We've Got to Get Right Back to Where We Started From

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Yes, Finally, Part Three

Yes, I am that lazy. That's the question you were asking, right? I mean, its been a month since I last posted and I've no good excuse for not finishing. As one reader put it, its like I'm stuck in
the middle of labor!! I must finish!

8:00 a.m. Enter new mid-wife, Rachel. Overnight midwife Leslie doesn't even say goodbye. Hmm. Anyway, in retrospect, Rachel was the BEST person that could have ever been my midwife for the deliver of K, so it all worked out. She comes in, all bright eyed and actually excited about me having a baby. She's the only one in the room to be so happy. Husband looks unsure, unsettled, and tired. I don't know what to expect. She doesn't want to check me, because everyone is sure that I can't have progressed to much, blah blah blah. I let her know that I've been having contractions consistently, though thanks to the epidural, I am feeling no pain. Okay, she says, let's see how it looks.

And I about die when she tells me, "Wow! You are 10 cm! You are READY TO PUSH. NOW."

I look at her and reply, completely matter of factly: "No, I'm not."

"Oh, but you are! You are ready to PUSH!! Soooo exciting!" as she puts on her gown and motions for the nurse to come over and start setting things up.

"Um....wait a second," I stammer. "I'm really not ready for this! I think I need a little time."

"Okay, well, let's go! How do you want to start?"

So, with a frantic call into my mom from S to say, "I really hope you get here soon!", and then, it all begins. I push and push and push to no avail. "Let's take a break," says Rachel, and she bounces out of the room. At this point, in walks student nurse Katie, a young and very happy, perky, personable little creature. She comes over to me and tells me she is so very honored to be there because she has never seen a birth before! And she is so excited to share this moment with me! Apparently, before I got the epidural, I agreed to having a student nurse observe. Whatever, I think.

At some point, my mom and Silk join the room and its almost like a party! Around 10:00 I start pushing in earnest again, and I've got, like, every person in the room helping to hold a leg or an arm, or whatnot. I'm yelling with effort, and I believe I describe it like "trying to push a cruise ship out". I get frustrated that everyone can see the head, but they can't just reach in and pull him out. At some point, I notice a young jewish man, wearing one of those jewish hats, standing there watching, apparently he was an EMT student. Awesome.

I'm getting to the point where I think that this baby is just not going to come out and they are going to have to somehow get him out for me. Rachel looks me in the eye. "Listen up, Jess," she says. "You can do this. You and me, we are gonna get this baby out. He is ready to come out. You are ready to push him out. I need 2 good pushes and you'll be holding him. Are you ready?!" "NO!!!!!!!!!" I scream and with that, I push and push and then OH MY FUCKING GOD, there is baby K. And he is perfect. And everyone in the room is crying, even the jewish emt guy and my little student nurse Katie. Everyone is just overcome with emotion, it was an incredible moment.

The rest is just a blur. I will never forget the moment I first held him and realized that I had just actually, truly, really delivered a baby. My baby! It was an awesome, amazing moment. And that, my friends, is the loooooooooooooooong version of baby K's arrival into our world.



1 Comments:

Blogger Silk E. said...

yay!! way to sum it up -sounds about right to me. If I ever decide to experience childbirth I am going to make damn sure that the same midwife (who I like) sees me through that whoooole ordeal. None of this switcharoo abandonment bullshit.
I've been wondering how Ricki Lake feels about NY making home births illegal... since she made that whole documentary and all. They will likely just continue on the down low.

7:00 PM

 

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