Vaughn Ryan's Express, Part 2: The Delivery

This might be TMI for some of you, so feel free to skip if you're not interested in birth stories!

I took Monday, May 16th off work to recuperate after the wedding weekend, but I planned to work at least one more day that week. Officially my due date was Friday May 27th and my parental leave plan at work said I would work up until Friday the 20th. But as I got closer to 40 weeks, even strangers were telling me this baby was coming earlier than that. So I played it by ear that last week of work. On Tuesday the 17th I went in as usual in the morning, but after a few hours I got some more indications that labor was imminent. I decided to leave after lunch, and then I ran to the grocery store. While walking around Publix I had several contractions - not bad enough to hurt, but they definitely caught my attention. We had a normal family evening, put Greyson to bed, and settled in to watch some television.

Around 8 or 9 pm the contractions started hurting a bit, so I grabbed the laptop and found an online contraction timer. They were between 7 and 10 minutes apart but not very consistent. We got ready for bed and I brought the laptop with me, not having any idea how long it would take for the contractions to speed up to every five minutes or so. I contacted my brother and sister-in-law, who had just returned from a day-trip to Ocala. It was almost Mike's 40th birthday and he was psyched about sharing his birthday with new baby. They agreed to come stay with Greyson if we needed to go to the hospital in the middle of the night.

Mike M. snored next to me in bed all night as I dutifully hit the space bar on the laptop for every contraction and tried to sleep in between. At about 3:45 my brother emailed to ask if they should wait up... I had no idea but figured as soon as they went to bed I would end up calling them. Sure enough, at 4:20am I decided it was time. It would take them at least 30 minutes to get here. They arrived after 5 and I was dressed and packed and ready to go. I called my mother who was going to come stay with G while we were in the hospital and she said she would arrive sometime after 7.

Mike loaded his truck and drove me to the hospital as I struggled through more contractions. We pulled up to the ER so I could get a wheelchair ride up to the 4th floor. They had me fill out a form and had me upstairs pretty quickly. The triage nurse got me in a little room for some paperwork formalities and I had to wait through several contractions before I could sign some papers. My signature deteriorated greatly just in those few minutes.

Next we were off to the triage room to check me and see if I was really in labor (ha!). I used the bathroom and found that leaning over with my hands on my knees and moaning a bit helped with the pain. The nurse asked if I was going to have an epidural and I waffled a bit, wondering if the jacuzzi tub would help me through the pain. She checked my progress and found that I was 7cm, which was a relief - as the nurse said, at least I wasn't laboring for nothing. Next we were off to a labor and delivery room. We lost Mike along the way, because he was trailing with all of our bags and my clothes, etc. We had to wait in the hallway and go back to get him, all in between killer contractions with lots of swaying and moaning.

Once in the delivery room, I had to be monitored for 20 minutes before I could get in the jacuzzi tub or decide what to do next. They got the contraction monitor and baby's heartbeat monitor strapped around my belly and I alternated between sitting on the edge of the bed and standing to sway. The monitor kept losing baby's heartbeat and capturing mine instead, so the triage nurse stayed with me about half of the time holding the thing in place and trying to stay out of my way. My midwife Lesann arrived and watched me and the baby for a while. At one point I got light-headed and said I was going to pass out, but the feeling only lasted a moment. Lesann had the nurse get an ammonia capsule just in case, and I think the threat of smelling it was enough to ward off another spell.

Finally they had monitored me enough and the baby looked good on the monitor so Lesann had me get on the bed to check me. She pronounced me complete but my water was still intact. She asked me if I wanted her to break my water and have a baby. I consented and all hell broke loose. I don't remember much but my body literally taking over. I closed my eyes, grabbed Mike's hand which was above and behind my head and proceeded to push and grunt and scream while the room filled with people and they hurried to break the bed apart and Lesann rushed to "dress." I remember she noted meconium when she broke my water, and said they were going to call in a respiratory therapist. I also remember telling Mike that I didn't know exactly how close we were but he might want to get the camera out. I vaguely remember comments about how I was going to have the baby with or without them (as I screamed and pushed on my own), and comments on how I was still thinking like a mom as I directed Mike to get the camera out.

Finally we were all ready to have the baby and they coached me into position. Lesann had me push once on a contraction and then once between contractions to prevent tearing. I think it was about three pushes before we had ourselves a baby at 6:44am. It turns out he didn't need the respiratory therapist and the room emptied out pretty quickly. Lesann stitched me up (I tore where I had an episiotomy with G's birth) and they did everything the way we wanted it (waited to cut the cord, didn't take the baby across the room until I was ready, etc.) and he nursed for almost an hour before we were moved to our recovery room. Lesann said I made it look easy, as if I had done this a few times before. We took some pictures and she was on her way. I enjoyed some grape juice, went to the potty and then we moved to our new room to rest and recover.