Here is Part II of Jacob's Birth Story. To view Part I, click HERE.
My sister, Katie, had arrived to visit me around 8pm and she was a good distraction between my contractions. Unfortunately for her, she was there to witness me vomiting around 9pm. I remember it like it was yesterday – Katie and Keith were talking to each other on the left side of my bed while I was trying to concentrate on breathing and not on the intense pain I was having. All of a sudden, I felt like I was going to throw up and I made a comment to Keith about it. He moved faster than I have ever seen him move to grab the puke bucket from the right side of my bed and shove it in front of me before anything came out of my mouth. It was awesome (not the puking, but Keith’s actions!). He was so kind and gentle and understanding. I felt really bad that he and Katie had to witness that, but I guess those are the kind of things that happen during labor!
Around 9:30pm, Liz came in and asked how I was doing. I remember holding on to the bed rails so hard while my contractions were coming. She would tell me that I needed to relax and not tense up during them, but all I could was squeeze my hands around those rails really hard & grit my teeth – I felt like it made the pain from the contractions just a little better. She asked me what my feeling was on having an epidural and I said, “Yes!” I remember part of me thinking that I was being a wuss and that I should keep going pain-med free, but the other part of me was not having it! Liz said that the anesthesiologist, Dr. Weaver, was in surgery at that moment (there were a lot of c-sections that weekend!), but that as soon as he got out, she would send him in.
Around 10pm, Dr. Weaver came in (I remember thinking he was never going to come!). He gave me the spiel about the procedure, but I have to admit I really didn’t hear most of it. I remember thinking, “OK already, whatever….just do what you need to do so that this pain will go away.” He told Keith to stand by the side of the bed so that I could lean my head against his chest while I was bent over and he was sticking the needle in my back. Let me say, I never really imagined how hard it would be to sit still with your feet hanging over the side of the bed while you are having very painful contractions! I also felt like Keith wasn’t standing very sturdy and I was going to fall off the bed. [Note: this is the one time that I yelled at Keith because I looked up and he was watching the TV that was on behind me. I didn’t think he was paying enough attention to what was going on with me and a big needle being put into my back! And, I felt like I was going to fall off the bed!!] Anyways, after the procedure was done, they laid me back down onto the bed and I remember thinking, “OK, anytime now. The pain is going to go away anytime now!”
Within a few minutes of administering the medicine, Dr. Weaver asked me how I was feeling and I told him I was feeling the same. No relief from the pain whatsoever. So, he turned the medicine up a bit. Still no relief. He turned it up some more and did some tests on me where he would stick me with the sharp end of a paperclip and ask me if I could feel it. Yes! I could feel everything! At this point, I remember seeing Liz & Dr. Weaver talking quietly near the door. I started to worry that something was wrong. Dr. Weaver came back to me a few minutes later and explained that sometimes the epidural doesn’t take and informed me that they would have to do it again. Are you kidding me??? I remember wondering why God was making me do this TWICE!!
Thankfully, after another very painful experience (the contractions, not the needle!) the second epidural worked! Although, as soon as I knew it was working (because the pain started to go away and I started to feel numbness in my lower extremities), I also felt like a huge elephant was sitting on my chest. It was like the numbness was taking over my diaphragm and I couldn’t breathe. I remember starting to panic, but Dr. Weaver moved fast to turn the medicine down and soon, I was able to breath a bit better. And, now I was finally feeling some relief from the contractions too! Thank God!
Keith was such a trooper through it all and he even got a “bird’s eye view” of something he probably didn’t want to see! After they administered the epidural, Liz asked him to help her by holding one of my legs while she put the catheter in. You see, since I was numb from the waist down, I had no movement in my legs and therefore couldn’t keep them spread open so she could do what she needed to do. Well, Keith went along with what she asked him to do, but I think his eyes were still on the TV in the room while the procedure was going on!
Unfortunately, my poor sister was stuck out in the waiting room the entire time they were administering both of the epidurals. She had no idea what was taking so long and she even came to the door at one point and asked if everything was OK. After the second epidural, she came back in and I was much more of an enjoyable person to be around! By this time, it was around 11:30pm and Dr. Montgomery came back in to do another internal exam. He said that I was at 4 cm (if you are counting, that’s only one cm in almost three hours!!). He said that he was glad that I was progressing, albeit slooooowly. He suggested we try to get some rest since it was late and I was almost pain-free [Note: I always thought once you got an epidural the pain would go away 100%. This is not completely true. I still had some discomfort, but it wasn’t nearly the kind of pain I was feeling before the epidural!]
So, Katie left to go home…not before taking this picture:
Don't we look a little sleepy?
They turned down the lights in the room and we tried to get some rest. Keith was able to sleep in a reclining chair but I was so anxious (not to mention that Liz would come in every 30 minutes to check my vitals and re-position me), that I wasn’t able to get any sleep. I think I was a bit nervous too, wondering how this was all going to progress.
To be continued…
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