Isaac Raymond

Friday, March 29, 2013

Checklist: 

• Braxton-Hicks Contractions for about a week and a half - DONE!
• A packed bag and baby car seat installed in my SUV - DONE!
• My water just broke! - DONE!

It looks like it's baby time!

Lately I have been wondering when I would be able to tell when I was actually in labor.  I have been experiencing Braxton-Hicks Contractions on-and-off for about a week and a half now and while they never got closer together, I began to wonder how long it would take my real contractions to make themselves known.  Also, I read that only 10% of women actually have their water break before getting to the hospital.  I wondered if I would be part of this 10% and, if so, I prayed that my water wouldn’t break at work (yikes! that would be embarrassing) or on the carpet at home.  I wondered how I would know when it my labor was actually HERE.  A friend told me on Thursday, “Don’t worry. You’ll know.”

She was right.

Our “Labor Day” began as I was standing in the kitchen and felt a sudden gush of water.   I called for Eric and when he ran in the kitchen and saw the puddle on the floor we just looked at each other for a minute.  He said, “Well, I guess this is it!” Not the most eloquent of phrases, but it summed up the situation nicely.  

 I jumped in the shower just to clean up a bit and then got dressed.  4:30 a.m. approached, time for Eric to go to work, but my contractions never got stronger or closer together. Eric headed off to work…just in case things took awhile to progress.  Neither one of us wanted him to lose a day he could use for vacation when Isaac is actually HERE, so it made the most sense for him to go in to work and then come to the hospital later when it was time.  I wasn’t feeling any real contractions, but I know that there is only a twenty-four hour window after your water breaks because of the risk of infection…so I called my doctor and since she was already at the hospital she told me to come on in so she could evaluate how I was doing.  I drove myself to the hospital, stopping to pick Mom up on the way.  (I have since had multiple people look at me incredulously and exclaim, “You were in labor and you drove yourself to the hospital?!”  It actually wasn’t risky at all.  I felt pretty normal, I felt the same pains I had been feeling for the past week and a half, so don’t worry…I didn’t endanger anyone on the road! Well, anymore than I usually do.)

Mom and I arrived at the hospital at 5:15 a.m. and found that I was already dilated to 4 cm.  I also found out that I still had some amniotic fluid left; I had no idea that some of the water could come out and then seal over. 

My doctor was getting ready to do a C-Section on another patient so she told me to walk around the labor floor and she would check my again when she was done, so Mom and I walked and then walked some more.  We walked for about an hour and then returned to my room to be checked again.  At this point, I was dilated to 5 cm; I was in officially in labor.  This hospital (maybe all hospitals) check you in and keep you once you reach 5 cm. I called work and told my boss that I was in early labor and would not be coming to work.  I almost made my goal; Eric and I were hoping to make through today…but as it turns out, it was a good thing that Isaac didn’t wait. 

More on that later.

 Anyway, Mom and I walked some more and made it back to my room about 10:30 a.m. to be checked again.  Honestly my pains were not really too bad at this point; they were a bit stronger, but I was still able to walk and talk.  My labor wasn’t progressing as quickly as it could have so it was decided that the doctor needed to break the rest of my water.  She did so at 11:00 a.m. and within 10 minutes I was hit with the most intensely horrific pain I have EVER experienced.  There is absolutely no way to compare it with anything I have ever gone through.  I felt like I just wanted to climb out of my own skin and I couldn’t.  I couldn’t think or respond to what I was being told to do.  I was hyperventilating; I could hear Mom and the nurses telling me to calm down and slow my breathing and I couldn’t.  I tried counting and other breathing techniques, but I couldn’t handle it.  Mom pushed the call button and requested my epidural because I couldn’t speak.  Thank God that the anesthesiologist was on the labor floor already and he was able to come right in.  In all honesty he was extremely efficient and he had the epidural in my back in record time; but, it felt like a lifetime.  Finally I was numb from the waist down and the only thing I felt was pressure and not gripping pain.  Praise God for modern medicine because I could not have done it without the epidural.  In the middle of all this, Mom called Eric and told him he should probably come NOW. 

Officially, I have the lowest pain tolerance of anyone…ever.  I know that I only experienced the intense contractions for a very short time and I still fell apart.  Oh well.

I don’t know what time Eric got there, but I do remember him walking in and taking my hand.  I also remember nurses coming and in and checking me intermittently.  I went from 5 cm to 7 cm pretty quickly.  The rest of the early afternoon passed in a bit of a blur and I don’t really remember too much until a nurse came in around 1:45 p.m. and said I was 9 ½ cm.  They called for the doctor and I was ready for the pushing stage.  Due to the epidural I couldn’t really tell if I was actually pushing or not, I couldn’t feel a thing.  Since I couldn’t feel anything, Mom, the nurses, and my doctor had to tell me when the contractions were starting.  Eric was right there too, he held my hand and encouraged me when I needed it. 

After about twenty minutes, our baby’s heartbeat began to dip with every push; he needed some help getting out, he was stuck.  Then I heard the words, “vacuum” and “C-section” and honestly I just started praying that God would not let this labor end up in surgery.  Our doctor got out the vacuum in an attempt to get our baby out into the world. 

Finally, at 2:22 p.m. on Good Friday, Isaac Raymond was born!

  

The doctor placed him on my stomach for a moment and then they took him over to the warmer to check out his poor head-which was cone-shaped due to the vacuum. I could see him in the warmer; he was little; but he looked so incredibly long, I couldn’t believe it.  He weighed 6 lbs 4 oz and measured 20 ½ inches long.

I didn’t know it at the time, but Mom explained to me later just how close I was to having a C-section.  I had one more set of pushes left and that was it!  Wow!  If I had gone into labor two weeks from now on his due date and if Isaac had been any bigger, he would have been a C-section for sure.  But, as Corrie Ten Boom wrote in The Hiding Place, "there are no ifs in God's kingdom." This was all His plan. I'm just thankful God's hand was on Isaac and he was healthy. I'm so glad he was born today!

Eric went over to watch as a nurse checked over our son and he looked pretty proud just then!  After a few minutes, he came over and took my hand and kissed me.  It was such a sweet moment. 

The nurse gave Isaac his first bath and then wrapped him up and brought him over to us.  We admired our sweet boy and then naturally had to pass him around to our parents.  Now that I was cleaned up and all covered, all four of our parents were in the room proudly smiling at their new grandson!  Isaac stayed awake the entire time, nearly two hours. He didn't want to miss being admired by his grandparents! Our families stayed until dinner time and then it was just Eric, Isaac, and me!  

It was such a blessed labor and delivery; I could not have asked for an easier time. 

An amusing side effect from the epidural involved a very numb left leg.  I guess the needle went in a little to my left and, as a result, my left side stayed numb longer than my right.  At one point my leg fell off the bed and I actually kicked a nurse in the face.  I’m sure that kind of thing happens quite often, but I still felt bad about it.  I apologized to her, but I know she’s probably experienced a lot worse in the delivery room!