Matthew Thomas Duncan arrived Thursday, May 2, 1996 at 5:13am amist a flurry of activity,
unfortunately, his birth was less than text book, but he's fine and that's all that matters.
Wednesday night, just before 8 I noticed I was having some pretty good contractions, so I
decided to grab a piece of paper and start writing down when I had them to see if they were
consistent...this is when I should have known I was in trouble. The time between first and second
contraction was 15 minutes, second and third was 10 minutes, third and fourth was 6
minutes...they leveled at 6 for about 2 hours when they dropped to 3 minutes apart at 10pm and
doubled in intensity. Terry and I "breathed" through them at home until just before midnight
when I finally had him call the doctor. Headed to the hospital just after midnight and was in LDR
#5 (Labor, Delivery & Recovery) by 1am. Jurassic Park was playing on the TV in the room and I
remember as I was laying down and getting hooked up to the monitor, it was at the scene where
the T-Rex eats the lawyer. Funny the things you remember...
At check-in I was 3cm dilated and totally bummed, figuring that I should have been farther along
as badly as I was getting nailed by the contractions - looking back, those early ones were a piece
of cake. Labored for an hour and got rechecked - almost 6 cm!! Youch! By now the
contractions had no break. They taught us in class that you'll contract for 60 seconds and have a
2-3 minute break - NOT ME. :-{ Labor was progressing so fast that they would peak, come
down about way and start back up again. I physically was unable to breath and asked for a
shot of Stadol (demerol counterpart). Didn't notice the contractions being any less painful, but I
had regained the ability to breath on my own and figured that was ok.
I had been laboring on my left side, I rolled onto my back for a check and decided I wanted to try
the other side. Lasted one contraction before deciding that was NOT where I wanted to be and
rolled back over - all hell breaks loose in the room as we loose the babys heartbeat! Of course,
I'm breathing and didn't realize there was no beeping coming from the monitor, all I know is Terry
and our Labor nurse are rolling me over in the middle of a contraction! The nurse gets in my face
and tells me simply "your baby wants you on this side". As she's hooking me up with an internal
monitor she tells me the baby is stressed but it will be OK...
Another hour of labor later I'm at almost 9cm! They go off to find the OB and while they're gone
my water finally breaks and the contractions (and I found this hard to believe at the time) got
worse. Terry said the monitor never dipped more than 2 points on the 10 point scale and that I
almost broke his thumb. Apparently when it would dip those 2 points I would relax a bit - heck,
any relief was good.
Things are bit fuzzy about the time frame but I remember them having me start to push at 9 cm
because the baby was really having a hard time. Every time I would push he would come down a
bit, his heart rate would drop and then he'd go right back up again. The doctor said something,
the labor nurse (Beth, who was WONDERFUL!) got in my face again (this is the only way I
could comprehend stuff) and said we had no more options, they were going to use the vacuum,
the baby had to come out NOW...I remember nodding through my oxygen mask and looking at a
very worried Terry.
Beth was on my left, Terry on my right, each took a leg and with every contraction I pushed for
all I was worth as Beth somehow contorted herself across my body to lay on my stomach for
extra push power. The doctor and another nurse worked the vacuum. With each push, down
went the heart rate...
About 4 or 5 pushes like that later, out came Matthew...screaming bloody murder, handsome as
his dad, with is cord wrapped securely around one ankle...our son, the bungee jumper. :-)
I cried, Terry kissed me and stood there dazed until I told him to get the camera. :-)
Beth told me later that apparently, my head-down-for-5-weeks baby decided, mid labor, to come
back UP the canal and turn transverse (sideways). Beth was able to reposition me to get him to
head back down, but during his acrobatics, he wrapped the cord up around his leg. Each
contraction or wrong position, pinched that cord, causing him to stress. It also caused him to
head down the canal wrong and instead of coming out face down (the nice, narrow way to do
things), he came out looking at my left thigh and I ended up with a 4th degree episiotomy (the
worst degree there is).
But...I have a happy, healthy, perfect baby boy and I'd do it all again to get him.
Terry was wonderful and I know I couldn't have done it without him. Long about the time I lost
the ability to speak, he gain the ability to read my mind. He seemed to know exactly where to rub
and when to rub it. He knew when I needed ice chips or my pillow rearranged - he was (and still
is) a terrific partner.
Matthews apgars were 9 and 9. He weighed in at 7lbs 12.6oz and was 19.75" long.
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