I will give you a little bit of background first. At 10 weeks pregnant I had went to use the bathroom one morning and when I went to wipe there was nothing but blood. I got up and screamed for my husband and he rushed me to the hospital while I was in the passenger seat sobbing thinking the worst. When we got there the doctors and nurses did what they needed to do and asked tons of questions. They brought in an ultrasound machine but before they did the ultrasound the doctor checked my cervix and told me and my husband that he believed that I did indeed have a miscarriage. My heart sank, my eyes welled up with tears, and I softly said "no". The doctor then said that he would check to make sure with the ultrasound machine. It took him about 2 minutes (longest 2 minutes of my life) to find my bouncing baby. He said "well dear your baby is there, alive, and dancing." My heart felt relief. Then when I was about 26 weeks pregnant I had developed what the doctor called pregnancy muscoskeletal disease. In my case it was where I would get surges of horrid stabbing pains in my ribs when I would breathe. They were not constant but they did make me go to the hospital in pain twice. Well one day I was walking with my husband through the store and I got a surge. I figured it was just another regular surge of pain and that it would pass in due time so I just asked if we could go home so that I could relax. But the surges didn't stop, for hours I was crying in pain, until I couldn't take it anymore. We went to the hospital, and come to find out I was actually having contractions plus my surges of pure pain. At this point I was almost 34 weeks pregnant which if I were in the states I could've had my son and it would've been okay. But being overseas they don't have the necessities to take care of a premie. It was then that they gave me a shot to stop my labor and the OB put me on bed rest. I had to stay on bed rest until I hit at least 36 weeks. That was a very long two weeks. But we made it to 36 weeks!! And 37, 38, and 39!!
At 39 weeks my OB scheduled me for an induction due to the fact that I had high blood pressure throughout my pregnancy. I now wish that I hadn't agreed to it but none the less it was going to happen. On the night of my induction at 6pm I went into labor and delivery, it was the night before my due date. They placed the foley bulb into my cervix and the OB said that she wouldn't be surprised if it didn't fall out as soon as I stood up… But it didn't and we were sent home and told to come back at 6am the following morning for them to start pitocin. At 8pm I began to have some pretty good full contractions so I decided to take a bath. It was the ONLY thing that made me feel relaxed. At around 11pm the foley bulb had fallen out. I started to feel nauseous so I told my husband that I was going to lay down and try to sleep. By 1am I was having pretty intense contractions, I hadn't slept, and my husband was dead asleep in the next room. So I quietly just held onto my bed and breathed through the contractions until around 3am when they were getting to be about a minute apart. I then hollered to my husband 'it's time, it's time derek!!" He wakes up and yells back to me "no its not its only 3am" I then yell… "NO DEREK ITS TIMMMEEEE!!!!!" He then slowly gets up and starts to get things ready to be put into the car. I had to just sit on the floor next to my son's diaper bag and breathe through the contractions until my husband was done getting everything into the car. We got to labor and delivery and as I was walking through the hall to go to our room I had to keep stopping to get through the contractions. The male nurse asked if I needed a wheel chair and I said "no just get me to my room" He said "well ma'am its our spare room all the way in the back, 5 other women are in labor" Oh great I thought. They got me on the bed and strapped me up to the machines and checked my contractions, as well as my cervix. At that point I was 5-6 centimeters dilated, and my contractions were a minute apart and going strong. The nurse said to me "well you're a keeper" and began asking me questions. I wanted to have a natural birth, I wanted to be able to walk, I wanted to be able to be on my ball, and have a beautiful wonderful labor. I told the nurse these things, and well she told me I couldn't walk because they needed me to be monitored, I could bounce on my ball but I would have to be next to the monitor still strapped up, and that they would hold off on the epidural unless I asked for it. I was quite upset that I couldn't walk or be comfortable on my ball. I decided to just try and get some rest, and breathe through the contractions to help get my baby here. My husband passed out within an hour of being there. And for the next 2 hours nurses would come and go, and then I met a woman who I had never seen before, and she was going to be the one to deliver my son. The next hour was one of the worst hours. I had not slept, and I had no support due to my husband being dead asleep, so I decided to get the epidural to help me through the contractions. I woke my husband up, then 4 nurses, an anesthesiologist, and the woman I had just met to delivery my son filled the room. I was so scared. The anesthesiologist got me into position and tried to give me the epidural, she failed 4 times. She then brought in the other anesthesiologist. This is the part that I cringe every time I think about it. She attempted twice, failing both times. On her third try she went to far to the right… She hit a nerve. It was at this point that I lost control. I started bawling, I screamed, I shivered while begging them to pull it out. They wouldn't move it until I calmed down enough to tell them what was wrong. I had to regain my composure, I said to them through my sobbing "it hurts, it hurts, something is wrong, my right leg is numb and the right upper part of my back is killing me" They pulled it out from the nerve in my back and I instantly felt relief but I was still sobbing from the shock of everything. They administered the medicine and I started to feel like I could get some rest. I then slept for a few hours until at 12 in the afternoon 2 nurses came in to inform me that my labor had completely stopped, and that they were going to break my water and administer some pitocin. I was 8cm at this point. They broke my water, and gave me pitocin and told me that once I started feeling a lot of pressure in my bum to tell them. Two and a half hours later I told the nurses that I felt the pressure and needed to push.They checked my cervix and they said I was almost 10cm dilated and that I could start pushing. I then realized that the epidural had only numbed half of my lower body and I felt everything on the other side, lovely. Four nurses were in my room, I was pushing, and I had to wake my husband up. After about an hour and a half of pushing the nurses informed me that the woman who was supposed to be delivering my son was delivering another baby. They told me to slow down on my pushing and to only push every other contraction and to breathe through the ones in between.
Then after about 20 minutes they told me to stop pushing, I looked at them like they were nuts, and just ignored them. The nurse looking at my contractions said jokingly to another male nurse "have you ever caught a baby? cause you might need to catch this one" and the other nurse says "yeah but I don't wanna do it again unless I have to". They kept trying to get the doctor to come in because my son was ready to come out. Finally she came into the room, I just kept pushing, I would yell "i can't do this, I can't do this" I grabbed the OB who was supposed to deliver my son's white coat, looked up at her and said "i really can't do this please help me." She looked down at me and said "sweetie you are doing this, push through the burning". So I did, I pushed through it, his head was out. I yelled through the next couple of pushes to get his shoulders out. Then he was here. My body felt relieved, and my amazing son was finally here. They placed him in my arms, and our eyes connected instantly. The only thing I could say was "oh Andrew Ryan, Andrew Ryan" He was amazing, and I loved him so much. But then he stopped breathing, completely. They quickly snatched him away from me and started to try and get him to breathe.
They gave him oxygen, I couldn't see him, nurses were surrounding him, my husband couldn't see him either. All I kept saying was "is my baby okay? is he okay?" I then felt the need to push, I told the doctor I needed to push and she said "push" I then birthed my placenta, but my son was still having trouble breathing. My heart was racing, and I could hardly breathe so they ended up having to put oxygen on me. Finally I heard a faint cry come from my beautiful son. Then a couple more loud cries. It was then that I felt joy. I knew my baby was okay. Slowly the nurses would peel away one by one, and finally I could see my baby, he was laying there breathing, and being amazing.
I couldn't move, but I wanted to so badly. The nurse washed him up, swaddled him, and handed him to my husband. I couldn't wait to hold my son. My husband finally handed him to me and I fell in love all over again.
He was perfect, he was mine, and my life from that day has never been the same. It's been amazing.
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