Today I watched a video celebrating mothers (should have brought my tissues). The video was of so many types of families either becoming parents for the first time, or adding to the family. But what was so great is that they shared it with the world. So beautiful, so emotional. It let me remember what happened the day (or morning) Audrey came into my life. A couple days after she was born, I decided to write down everything I could remember about from that morning. I wanted to make sure I could go back to this year after year and remember. And I have. Each time Audrey has had a birthday (so far only two), I have opened up this story read it out loud. To myself, to my husband, to anyone who was still in the house and wanted to hear. And some day, when Audrey is older and is curious about how she came into the world, I will read this to her. And now I would like to share it with you. I myself enjoy listening and reading other birth stories because they are always so different. If you have a story and would like to share it with me, I would love to read it. So without further ado, here is what I wrote only 2 days after Audrey was born. It isn't long because she didn't take long coming into this world. Nothing has been edited or removed because this is what really happened.
On Thursday, November 13th was the first showing of the Musical “Willy Wonka Jr.” at Jordan’s school. Megan and Stephanie came with me to the show. I believe I had maybe one contraction during the show. I waited for Jordan to be finished with clearing everyone out and we both went home and went to bed. I let him know about my mild contraction, and that I thought Audrey wasn’t going to make an appearance any time soon. We both went to bed with plans to go to work and use the weekend to finish getting everything ready for Audrey’s arrival. As of Thursday, it was 11 days until my actual due date.
At about 12:30am on Friday morning I got up with pains I thought was gas and that I had to go to the bathroom. They were pretty intense, but I swore I was just having bowel problems. So I tried to stay pretty quiet so that Jordan could get some sleep. But they wouldn’t subside and I couldn’t keep quiet any longer. Jordan was up in an instant and right by my side worried about what was going on. I let him know that I thought I was just having stomach pains because I need to poop. But then my whole body started shaking uncontrollably. I didn’t know what was going on, but Jordan remembered that uncontrollable shaking was a symptom of labor. He told me he wanted to call the doctor to see if I was having contractions and not just trying to use the bathroom. We got a hold of Dr. Arroyo who was the doctor on call. Jordan had him on speaker phone and heard my yelling. He told Jordan to bring me in so that they could assess what was going on. Jordan went into full “take care of my wife” mode. He was worried that there might have been something else wrong since we have gone through several miscarriages in the home and he wanted to make sure I was safe. It took some effort for him to get me out of the house as I was not only going through these pains, but I seemed to want to make sure everything was ready to go to the hospital. We were told that labor lasts hours and I wanted to make sure we had everything to go before getting to the hospital. But Jordan was adamant. He told me he already had everything in the car and that we needed to go. He took off my pajama bottoms and put my jeans and socks on.
Then we were off. Jordan was flying down the road to get me to the hospital as soon as possible. And the whole time I was trying to get him to slow down. I was so worried that he was going to get a ticket. Within that time, I believe my water broke. Not a lot though. It took us no time to get to Overland Park Regional and their Emergency Entrance. He actually hadn’t been able to put my sneakers on until we got there. He put my shoes on and walked me into the Emergency Entrance and to the man on duty. Jordan let him know that we thought I was going into labor. The man told him to go park the car and I was to sit as they got the nurses down from the maternity ward with a wheel chair. Apparently, I was showing signs that I wasn’t willing to wait for them. So the man put me in a wheel chair and said that we were going to meet the nurses half way and make a trade. By then, Jordan had parked the car and was by my side before we got to the nurses.
Some of this Jordan is going to have to fill in in case I wasn’t aware of some things. I remember getting wheeled into the triage room so that they could check me out. Before I got there, my water really broke. I wasn’t sure until I stood up and the nurses confirmed it. This entire time I am having pain one right after the other and Jordan is counting with me to help me breathe. The nurses asked how far along I was in my pregnancy and when the last time I had a doctors appointment. I let them know that I was 38 weeks and that at my last appointment was that previous Tuesday and I was dilated 3cm and 60% effaced. The nurse checked me out and let me know that I was now 9cm dilated and I was ready to have this baby. Jordan and I were both really shocked. My contractions were coming every 2 minutes and I was so surprised at how fast this was going. The nurses called Dr. Arroyo and let him know he needed to get there ASAP because I was ready to start pushing. They rolled me into the labor and delivery room and got me set up to start pushing. Again this bit is a little hazy as I was in pain. Forgot to mention that I had let Jordan know I wanted to get IV drugs. The contractions were just too much for me to handle. But the nurses let me know that it was too late. The drugs wouldn’t reach me in time to do anything before Audrey came. I was also supposed to get antibiotics for my Group B Strep. That also wouldn’t get there in time, but they said they can check after she is born to see how she reacted to it.
Dr. Arroyo came in and let me know that whenever I was ready to start pushing I could. They had already put an IV in and the heartbeat monitor for Audrey. Every time I had a contraction I was worried about how Audrey was doing. Still Jordan was right by my side helping me breathe. Which was plenty hard since every time a contraction happened I would breath faster because of how much it hurt. Dr. Arroyo did give me a local anesthetic to help with the pushing pain. Well I was ready to start pushing. Jordan helped me count out the pushing and held one of my legs to make pushing easier. And so I pushed. Every time a contraction would happen, I would give my all. It took a bit for me to get the hang of it, and for awhile I thought it was never going to end. At one point Audrey got stuck and Dr. Arroyo advised that they should do an episiotomy instead of me tearing naturally. I approved and kept going. I don’t know how long it actually took, but eventually I gave my last push and watched as Audrey finally came all the way out. I started crying for joy as Jordan told me how proud he was. He even cut the cord! It was so amazing! Audrey was born on November 14th at 2:22am. 7lbs 9oz and 18.5 inches long. She was put directly on my chest after she was born. Jordan and I were so happy. We finally did it! She was perfect. And all ours.
Audrey is my "speedy turtle". She seemed to take forever to get started, but once she wanted to join us, she didn't without any hesitation. She is a joy and a wonder and growing up way too fast. I feel so happy and thankful that I get to be her mom. If you would like to share what happened the day you became a mom, I would love to hear it.
Happy Mother's Day to ALL of the moms out there. Take a moment to remember the first time.
HB
No comments:
Post a Comment