I have no children of my own yet and I have not witnessed a birth so I will use my own birth to write about...with the help of my mom. Here is her birthing experience when she had me:
The day you were born started around 2am. I woke up because
I had a contraction. It was 9 days before your due date and I thought it might
be Braxton Hicks contractions, since I had not had any yet. I sat in the living
room watching TV for about an hour before I felt another contraction. Thirty
minutes later, I felt another contraction, then another one thirty minutes
later. When I had another contraction 15 minutes later, I woke your dad up. The
contractions stayed about 15 minutes apart for the next hour. Around 5am I got
out my pregnancy book, because the Internet didn't exist then, and re-read the
section on when you should call your doctor or go to the hospital. The book
recommended calling your doctor when the contractions were 10 minutes apart.
The contractions weren't particularly painful; I would describe it as an
uncomfortable feeling. Within the next 45 minutes, the contractions started to
come regularly 10 minutes apart. I think I called the doctor's on-call number,
but it may have been your dad. Either way, after asking questions about how
long the contractions had been happening and how far apart they were, he
recommended that we go to the hospital.
I vividly remember the ride to the hospital. It was in our
1981 Toyota Celica, which was low to the ground and had a manual transmission. The
contractions were coming on a regular basis and I think your dad hit every pot
hole between the house and the hospital - I was not happy. Once we got to the
emergency room at the hospital, they
took me to a room and your dad had to go move the car. Dr. McKee came in to
examine me and determined that I was in labor, so I was admitted to the
hospital. It was around 6:30am and my contractions were about 8 minutes apart.
While the nurses hooked me up to all the monitors, your dad went to a pay phone
and called our parents. That's when it hit me that I was going to have a baby,
that day, not some random day in the future.
I watched the morning TV programs. The nurses would come in
and check on me every few minutes, but my contractions were stuck at 8 minutes
apart. Sometime after 7am our parents arrived and visited me for a few minutes.
They would leave the room when the doctor came by to check on me. While they
were gone, the doctor decided to put me on Pitocin to speed up labor. The
contractions started coming more frequently and I could feel my cervix dilate.
While the contractions were bearable, the dilatation was very painful and felt
weird. The contractions were still more than 5 minutes apart, so your dad and
our parents went to the cafeteria to have breakfast.
Around 8:30am Dr. McKee came in to check me. He broke my
water, another weird feeling, then soon after, gave me an epidural. I have to
say, the epidural was the worst part of the whole experience. The contractions
were very close together and I had to sit on the edge of the bed while a nurse
pushed down on my shoulders to expose my back for the epidural. Since I was
having contractions, being folded over on my stomach hurt. Then at 9am, Dr.
McKee came in again and said it was time to go to the delivery room. Your dad
was still at breakfast! They started wheeling the bed to the delivery room and
I was panicking because your dad wasn't there. Fortunately, he showed up while
they were wheeling me down the hall and the floor nurses directed him to us.
The delivery room was really cold. Your dad stayed by my
head and held my hand through it all. I remember trying to push but not being
able to feel what I was pushing. I think there were three nurses in the room with
the doctor. I'm really not sure, because I was focused on Dr. McKee. I remember
voices telling me to push; I remember your dad talking to me although I don't
remember what he said; I remember Dr. McKee saying he was going to use forceps.
They he held you up for me to see and told us that you were a girl and you had
10 fingers and 10 toes. One of the nurses whisked you over to a weighing
station and did all the measurements. Dr. McKee looked at the clock and said to
put 9:18am. I tried to talk him into 9:20am, since that's what my birth
certificate says, but he wouldn't budge. You were 6 pounds, 3 1/2 ounces. A
tiny little girl.
After the nurse finished cleaning you up, I finally got to
hold you. I kissed your forehead, happy not to taste salt. Gran had told me
that a salty taste could mean you had cystic fibrosis. Your dad and I both wept
with joy at having a healthy daughter. Not big loud crying - gentle tears and
smiles and an indescribable feeling of being needed. You were so small and
helpless. Your dad checked your ears first to make sure you didn't have my
attached earlobes - seriously. After a few minutes, I handed you to your dad
and he left the delivery room to show you to your grandparents.
We had several visitors that day, since you were born in the
morning. I would try to list them, but you know how big your dad's side of the
family is and my side isn't exactly small. I think everyone came by that
Friday. It was good. I remember Gran was very upset at your dad that night. He
and a friend had tickets to a concert that night - it was a Friday night - and
I told him to go, since we already had tickets. I was fine, you were fine. I
wasn't going anywhere and he had spent all day at the hospital. What better way
to celebrate the birth of your child? Your birth is the only time I remember
your Uncle Chris visiting anyone at the hospital. You were in the nursery, so
he and I walked down the hall so he could see you. Things were different back
then. I had to ask them to bring you to my room. I tried to keep you there as
much as possible, but they would only let you stay for an hour or two.
The day after you were born, it snowed. I was glad to be at
the hospital because they had a generator and the power was out over much of
Trussville. The snow didn't keep family from coming by. Nana brought you two
preemie outfits because the newborn ones we had swallowed you. Remember, we
didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl. All the clothes we received were
yellow or green or some other non-gender-specific color. We were lucky that we
had been playing dress up with you, because they took your picture that day.
They didn't tell us ahead of time, but because Nana and I had been dressing you
in your new clothes, you are wearing an adorable, girly outfit in your first
official portrait.
We brought you home on Sunday. My birthing experience was
over and my parenting experience had begun.
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