First off, through my whole last trimester I had braxton hicks
contractions. That was very unnerving because I wasn't quite sure how to tell the fake ones from the real ones I was going to have later. Being a young mother (17 to be exact) I wasn't quite sure what to expect and I didn't live at home, so I didn't have my mother there to give me advice.
I had mild contractions all day long on the 22nd, and didn't think much of it due to the fact that I didn't really think it was real labor. I didn't tell anyone about them. I am a night owl and my friends and I decided around midnight that we were going to go to Perkins restaurant for some coffee and something to munch on. Around 1:00am, sitting there in the middle of Perkins my contractions started getting stronger and closer together. I kept asking what time it was and keeping track of them on my own. Still not telling anyone what was going on. Finally I gave in and told my friends what was happening and asked to go home. They tried to talk me into going to the hospital and I refused, wanting to stay home in my own bed until completely necessary to go to the hospital. Someone asked me if I had any urges to push, and I told him flat out that I had been pushing to stop the contractions (which may I add, actually did help them feel better). Well, he wouldn't let me stay home any longer and he made me go to the hospital.
Once I got to the hospital, they put me on the monitor and found
that my contractions were around 5 minutes apart. They had me walk up and down the hall for a while, which helped my contractions progress to 3 minutes. Once again, they had me lay down and put that stupid monitor back on me. They had me lie there for a full hour and my contractions stopped completely. At 10:30am they were sending me home. I asked to walk around a little more before they discharged me, and no sooner did I
get half way down the hall and I had such an intense contraction that I dropped to my knees and they had to take me back to my room in a wheelchair. They had me sit in a hot shower which gave me no relief at all. I laid back down and the contractions just kept getting stronger. I told the nurse that I wanted something for the pain, and I wanted it now. I'm not sure what they gave me but it didn't stop the pain and it made me extremely nauseous. So now I laid there not only in pain from
the contractions, but also losing my lunch from the past 4 days. My mouth was sooo dry and all they would allow me to have were ice chips. I think there should be some kind of law against that. I broke my tooth on the icechips, so now i had that pain along with the rest.
The doctor finally came in and decided to break my water. I was
scared to death when I saw what she was using to break it. It looked like a giant croche hook! I made her wait untill I was between contractions. She broke my water and left the hospital! I started having extreme urges to push, and I told the nurse that I was pushing no matter what she said. She checked to see if I was dilated, and said she doubted if I was. Well, she was wrong. Within a matter of a half hour I went from 4 to 10 centimeters, and I was ready. They had to page the doctor and have her come in as soon as possible. By this time I was disgusted with the whole situation and getting extremely nasty toward everyone. I laid there trying not to push for at least 20 minutes before
the doctor finally got there. She tried to tell me that it was hospital
policy to give an episiotomy and pulled out that knife. I pushed her half way across the room with my feet (hint: dont make a woman in labor mad at you) and told her where she could stick her knife. I told her that I wasnt going to need to be cut and i wasnt going to rip. Well, I was right. I pulled my legs up and I pushed.
The cord was wrapped around
my baby's neck and they pushed him back in a little to relieve some of
the tightness so that they could just unwrap it. No sooner was it unwrapped and he flew out like a bullet. The doctor wasn't fast enough, and he slipped right through her hands. His precious little head hit the metal table, and she finally caught him. He started crying immediately. They cut the cord and clamped it and all that. They cleaned him up and
handed him to me.I immediately started to breast feed, and he took very well to it. I couldn't believe that I had created such a perfect little
person. He had soft blonde hair and big, wide, alert blue eyes.
They weighed him in at 6lb. 1oz and his length was exactly 20 inches. He was perfect! I didn't even feel the delivery of the afterbirth. I was more intent on feeding my son. Matthew James was born at 7:11pm on April 23rd. He is the light of my life.
Copyright 1998 by author
Used by permission
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