Birth Story

Hmmmm...where to start. Well, remember that list the doctor gave me? "Ways to Initiate Labor"?

I tried the castor oil. What can I say? I was desperate. And it worked. Or at least my trying it coincided with the right timing to have the baby. The doctor was going to induce me on Monday and I knew didn't want that. So, the girls and I went out at lunch on Friday and bought the ingredients. Root beer and castor oil. I think the recipe was supposed to include ice cream for a root beer float type mixture but I skipped that.



I remember it like it was yesterday. Makes me want to gag just thinking about it! (So, I'll type fast.)

Drank the mixture. Tried to keep it down by lying on the couch for an hour...I thought: "If this feels this bad going in..." And I gave in to my nausea and threw the rest of the mixture up. Felt better immediately and decided to go to bed. The other effects kicked in and I visited the throne a few more times before getting a pretty good night's sleep. I woke up around 7:00 a.m. for another bathroom break and...my water broke!!! Yayyyy! I actually don't remember feeling (or at least recognizing) labor pains/cramps until that point.

I told Mike that my water broke. He asked me if I was sure - "Sure, I was sure!" And I've never seen us get ready so fast. He took a shower and got everything ready to leave the cats for a couple of days in less than an hour. This process normally takes us both several hours but I guess we were motivated. I was trying to time my pains and it felt like about 5 minutes apart but what did I know really...I just knew it was getting more intense so I wanted to go in. I took a shower and made sure I had everything and away we went. And was able to call everybody on the way in to the hospital...

We got to Carle at about 8:45 or so. I was admitted and they confirmed that - yes, indeedy - my water had broken. They checked me and said I was about 2cm. Hmph. We settled in...looked around the place because she had suggested I walk a bit. I quickly tired of that and wanted to rest. We waited...

My timing seemed perfect - we were there early on a Saturday morning. I hadn't missed a day of work! I'd even worked a week longer that I'd ever thought possible. But, my doctor wasn't in on the weekends. He has a place in Chicago that he stays at every weekend...so, I had the on call physician. No big deal really.

We met the doctor - she thought we should try some pitocin. My contractions seemed infrequent and not regular enough to make any progress. I'd heard that the administration of pitocin normally results in some fairly strong contractions so I asked for an epidural...They thought it was probably too soon. Again, I wasn't far enough along. Well, I wanted something. So, they gave me a little nubane and I conked out for a while. Could not keep my eyes open.

When I did wake up it was to realize that I was feeling some pretty strong contractions. They decided I could get the epidural and the anesthesiologist would be there in about 15 minutes. That time came and went...

I told Mike I needed something - could he go get them? Then - - I just knew that I had to push. RIGHT NOW. I asked Mike to go get the nurse. He had the ingenious idea to press the nurse call button. The nurse got came very quickly and said that I was, indeed, about to have the baby. Something that did and didn't surprise me.

I'd seen that lady on the birthing video. I'd seen them telling her she had to wait to push. I even remember the birthing instructor teaching us ways to keep from pushing. Well, there wasn't anything that seemed to keep me from that uncontrollable urge to push. I had a fleeting freak out thought about giving birth without the epidural. You hear so much about epidurals - and I wasn't sure I wanted one - but I knew that I probably needed one. Right?

I remember the nurse telling me not to push and my acting like that whiny lady on the video: "I have to push!!" Thankfully, the doctor came quickly and with a couple of pushes, Matilda was born. They placed her on my tummy and I looked at her. Decided right away that I thought she looked like her dad and I was very pleased. Mike cut the cord and said that he almost dropped the scissors on her head.

Not at all like I'd expected. Much easier in some ways. But, I'm a bit disappointed they only checked me once at 8 something in the morning and then upped my pitocin until - "Poof!" she popped out without checking my status again. But, I didn't have to think about hear about the seemingly slowly increasing centimeters...didn't have to anticipate labor really - it just sprung up on me. I was in labor for about 10 hours so I know I'm lucky. And now I can say I didn't have an epidural (maybe even pretend like that was my choice). :0)

And, what did all of that matter? I had a healthy little girl.