Details on the Labor Experience...

Okay. I'll go ahead and tell this once more in type and then hopefully start to put it behind me. I was planning on having at least one more, if not two, in the near future...not so much now. I'm just a bit traumatized I guess. So here it goes:

I had 2 hours of contractions early Sunday morning, which slowed down after a hot shower. They were off and on all day with cramping. At about 11 something that night they picked back up. I tried to sleep through them for a bit, but they'd wake me up every 20 minutes or so. Finally at about 5am and with contractions 4 minutes apart we headed to the hospital.

I was admitted to the maternity ward early Monday morning and my contractions were 3 minutes apart and I was dilated to a 4. About an hour later they seemed to be right on top of each other with no rest in between and I was starting to panic. I was checked again, and had progressed to a good 6 almost 7. Okay, I can do this. The doctor arrived and agreed with the dilation and said he could stretch it to a 7 and break my water. That's where the craziness started...

I was somewhat frantically told to get on all fours. Next thing I knew I was still contracting back to back, I had no meds, and the rather good-sized doctor's arm was inside me up to his elbow. The sense of something wrong was in the room and then I heard the words operating room and the baby is not responding. I was already out in the hall before I could say "operating room?" and was being wheeled quickly towards the elevator. Mom, dad, Mekhi, and Robert were all standing at the end of the hall looking as concerned and confused as I felt. My only calming thought was that I'd had a blessing the night before.

I was in the operating room and everything was very surreal. I was being transferred to the operating table and I could hear a man yelling "there are no meds on board, no meds on board" and someone else "she has no meds?" and the man again, "none, zero meds, get her to sleep!!" Okay, this was getting really scary. There were so many people in the room that provided a backdrop of urgent talk and movement while the anesthesiologist rapidly fired questions at me. He then shoved the mask on my face and multiple people were urging me to breath deep. I could feel them quickly rubbing iodine on my stomach and was terrified that they were about to cut...I think I said "don't cut yet, I'm awake" through the mask and the man said "next thing you know you'll be waking up in the recovery room."

The next thing I knew I was waking up in the recovery room. Unfortunately, I couldn't open my eyes or talk for some time. It was really disturbing to be stuck like that and not know what was going on. All I could think was that I wanted Robert. Finally, after what seemed like 20-30 minutes, I began to cry. The nurse noticed and tried to console me, but I still couldn't talk. Then they began to massage my stomach...and I cried more! Man, that hurts! Anyways, the nurse told me that it was okay, I did a good job, and that I had a baby girl and she was fine. I started flicking my eyes open a bit and they wheeled me upstairs into my room. I don't remember where the baby was, I just looked for Robert and started crying again. The shock finally set in I guess. The baby had been born at 8:11 am and I finally held her about 12:30 that afternoon. I was really in pain and confused and overwhelmed.

I found out then that when the Dr. had broken my water it was green because the baby's meconium had passed into it which of course is really not a good thing. The reason for the doc's arm being so far inside me was that the placenta was coming out before the baby. Again, not a good thing. In fact, fairly rare and very dangerous. Now I'm terrified to have another baby and beyond grateful that we are both here and okay. It is strange not to be aware of the experience happening around me and not being there to have the baby handed to me as soon as she was delivered. I felt disconnected and like I had failed at first. It's all good now though, at least emotionally. The pain associated with general anesthesia and an emergency c-section is not something I'd wish on anyone! Once again though, I'm grateful she is healthy and safe here at home in my arms.