a labor of love - henry davis

I fell asleep on October 9th at 1am, woke up at 2:56am, 3:42am and then finally at 4:45am I got out of bed.  I took a shower, did my hair, my make-up, got dressed and ate breakfast.  DJ woke up shortly after me and loaded up the car with the hospital bag.  It was very silent in our house.  I think we were both extremely nervous.  I had no idea what to expect at the hospital and a million questions ran through my mind as I got ready that day.

We got to the hospital just before 7am and I walked waddled down the long hall to the elevators.  We got to the third floor, labor and delivery, called the nurses station, "Um hi, I'm here to be induced."  The double doors swung open and we headed to the desk, where we were greeted by our nurse, Iman, and she led us to room 331.

 Iman was AWESOME!  She made both of us laugh and melt some nerves away.  Her best friend was working also and came in to help her.  She put in my I.V. and blew up one of my veins but whatever.  They told me that there was another woman that came in at the same time as me and was also being induced.  She was also dilated to 3cm.  Did I ever tell you that I was competitive?  It was on.  I was so going to have my baby before her.  Ha!

 Nurse Iman, hooked me up to two monitors on my belly.  One was monitoring Hank's heartbeat (don't ask my how many times that thing slipped off and I freaked out).  The other monitor was monitoring contractions.  Iman asked me if I could feel the contractions I was having (before being on pitocin).  I couldn't.  She then introduced me to the smiley/frowney faces on the wall that indicated how much pain you are in.  I was at a smiley 1.  After about an hour I was all hooked up and they started the pitocin.  DJ and I watched the news and then Live with Kelly and Michael.  A few interns and residents came in and out.  They did an ultrasound to check to make sure that Hank was still head down and facing the back.  The intern gave the thumbs up to say everything was all good.  At about noon the resident came in to break my water and nurse Iman came in to tell me that the other woman and I were still neck and neck.  We were both having our water broken artificially and we had both progressed to about 4cm. (darn)  Having your water broken is a bizarre feeling and I just felt like a leaky mess from that moment on.  Nurse Iman told me that my contractions would likely be getting stronger now.  I told her I was still at a smiley 3 on the pain scale so I was still feeling good.  DJ and I had brought our DVD player and started watching our Friends box set.  I chose to watch the episodes when Rachel was pregnant.  It just seemed fitting.

About an hour and a half later I was curled over the side of my bed in a frowney face 10 on the pain scale with only about 20 seconds of relief between contractions.  I was shaking and dry heaving while gripping the rail on the bed with the strongest of death grips.  DJ kept asking me if I was OK and I had so little time to recover between contractions it took about four contractions before I finally cried out that I NEEDED the epidural.  Nurse Iman, came right in and called down for the anesthesiologist, who came pretty quickly.  It took everything in me to sit still and breathe through my contractions as the doctor gave me the epidural.  When the doctor finished I felt instant relief on my left side, but I could still feel the full strength of the contractions on my right side.  Both nurse Iman and the anesthesiology nurse told me to try laying on my right side for a while to give the medicine a chance to start working.  Within the hour I thought it was some dirty trick someone was playing on me.  Yes, you can have an epidural Laura, but it's only going to work on one side, muahahaha.  I told nurse Iman and she gave me the saddest puppy dog look, knowing that they were going to have to take the current epidural out and put a new one in.  Ugh.  This time a new doctor came in and first tried moving it over and giving me another dose.  This successfully made my left leg a dead leg.  D-E-A-D.  However no relief whatsoever came to the right side.  The epidural indeed had to be removed and this new doctor started over.  Despite it taking two tries once that sucker was in correctly I felt amazing.  I was so relaxed.  I even took a little nap.  DJ and I watched Friends all afternoon.  Finally around 6pm when nurse Iman was getting ready to leave I asked if she would check me to see how far dilated I was.  She did and guess what...10cm!!!  Baby Hank was ready!  My doctor came in for his shift at 6:30pm so since I was still feeling quite comfortable and not too much pressure they recommended I "labor down" and allow my body to do some of the work for me.  Nurse Iman said that I didn't have to worry because I would know when it was time.  She assured me that the epidural would not take away the enormous amount of pressure I would feel.  At that point I really had no idea what kind of pressure I was about to feel.

My doctor came in at 6:30pm right when he arrived at the hospital and I was so happy to see him.  He said that he would come back in an hour or so to give me time to "labor down".  DJ and I called family and friends to let them know that it would be soon.  By the time we finished making calls it was about 7pm and I looked at DJ and said, "I have to push."  He gave me a look that indicated he did not believe me and said, "Laura, the doctor said he would be back in an hour."  I told him there was no way I was going to last that long and that I NEEDED to push right then.  I called the nurses station and told them I needed to push.  The doctor and a new nurse (Pam) came in (Pam had red hair so I knew I would like her).  They immediately set everything up and Pam started giving DJ and I instructions.  DJ needed to hold my leg and count down from 10 each time I pushed.  I needed to hold the back of my legs, take a deep breath and push for a count of ten, three times for every contraction.  I started pushing at 7:09pm.  I got through the first contraction and the second.  I was dry heaving again and started to cry that I couldn't do it.  DJ gave me the biggest kiss and told me I was doing so good and to keep going.  Nurse Pam put cold wash cloths on my chest and head and before I knew it I made it through the third contraction.  Nurse Pam asked if I wanted to feel his head.  His head?  He was already crowning??  I was so happy!  I felt the next contraction coming on and I took the deepest breath possible.  I pushed for the first count of ten and that's when my doctor started instructing me to breath, push, breath, push...At 7:21pm Henry Davis was officially born.  Daddy DJ cut the umbilical cord and they placed Henry on my chest.  He was making the sweetest newborn cry.  I could not believe this precious little boy was mine.  He was here and I loved him so.

umbilical cord cutting / the best doctor ever

Nurse Pam!!

oh that poor little cone headed babe

I love this picture.  I don't even care that I have a double chin.

heaven

proud daddy

Hank came face up, posterior position.  According to the doctor and everything I have read this is not common and typically makes it much harder to deliver without assistance or a c-section.  The doctor and nurse Pam both joked that the next time I give birth I better get to the hospital quick because if it only took me twelve minutes to deliver Hank in that position that my next baby would likely come very quickly.  The other part of this story is that although DJ was sure he wouldn't want to see anything, he watched the whole thing. (Just like everyone said he would)  He was so glad he did too.  He tells everyone how at first he could see the head and it was so small (cone head, remember) and he was so worried something was wrong with Hank.  Then when he could see the rest of his head he was expecting to see the back of his head because they had told us he was in the correct position earlier that day, so he was so confused and thought it looked so wrinkly.  The next thing he saw was Hank open his eyes and mouth at once and DJ says it was like he morphed into a baby right in front of his eyes.  He was seeing his son be born and it was amazing.

October 9th has been the most influential day of my life.  Both of the greatest life changing moments for me have happened on this day.

Oh and if you were wondering I totally beat that other lady in labor. ;)