Nathanael's Birth - the long version (Part 2)

To read the first half of Nathanael's birth story, go here.

The delivery. At 3pm, after all of the normal medical questions were answered, my IV was placed. The nurses changed, and we were given the amazing Nurse Deb - God's awesome provision for us.

If you had asked me what type of nurse I thought would be best for me, I probably would have said a woman who would be calm and reassuring and full of helpful suggestions. Well, God knew better than me what I needed. Nurse Deb was boisterous and hilarious, full of jokes and stories and laughter. She was extremely experienced and knowledgeable and helped answer every question and more. And she and Greg engaged in playful banter back and forth for hours! I was completely entertained by the two of them which was a great distraction from the discomfort and waiting. She told me a few times when Greg was out of the room how much she liked him and how entertaining he was. haha

At 4pm, I was still sitting at 4-5cm dilated, 80% effaced, and Nathanael's head was at a -1 position. Per our requests, they began the pitocin drip (to get things going), and I received my epidural at 4:10pm (so that I wouldn't necessarily feel the intensity of pain associated with getting things going). A comment about getting the epidural: I had been somewhat nervous about holding still. To help calm me and keep me still, Greg was instructed to hold me so while I faced him on my side. But just as the anesthesiologist was doing the procedure, Greg and Nurse Deb were joking about something, and I was struggling not to laugh! I could have killed them both at that moment! (Thankfully, I was laughing though.) Of course, the epidural was fine, no issues at all.

At 5:45pm, Dr. McCrary ruptured the membranes (broke the "water"). The epidural was much better than I expected. I was still able to feel a lot, was completely aware of what was going on, and I had quite a bit of mobility. I definitely found myself hitting that button from time to time to increase the amount of medication though. ;)

By 7:30pm, I had reached 9cm dilation, was 90% effaced, and Nathanael's position was still -1. After another couple hours (full of chats with Nurse Deb and lots of HG TV - fun for a gal who doesn't have TV) and no progress, Dr. McCrary suggested that I try to get some rest and he would come and check on the progress in another hour or so. If I didn't progress, we would have to consider a c section. Nurse Deb turned off the lights and left us alone. Greg tried to sleep in the chair but ended up just lying on the hard floor (which completely cracked up Nurse Deb when she came in a couple times). I don't think I slept any, but it was quite relaxing to try.

When Dr. McCrary checked again, we were ready to get rolling. At 11:10pm, I began pushing. Nurse Deb and Dr. McCrary were amazing in guiding and directing me and giving me tips on making each push more effective. Using a mirror helped as well. Greg was hilarious, so intrigued by everything and taking pictures of teeny tiny bits of progress. (More than once, I had to ask him to focus on holding my leg instead of taking pictures! Nurse Deb continued to be entertained.)

Halfway through pushing, sadly Nurse Deb had to leave. She wanted to stay to meet Nathanael but had a ride waiting for her. :( (She came by to meet him the next day though.) Amazingly, the nurse given to us next was a friend of our pastor! She and her husband had moved to Boston from Dallas a couple years ago. We were amazed with how God allowed us to have two Christians assisting us in the delivery of our son - our doctor and our nurse.

After about 45 minutes of exhaustive pushing and a couple needed clips to give him space to progress (read, "ouch!"), Nathanael was delivered at 11:57pm. His apgar scores were a strong 8 & 9. He was absolutely amazing... Nothing could have prepared us for how amazing it would be to hold our son in our arms...

Labor and delivery were complete, and it really was an incredible experience for me, even easy if I may dare say. If I didn't have to go through the recovery process, I'd have been ready to do it again in a heartbeat.

Recovery. I had no idea that what I was experiencing for the first few weeks was abnormal. I thought that every mom who had to have an episiotomy experienced such excruciating pain for weeks. Apparently, that is NOT the case, as I learned when I called my doctor after five weeks with concern over what I thought might have been an infection. I went in that day, and he informed me that it appeared that I was allergic to the material the sutures were made of! Who would have known?! A couple weeks later, after my body didn't show any more progress recovering on its own from the horrible sutures, I had to be cauterized. Wow; now that was what I call pain. (This is when you say, "Ooooh, Kim, how awful!")

Since I'm writing this almost five months after Nathanael's birth, I have honestly forgotten how intensely awful those first two months were. I remember shedding many tears in the bathroom and constantly thinking, "HOW DO WOMEN DO THIS MORE THAN ONCE?!?!" But fortunately, the recovery is normally not that bad, and Nathanael was such a textbook baby. I had it really really easy for the labor and delivery. I guess I had it coming to have a painful delivery. ;)

And that's Nathanael's birth story.