, rather amiable.  He asked after Ryan's hand, and laughed when he heard that the bandage was precautionary.  He stuck a needle into my back to numb me before he put in the actual epidural.  It was a little bit of a shock, but didn't hurt too bad.  He was good enough to do things in between contractions.  I tried hard to sit still so that nothing would slip and accidentally paralyze me. 

I didn't know what was going on, really, when he actually did the epidural.  I do know, however, that he sprayed my entire back with an adhesive.  I think he placed a bandage or something over that to keep everything in place as I was delivering the baby.  That was a weird feeling. 

After that, things seemed to slowly calm down.  As the drugs took effect, the contractions eased in intensity until I was able to breathe normally, think calmly, and hold Hubby's hand without hurting him.  I carefully lay back down and a nurse checked me.  I didn't care what she found.  I could tell, though, that the contractions were such that I could push the baby out.  If I hadn't had the epidural, nothing would have been able to stop me from pushing at that point.  However, my doctor wasn't there, so I decided to wait.  That was also a weird feeling, knowing that the baby was right there and ready, but that I could choose to hold off for a little while.

When the doctor finally did show up, I heard the nurse tell her that I was "complete."  I'm assuming that meant I was finally at a 10.  I'm pretty sure the epidural helped me to get there, because I was able to relax.  That was nice.  The doctor asked how I was feeling, and I told her I felt good, and I was pretty sure it was time.  She and a nurse helped me get my legs up in the stirrups, and she told me she could see his head.  Crazy.

The birth itself was a little anticlimactic, for me.  Granted, the pushing itself was rougher than I was expecting, just because I hadn't felt the conctractions up until that point.  Still, it went smoothly, and I didn't even tear.  Can't tell you how nice that was. 

For Wooble, it was a little more traumatic.  He tried to come out face-up.  When his head was halfway out, he decided that wasn't a good idea and he turned over to come out the right way.  That bruised up his face quite a bit and contributed to some jaundice later on, but otherwise the whole thing went pretty well for him.  He didn't think so, though.  He came out crying louder than Schprid cried in her first 3 months of life.  I got to hold him, briefly.  I remember thinking that his nose was squished very flat against his face, and that he was darker than any of our children had a right to be.  He looked like a little Indian baby!  All in all, while I loved him dearly, he was a little funny-lookin'. 

After that, it was all about recovering.  Wooble got taken to the nursery to monitor some wheezing when he breathed.  After a couple hours, I got wheeled into a recovery room.  It was four hours before I got to see him again.