THE story, Part Two

Once I got my epidural and settled in, things seemed to go rather quickly. Leading up to my due date, I was anti-epidural for many reasons. Not so far anti-epidural where I absolutely ruled against having one (obviously), but enough so where I wanted to try to go as long as I could without one. The only exception was if I received pitocin, and then I knew I would more than likely readily accept the epi.

My reasons for not wanting an epi? You are restricted to the bed, you lose feeling down below (both good and bad, I'll admit), and in general, slows down labor.

It wasn't terrible having to stay in bed, but I did have to shift from side to side and I would have preferred staying in the rocking chair. I did lose all feeling down below (duh - that IS its purpose!), and this was a wonderful relief in the beginning but did prove problematic come pushing time.

At 2:00 the doc announced that I was 10 cm and ready to push. I immediately started making calls to the family because no one other than R was at the hospital at that point. 2:00 turned into 2:30 and then 3:00 before I actually STARTED the pushing phase. Apparently the hospital is commonly short staffed on the weekends, and so I had to wait a full hour before there was enough staff in the room to start pushing.

Since I couldn't feel anything it wasn't a big deal, but I can't imagine not having pain meds, wanting/needing to push, and not being able to for an hour! Not cool.

3 o'clock is when the marathon (more like half marathon) began. Pushing is hard work when you can't feel anything and it's your first time to go through the gauntlet! I could not tell what I was doing. AT. ALL. Thankfully, the epi started wearing off and I could actually feel the pain of the contractions, and more importantly, could tell when I needed to push and how I should push.

I pushed for two hours and one minute before Baby G finally made his way out. I know two hours isn't uncommon for first time moms, but it seems like forever! My labor nurse (that I really did love) kept encouraging me and telling me that I was almost there. My inner voice was screaming, "I'm obviously NOT almost done because you've been telling me that for over an hour!"

We tried all sorts of angles, positions, and techniques to get him out (which I will not go into detail on), and I am very thankful for her patience and encouragement. R was also great and cheered me on the whole time. According to my mom and my best friend who were both in the room as well, R at times got more into the pushing than I did. :) Hehe... I promised him that those videos would never surface on the web.

So when you go through your childbirth class, the instructor usually tells you to focus on something during the pushing. What helped to keep me motivated? Sushi! Haha! Sad, I know! Sushi was THE hardest thing to give up during my pregnancy and I had already told R that my first meal post labor would be some raw fish. Yum! So yes, I agree that you should focus on something that will REALLY get you through the pushing phase. It works! And my sushi dinner was soooo delicious afterwards! It probably didn't hurt that I was starving and would have eaten anything.

Once G finally made his way out, all I felt was extreme relief that it was finally over and happiness that he was here. I was so so tired by that point - there were no tears of joy, just deep sighs of sweet relief. :)

Poor boy had a bit of a cone head but was otherwise perfect... all 8 lbs, 4 oz of him! Okay, so I know I'm a little biased.

All in all, my L&D was a positive experience and I would definitely do it all over again in a heartbeat. With that being said, I'm going to give my body and my sanity a few years before I'm popping out another, but it is so very worth it.



My cup runneth over.