The Sanders: Ezekiel Michael Sanders

Ok, so our little guy was born on a Sunday. I had a little moisture "down there" early Saturday morning, so I didn't know if my water broke, but then it dried up, so I thought not. So after having 4 hours of consistent contractions starting Saturday night, we went into the hospital at 2am Sunday morning. My contractions weren't in a consistent pattern, but they wanted to see if my water broke, so they did a microscope test. After waiting for two hours, they came back with results. (My midwife had to deliver a baby in between.) Finally at 4am, we were admitted into a room.

Since my water had been broken for so long they wanted to put me on Pitocin to speed the delivery, so as not to get an infection. Also, to keep from introducing infection, they don't check your progress until they have to. So Josiah went straight to sleep on the "Dad Chair", but I was so excited I couldn't. Also, they hooked me up to an IV on my left arm, blood pressure monitor that I had to keep on my right arm, and so I was kind of stuck in bed. Oh, and I had a fetal monitor, and a contraction monitor both strapped around my belly. I wasn't in much pain at all, just uncomfortable. The bed sucked. Then around 7 am, I felt a big gush. I didn't know if I had peed myself or what. I was yelling for Josiah across the room, but he was pretty out of it. Then the nurse came in to check on me, and josiah helped me into the bathroom to clean up. My first water break. Then as soon as we got everything cleaned up, Jacqui got there! YAY!

So then they bumped the pitocin up gradually until about 10am. I still wasn't having too regular contractions, and I was like, bring it on ladies!!! The contraction monitor kept slipping off whenever I moved, and they couldn't tell the intensity, so the nurses decided I needed an internal monitor. IN COMES THE EVIL Midwife. Can I just tell you how much I HATE her. So, apparently I still had a forebag of waters, so she had to break that. Then, they shoved this straw thing between my uterine wall, and the baby's head. Zeke had a scab on his scalp for two weeks, so I know it wasn't comfortable for him either. Basically it didn't go in right the first time, so they had to try again. This was the most painful experience of my life. I'm pretty sure she was just stabbing this pencil type object into my soft uterus tissue. I started having SEVERE contractions immediately. Finally she was done and I was in so much pain. The only good thing was I got a catheter for my pee, so I didn't have to deal with getting up any more. Oh when she did this she also got to check my progress, and I was still only at 3 cm, and 80% effaced. My doc two days earlier had told me the same thing, only 100% effaced. That was a blow to my ego. I had been in "labor" for 8 hours, and now I was digressing. Depressing...

So then Josiah stepped it up to the plate, and helped me through the most painful 30 minutes of my life. I was having contractions every 2 minutes, and by now, my pitocin was super strong. My bed was the kind that detaches for delivery, so it kind of sloped downward so i felt like I was sliding off the whole time. I didn't have anything to brace against, so every time I had a contraction I just had to lay there in pain. I thought I was going to die, and I knew I couldn't keep it up for another 8 hours, which is what they were saying. So the nice nurse offered me an epidural, and I said yes. She gave me a shot of Demerol, because it was supposed to take about 30 minutes for the guy to get up there. As soon as she gave me the shot, I was doing so much better, and then the awesome anesthesiologist came in 2 seconds later. He knew I was a vip. So basically then he gave me the epidural, and I was GOLDEN!!! I took a nap, they floored the pitocin and I was good to go.
The nurses came in at 3pm and checked me and I was at 9 cm. I was so excited. I felt rested, and was so excited that it was going to be soon. Then some lady brought in all the delivery stuff and got it ready so that was exciting. Then I felt like I had to poop. By the time the nurses came back for my 3:30 check, I was at 10, and ready to push. So I started pushing and once again Josiah was stellar. He had said during the whole pregnancy that he wasn't going to "look", but he was down there the whole time updating me on progress. I pushed for an hour, and at 4:34, he was born. Once the head was out, I called Jacqui over from the corner where she was banished to, and she watched the body come out. It was so cool. Let me just reiterate, that while I had the epidural, it still hurt, but NOWHERE NEAR AS BAD AS THE EVIL MIDWIFE AND HER INTERNAL MONITOR. I HATE HER.