Diaryland
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Ta! - 2004-07-19
First shots - 2004-05-28
I'm the baby, gotta love me! - 2004-05-18
My Photographer - 2004-05-18
Almost 6 weeks old! - 2004-05-05
2004-04-25 - 10:04 p.m.
Here is the story of Nate's birth (or as much of it that I can remember 4 weeks later!).
I was put on bed rest in the beginning of February. My feet and hands were swelling and my doctor was afraid that I would develop pre-eclampsia. At first I was very resistant. I was put on bed rest for a month in October and was pretty miserable. I am a very independent and active person and being confined to the house and ordered to take stay off of my feet wasn't easy for me! So, when the doctor wanted me to stop working again, I said no. I went back to work for a few days but the physical maladies started to take their toll, so finally I had to give in and stopped working.
This was hard for me to do. I felt that some people thought I was taking undue time off of work, and my boss' didn't seem to be very supportive at all-- but my job has very good health benefits and a strong contract, so I had the right to stay home on medical orders without threat of loosing my job, so that is a blessing. I had a very hard time coming to grips with the fact that I was going to stop working and may not go back to work again until August, when school starts again.
I stayed off my feet the best I could. I won't detail the list of ailments I went through as I would just rather forget them. Needless to say that by the end of March I was ready for the baby to be born.
Dan was hoping the baby would be born on April 1st. The due date was March 31, but both of his parents were born on April 1st and he thought it would be neat for his son to have the same birthdate. I wanted him to be born in April so that I could have a diamond as his birthstone : ) But it didn't working out that way.
Early in the morning on Friday, March 26 I woke up at 4:00 am for my many frequent trips to the bathroom. I felt pretty crampy, like I was going to start my period. I didn't think much of it at the time as it had happened before. At 4:20 I woke up again and as I was going to the bathroom I felt a gush of fluid and knew that my water broke! I jumped into the bathtub to save the floor, and there was no doubt that the dam had burst. I was happy, excited, scared and a little disappointed that he wasn't going to be born on April 1.
I went to go wake Dan up. I gentle shook him and said, "Don't be disappointed, but my water just broke. You can go back to sleep, I need to take a shower." Dan says that he heard me, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, when it hit him what I said and got up. He thinks it is pretty funny that I would even think that he could go back to sleep!
I called the doctor and he said to go to the hospital. I showered, ate while Dan emailed work and packed his bag. It took Dan so long to get his stuff together that I did dishes and put away laundry while waiting for him. My contractions just felt like mild cramps and I didn't bother timing them because they were pretty far apart.
We finally left for the hospital and arrived at 6:30am. During the drive, the contractions started coming harder and faster. I wasn�t prepared for the intensity nor how they actually felt. They felt like really bad menstrual cramps at first, and then like stabbing pains. I expected them to be over my entire belly, but they were just centered in my lower abdomen. By the time we were at the hospital they were between 4 and 5 minutes apart. When we arrived, we went up to the maternity ward at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. We quickly checked in (having pre-registered) and were taken to triage.
We had been to triage before when I had dizziness and a racing heart in January so we were familiar with the routine. They hooked me up to a monitor. The contractions just kept on coming faster and faster and were very painful. I became nauseous and threw up (as well as experiencing other bodily functions). The nurse came by and cleaned me up, but I began to panic. The contractions were about 4 minutes apart now and I was 3 centimeters dilated. I started to sweat and became scared. Everything was progressing so fast! I expected to have a slow labor with contractions speeding up gradually, but they hit very fast and very hard. They cleaned me up some more and hooked up my IV. The nurses thought I was going to deliver soon, so Dan called his parents and my parents and told them to come up to the hospital. He also ran downstairs and moved his car so it wouldn�t get towed away!
We were put into a LDR (Labor Delivery Recovery) room at around 8:00 and I asked for an epidural. Unfortunately, that week I had had high blood pressure so they had to run a test before they could give me an epidural so we had to wait for the results. The contractions were very intense and were still about 3 to 4 minutes apart, but when they examined me I was only dilated to 4 centimeters- not nearly close enough for delivery at 10 centimeters. So I had to wait. They gave me a shot to take the edge off of the pain but it did little.
My parents arrived sometime around here. It was hard for my mom to see me in so much pain, and I was so preoccupied with the fast contractions that I don�t remember much of them being there. Dan ran down to get our stuff for the labor and the delivery.
Dr. Check, my ob-gyn came and examined me. He was a wonderful doctor and was there the entire day. He said I was progressing nicely and the tests came back fine so I could have an epidural. But now, the anesthesiologist was in a C-section and couldn�t come for a while. We would have to wait longer.
The monitor showed that the baby�s heartbeat was a bit irregular and the nurses and my doctor showed up immediately. They determined that the contractions were too close together so soon and so they gave me a shot of something to slow down the contractions (to space them further apart). They also put me on an internal monitor and had me wear an oxygen mask.
At 11:30 the anesthesiologist finally arrived to give me the epidural. I was very scared. But there was nothing to it. I leaned over and he asked me if I was ready. When I said yes, he laughed and said he was already done! I felt better almost immediately! I could still feel the contractions, but they felt like pressure instead of pain. They were still uncomfortable, but I could at least focus, talk, and breathe! Dan confessed later that he had secretly hoped that I would deliver naturally- ha, like that was going to happen!
Hours past, nothing remarkable happened that I can remember�I was pretty out of it, and a bit in shock of being in labor! Dan�s parents arrived. I didn�t progress any further and they just kept an eye on me. I listened to music on the radio. Talked with my mom or Dan. Basically just laid there. They had to use a catheter to try to empty my bladder since they were giving me so much fluid. This was not fun, but I really didn�t feel much. Dan gave me ice chips and brought out my Beanie Baby to focus on. It is a bear with a gold heart on it and it is special to me because my Native name is �Heart of the Bear Woman��kind of to remind myself that I am strong and can get through this.
I have brief memories of things happening throughout the day, but don�t remember them fully or when they happened. I remember asking for lip balm (Burt�s Bees) because my lips hurt. I remember Dan going to lunch with his parents. My nurses kept on coming and going because it was so busy. Having to lay on my side to help the baby. Them bringing down a light from the ceiling that scared me. Dan�s parents bringing me flowers. There was a blood pressure machine on my arm at all times that hurt when it took a reading unless I laid absolutely still which was hard to do. Dan holding my hand and looking a bit helpless when I was in so much pain. Mostly, I didn�t want to be touched and just wanted to rest.
After a few hours the doctor was concerned that I wasn�t progressing any further so they decided to give me Pitocin to speed things along. I was not happy about this because I had heard that Pitocin can make contractions more painful! They took out the internal monitor and put in a different one that goes further inside me and attached to the uterus.
After they gave me the Pitocin I could start feeling the contractions again. They were very painful and came quicker and quicker. But when Dr. Check examined me again there was still no progress. At 3:00 he said that if I didn�t progress further in an hour than they would do a C-section. I was very scared and tried to mentally will myself to dilate. Dan�s sister arrived. She tried to give me a foot message on reflex points to make me dilate. She decided to go and get some aromatherapy to help with the pain and to dilate me.
An hour later at 4:00 I still hadn�t dilated. After 12 hours I was still only 4 centimeters so they decided to do a C-section. I was very upset. They shaved me, inserted a catheter and had Dan change into scrubs. We had to wait a while for an operating room to open. I guess that night there was a baby boom at Beaumont and it was over an hour later before there was a room available. The epidural wasn�t working as well as it was, so they had to give me a spinal in order to do the surgery which would paralyze as well as numb me from the chest down. The nurse told me that I might not be able to feel myself breathe but not to worry, that I was still breathing.
I was very upset and started to cry. The nurse and doctor tried to reassure me that everything was fine. They wheeled me out with Dan in tow. Before taking me into surgery Dan gave me a kiss. They were going to bring him into surgery after they had me prepped and was ready. In the meantime he was told to wait outside.
Once inside, they switched me to another table and gave me the spinal. I immediately began to go numb in my legs. The feeling creeped higher and higher and then I couldn�t feel myself breathe. I began to panic. It was a horrible feeling�like drowning. The nurse tried to reassure me that I was still breathing and not to worry, but then the feeling continued to climb and I couldn�t feel my throat and then I couldn�t speak. The spinal had gone too far. I then absolutely panicked! I don�t know if it was because I was so upset or what but they decided to put me under general anesthetic and I was put to sleep.
Dan says he didn�t know what was going on and was waiting outside. He did hear Nate�s first cries- but they were from through the door. He said the only thing he could see through the window was my foot. They eventually brought Nate out. Dan says he was in a fog. He remember them saying his Apgar score was 9. We still didn�t have a name picked out yet (yes we do procrastinate) so his crib card said Baby Boy Denton. We didn�t name him until late Saturday night.
Dan followed him down to the nursery and watched while they cleaned him up and did some tests. He told our family about the birth and they went down to the nursery to see him.
Nathaniel Robert Denton was born at 5:30 p.m. and was 8 pounds, 7 ounces. He was 21 inches long.
The next thing I remember is waking up in recovery with Dan at my side. I was shivering- but not because I was cold, it was from the after effects. My throat hurt from being intebated. The nurse arrived and asked if I could move my legs. I couldn�t. My mom came back to see me. I don�t remember much about recovery at all. The next thing I knew, I was in a room. The rest of the night is a blur. I only remember bits and pieces. I remember eating some Jell-O�visits from my family, including my brother Dave and his wife Phyllis�I remember my nephew Devon laughing at me eating Jell-O�I kind of remember them bringing the baby in for me to see. . . but not clearly. Mostly, the rest of the night I was groggy and tired. Dan stayed the whole night in a chair by my side.
Because there were so many babies born that day, the maternity ward was completely full, so I was put into a different part of the hospital- the part for pregnant women who were going into labor prematurely and they were trying to prevent delivery. Because of this, we didn�t get a private room like we had wanted nor did we have nurses who were equipped to help us recover and take care of the baby. The next day we were moved to the maternity ward and I started to feel better slowly.
I definitely have some regrets over the delivery. I wish I had been awake when Nate was born. I miss not hearing his first cries, nor seeing him when he was all messy. I miss seeing him with Dan and having a special moment together. I know that we were very fortunate to have such good health care and that he was born healthy, these are just sentimental regrets probably bread into me by watching too much TV.
So that is it, the story of Nate�s birth. It wasn�t what I expected. The �Prepared Childbirth� class did help, but there was so many surprises and things that happened that I really wasn�t prepared for. I don�t know if we will ever have another child. It was so hard having Nate, and we are still dealing with sleep deprivation and the enormous change in our lifestyle to even consider future children at the moment. I am just grateful to God for delivering Nate safe and sound to us.
