Beyond the Small Perimeter of Me: Ian's Birth Story (part 2)

Part 2 of Ian's birth story. Part 1 is here.

We turned out the lights and tried to rest, but I was too excited and in pain to sleep. By 2:30, the pain was building so I decided a hot shower was in order. OH my goodness. You have never felt a more relaxing shower in your life!!!! I want to take 5 showers during my next labor. Seriously, it hit the spot.

After I dried off, James and I walked the halls. For 30 minutes we went round and round the nurses station, holding hands, talking, laughing. When we returned to the room, James sat on the couch while I got on the birthing ball. For those of you who don't know, a birthing ball is basically an exercise ball like you'd see at the gym. A lady in labor can sit on it and stretch her back and move around slightly, helping the baby move into position. I held on to the window sill to balance me, and stayed on the ball for the next 3 hours. James fell asleep sitting straight up on the couch.

Around 6:30am, the nurses were all aflutter, telling me that my doc would be arriving shortly to talk with me and check my progress. Because of my autoimmune disease Dermatomyositis, I saw a high risk doctor during my entire pregnancy. I absolutely loved my doctor and hope that every woman can trust the person/people helping her deliver, but because I was high risk, I did have to make some choices that I may not have made otherwise. I never desired to make an exact birth plan or demand that things go a certain way, but I did hope for the least amount of intervention possible for me.

That all being said, when my doctor came in at 8:30am, he thought it best to break my water to keep things moving. I felt totally fine with that. But boy oh boy, once my water broke, the pain ramped up immensely. I made it 5cm and 14 hours without an epidural, but at that time, I felt the drugs might make me less tense and keep things progressing.
By noon I was only to 6cm, so Pitocin was started to again, keep things moving. And just 2 hours later I was 8cm. Then an hour later, to 9cm.
Around 3pm was when they asked me to stay on a certain side and aim for rest. Baby's heartbeat was a little irregular and they wanted to make sure that all was well.

At 4:30pm, I was told it was "time to push". My epidural was still so strong that I really had trouble feeling when to push. I couldn't see the monitor measuring the contractions anymore, so I kept asking when one was coming so I could try my hardest. James had my left leg, my mom had my right, and James' mom kept the ice chips flowing. We were a great team.

At 4:50pm, after finishing a lemonade I had snuck in, I was pushing pushing pushing. Then I was overcome with nausea, turned to my mom, and threw up towards her. Yeah- that's probably why they don't let you eat or drink anything I guess.

After almost 2 hours of pushing, my doctor told me that he could see my son, and that with each push he was moving down well, but was hitting his head against my "narrow pelvic arch". He said that with a little help from the vacuum, I may still be able to deliver him "naturally". With the thought of a possible c-section in mind, I remember looking at him closely and asking "Would you use a vacuum on YOUR child?" Once he attached the tiny device, 2 pushes later and Ian was out.

At 6:07pm on May 3, 2012, Ian Alexander was born.