Baby Story

The following is Anne's natural childbirth story. Reading is optional :)




It was all a blur.



This picture was taken 1 hour and 10 minutes before baby Anne would make her arrival. Contractions were 5 minutes apart, but that doesn't mean too much for my laboring record. We decided to go the hospital, I was afraid they might send me home since they had only been 5 minutes apart for under an hour...

Checked in at 9:25am on the 26th of October. The nurses looked at me with suspicion when I told them my actual due date, which was 6 days away. They measured my cervix, and to Joe and I's relief, I was dilated between 5-6. "This means the baby is coming today!" Joe and I's eyes could read each others thoughts with our smile. I sent Joe down to get the suitcase.

"What's the latest I can get my epidural? I mean the earliest I can get it?" I asked the nurse.



"Well, first we have to order your IV and draw your blood. After that we'll get an anesthesiologist to come up." She said and then turned to leave. I sat thinking blankly for a moment anticipating the next contraction.

And then it happened.

Something I wasn't expecting. And something that would signal my world turning upside down, changing every plan and expectation. It was 4 contractions right after another. No breaks. The power of the pain was something I had never experienced before. "Owwww! I usually have my epidural...by now...And where is Joe!?!" I thought. I called in a nurse and explained between gasps of air what was happening, she called for more help and for "everything" for the baby to arrive. I couldn't really believe what she was saying.

Joe came up with the suitcase and I tried to explain what had happened... "Hold my hand." I pleaded him. The contractions continued to magnify in intensity as they decreased slightly in duration. So uncomfortable were the waves of feeling centering in my abdomen that I could hardly lie still to concentrate. I started to cry.

And then I started to scream.

The pain was becoming way too intense for my meger tolerance. It was all happening so fast, 3 minutes, 2 minutes apart. All I could do was scream with hope of some relief. And then my mind clicked with the realization, "I am going to have the baby naturally whether I like it or not..."

Amid the rush of my body and the rush of the nurses around my room, I heard a voice, "A nurse is here to take your blood," the red-haired nurse said.

"Take my blood?!?" I marveled. "...who cares about my blood! Can't you see, nothing is protocol right now!! I am in AGONY!!" I pushed the blood-sucking-illogical nurse away instinctively while in the thought.

My arms and face begin to feel tingly and numb and the antibiotics were burning my arm as they came through the IV. "I'm about to pass out." I said to the red-haired nurse.

"Jenni, just breathe," She said. "See if you can slow down your breathing..."

I couldn't keep on top of the pain anymore. There was nothing to rely on for relief or even to take an edge off. Crying didn't help anymore, I lay with one hand over my eyes taking in the rushing of my body as it worked on it's own. Joe's strong hand was my only way to feel reality, to emerge from my private chamber if only for a few short breaths. Then one thought emerged; I was promised a healthy baby in a blessing I received just the day before. It would be worth all of that...

My legs went instinctively up. "She's trying to push!" A nurse yelled. "Somebody check her!" By now the intensity of the centralized movement with my screaming and pain dictated my whole being.

"Get this baby out!!" I pleaded.

The nurse quickly checked me. "She's at a 9 and I can feel the baby's head...and her water just broke. OK honey, don't push..."

HA!

"Get the doctor! Did somebody call Dr. Potter?" A nurse ordered.

"Yeah, he's on his way up. OK Jenni I need you to look at me. Breath like this...good...don't push yet..."

(Insert burning feeling, pain that is off of the 1-10 scale and Jenni giving explicit directions to the nurse :)

"Jenni, this is Dr. Garcia. He works with Dr. Potter." I grey-haired man with an assuring smile entered the room. I was in and out of reality for the few moments it took as he quickly prepared for delivery. The next thing I knew he was right by me.

"Yenni, you ca push now."

Oh, sweet words of wonderful pain!!!

And then, it was gone.

A smile spread across my face and, oh, the relief!!! I heard my new baby cry. My healthy little girl whom I would be holding in my arms in a few moments...



Anne Elsie Jane Black born 1 hour after arriving at the hospital at 10:25am.



Thanks to God, Joe, an angel-faced nurse, a smiling Dr. and the fact that it was only an hour long, that all I have is the blurry memory of pain, the biggest bruise I've ever had from a nurse who somehow got my blood, and a precious, beautiful, wonderful baby Anne.