My Birth Story...Part 2

So, yeah...4 cm at around 7:30 pm...damn. I was totally hoping to be at 6, get the epidural, and then have some time when I could try to get some sleep between the contractions, push twice and have my baby. Yeah. Nope. Not how it happened in the slightest.

So, after being told I was at 4 cm, they had me go back into the birthing room and labor some more. Ok, I can do that. Poor mom and Markus have to sit here and listen to me moan and groan. Mom was smart and brought a book with her. Markus, however, wasn't allowed to read :).

I did get an IV drug of some sorts...it was probably equivalent to baby aspirin though since it didn't really do much. The nurse said that I would feel a bit drunk...nope, not even a bit tipsy.

At some point, the midwives and doctors changed shifts...I have no idea when since I was bit out of it, not because of the baby aspirin, but because of the pain. The midwife that came next had zero bedside manner...and I mean zero.

At around 11pm, she came to tell us we should go to my room and labor some more since they need the labor room. Well, ok. I guess that is fine. We were able to get the one family room in the maternity ward. This was absolutely awesome! There were two beds in there, one for me (duh!) and one for Markus. There was also a big couch where mom could sleep that first night (and any subsequent night if she wanted, and she didn't, which I don't blame her!). So, as we're walking down the hall to the nurse's station to get something (I don't know what) I got another contraction, and I needed to stop...I mean, I really needed to stop and bend over and just wait the minute the contraction would last. Mean midwife lady told me not to stop, but to keep on moving. "Oh hell no lady! I'm stopping!". I didn't say that, but I really wanted to.

Well, we get the key to the family room and I get in bed. Germans are real big on supositories, so popped a couple more in and tried to relax...yeah, right. For every 3 minutes of "relaxing" there were 2 minutes of intense pain. And the pain only got worse, naturally. Around 1, I decided that I couldn't take any more of this (and I think Mom and Markus decided they couldn't take any more of my really loud moaning and groaning) so Markus headed down to tell them I would like my epidual now.

Of course they had to examine me to be sure it was the right time for one. Lo and behold, I'm 8 cm. The midwife said, "Well, lookie there, you're 8 cm. Can't do an epidural anymore.", and walked away. "Oh hell no!! I went to have the chat with the epidural dudes so I know what to expect and damnit, I want my epidural!" Nope, nope. I was too far along. No happy drugs for me...not of any kind. They wouldn't help/not be administered in time. Markus being the wonderful, loving, caring husband that he is, asked if we could have a second opinon from the actual doctor. The midwife said, "She'll just say the same thing, so no." Seriously, I never wanted to throttle someone as much as I did in that very moment. Hate doesn't even begin to describe the emotion that I felt towards this spawn of satan.

Me, laboring though...with no drugs...

Ok, well, shit. No epidural. I can do this. I can do this. I can do this. This is what I had to keep repeating to myself, over and over and over. Then Amelia's head was passing by the tailbone. Ok, if I thought that those whimpy contractions earlier (like 5 minutes ago) were awful, they were nothing compared to this. I seriously thought that my back was breaking and I was going to have to have my entire lower body amputated at that point in time. Oh, and I don't think that I mentioned the lovely sounds that I was making during this time. Yes, those blood curdling screams you were hearing around 1:30am on September 18, yeah, that was me. In Weiden. Screaming at the top of my lungs. Wishing someone would amputate the lower half of my body to get the pain to stop.

Spawn of Satan has her back to us...the wonderful doctor is the other lady...

Did I mention how wonderful Markus was during this? He was by my side (where else?) and I was squeezing his palm in a way that I wouldn't crush his hand...so I thought. He was encouraging me the entire time. However, the only time I yelled at him was after the millionth time he said "It's ok". I told him if he said that one more time I would hit him. He switched to something like, "You're doing great" or "Push"...I don't really remember.

Then the pushing starts. There's no nurse here holding your legs up for you. You get to do that one yourself...the doctor and the midwife will push up against your feet which does help, but the spawn of satan wasn't pushing against my feet as well as the doc was, and I remember that being highly annoying.

Anyhoo, I was pushing and pushing and pushing...and no baby. This wasn't the 2 push and she's out like I was hoping. Nope...at one point, they told me not to push because little girl was a bit stressed, so I had to not push for 2 or so contractions. By then, the baby had to come, so the doctor, which by the way was sent straight from heaven, jumped on my stomach to help press little girl down and out. She did this for about 5 contractions, still nothing. So, she numbs my lady bits and gives me a giant epistomy. I'm talking Amazon here. During the next contraction she hops back on my stomach to help out...still not coming along like she'd like it. So, what does she do? She calls the head doctor to come and use the suction cup thing to get little girl out.

Once again, I'm thinking, "Oh hell no!", so I push with all my might with the next contraction and little girl's head pops out. Talk about a weird feeling. Then my water broke, which was another weird feeling. Then Amelia was there, laying on the table. I didn't hear her cry (which is what you hear in every movie) and I started to get scared that something was wrong...then I heard her cough and I forgot all about the pain of the past few hours. My little girl was there and healthy and life was good.

One happy family :)

So, 4 weeks have passed since the first contraction started. I've always heard that you forget the pain and all the trials of pregnancy as time goes on, and this is astonishingly true. Oh, I remember the pain, don't get me wrong. That is just about the worst pain on the planet. But, as I look back on it, it was only about 18 hours of my life....and I gave birth to a new life. How cool is that? This isn't to say that Markus and I are going to try for another one right away...but someday...

Amelia's first picture...she's so cute!