Hurry Up and Wait...The HURRY!

The Story of Tad’s Arrival

Not everyone may be interested in the details leading up to Tad’s arrival, but I wanted to blog about it in order to “preserve the memory,” so-to-speak.

First, I had a very normal and uncomplicated pregnancy, so much like I was with Dash, I really had no plans of being induced early. The way I saw it, everything worked so well with Dash, who came right on his due date (ok, 8 minutes after…), that I figured Tad would, too.

But while I was ok with not being early, I was adamant against being late. There was no way I could mentally or physically or emotionally survive one minute past January 26. So my doctor (Dr. Strong) set an induction for the day after my due date on Thursday, January 27, and Tyler and I continued living life.

Then on Sunday, January 23, I get a call from my doctor late in the evening—yep, he really called me—from his cell phone—doctors can be nice! Turns out, he had a meeting scheduled for Thursday (our tentative induction date), so he asked if I was open to changing the date…to tomorrow—Monday morning.

Gulp. While Tyler and I were ready to have our child, we weren’t ready to have him in less than ten hours! That just made us a little too nervous. So we took the next best option and planned for Tuesday, January 25. We wanted a full day—a last hoorah, if you will, to get our stuff together and spend some quality time with Dash.

Since ours was an ‘elective induction,’ Dr. Strong told us that we were supposed to call the hospital at 5:00 a.m. on our scheduled morning to see if they had room for us to come in. That night, I’m not sure I slept a wink, as nerves were racing high. For some reason, even though I had given birth once before, the thought of doing it a second time was too much! Could I really do it again? Could I endure the pain? Could I manage? Ahhh!

At exactly 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday, January 25, we were practically ready to walk out the door. I called the hospital, and…they told me to call back later. Ugh!

So I called again at 8:00 a.m. This time, they said, “It will be today, but we just don’t know when.” Ugh, again! I felt like a time bomb was about to explode, but I had no control over when, where, or how!

Luckily, my doctor was super awesome. He called me again that morning and reassured me that it would be soon and that he would handle everything.

Then, at 9:00 a.m., I get a call from the head of the labor and delivery nurses.

“How soon can you be here,” she asked.

“30 minutes,” I said.

“Well come on—and hurry!” she replied. “Dr. Strong likes to induce his patients early in the morning.”

Apparently, my doctor raised heck around the hospital, because I was practically treated like royalty as soon as I arrived at the hospital. No waiting, no gimmicks. They all knew me as “Dr. Strong’s patient,” and rushed to get me set up so Dr. Strong could begin the induction ASAP. (I think we arrived in like 45 minutes, instead of 30 I promised, and they said they had been waiting for me!)

Let the induction begin!

It’s about 10 a.m. now, so how are Tyler and I feeling at this point? I’m sure Tyler was fine, but me…I was super anxious! I kept telling Tyler that I wasn’t ready, and he kept telling me “too bad!” I even remember him explaining it as a roller coaster and that I was already strapped into the seat headed up the track. Excellent.

The nurses quickly began my i.v. and let me tell you something…the i.v. was, without a doubt, the worst part of the induction. When the nurse began it (ironically, the same nurse who delivered Dash), she informed me that I was the pilot for a new type of i.v. that no one in the hospital had done. Hmmm…. And, because of that, like four nurses and my doctor were all going to participate/watch. Hmmm…again. Do you know I am deathly afraid of getting sticked, let alone on a new procedure with an audience watching?

Well, as you can imagine, they screwed it up the first time and had to try again a second. Meanwhile, I am sweating, the room is starting to go dark, and I swear I am seconds from passing out. I made Tyler fan me, even though I know he thought I was being dramatic.

Fortunately, they get the i.v. situated, start the drugs, and induced we are!

For the next few hours, Tyler and I just hung out while the meds made their way into my body. I wasn’t feeling a thing, so we actually enjoyed an entire movie—The Social Network—highly recommended!

Slowly, around 1:30 p.m. or 2:00 p.m., I started feeling contractions. There weren’t bad, but present. When the nurse checked me, I was only dilated to a four, so honestly, my whole family started preparing for a long labor. Tyler was repairing to take Dash to the mall for a bit; my dad was planning to go visit my grandparents; I was preparing for a late night birth.

Although I was not in much pain, the nurse advised me to go ahead and get the epidural, since, due to the anesthesiologist’s schedule, it would have to be now---or like five hours later at 7:00 p.m.

When the anesthesiologist arrived, I was super glad I had listened to the nurse, cause I was ready for stronger drugs. In just a small amount of time, the pain had increased dramatically. Pitocin apparently makes the contractions stronger and quicker, and well, I felt it.

At 3:30 p.m., I had the epidural, and Phew! Was I glad for the relief…except that the relief NEVER CAME! The epidural never worked. Yep, that’s right. The epidural didn’t work. Did you know that was even possible!? I didn’t!

My nurse was having me lay this way and that way. She was pushing the med button to add more. She was trying everything, but I was in pain---and at this point it was pretty intense. (In fact, Lord forgive me, cause I know I said a swear or two.)

After much suffering, they paged the anesthesiologist. A different one comes in this time and sees that clearly, something isn’t right. He runs all over pumping me with meds and doing what he knows until finally a light bulb goes off.

“Have they checked you recently?” he asked. “Cause I think I think the reason your in pain is because the baby is ready to come out.”

No one would have guessed that I had progressed that much so quickly, but sure enough, I at a 9 and ready to deliver that baby!

A few minutes later, my doctor came in, had a look, and said, “Let’s try a ‘Practice Push’.”

Two pushes and 3 minutes later, Tad was born! It was that quick and I feel like super woman cause I did it sans an epidural that worked!

So did it hurt? Yes and No. It hurt like hell up until the pushing part---cause that was about when all the meds kicked it. Seriously, I was told later that I was progressing so quickly that the epidural just wasn’t able to catch up to my body. However, after it was all over, those massive amounts of epidural meds sat in my system forever!! I couldn’t get out of bed til about four hours later, and even then, I could barely walk!

I remember my sister-in-law, Mimi, asking how Dash could be climbing on my bed and on my legs—“Doesn’t it hurt?” Um, no, cause I am doped up from the waist down.

Even though I did not deliver my child without pain meds, I was close. And I could totally see where a woman could. Looking back, even though I was in so much pain during the contractions (SO MUCH PAIN!), it was so quick that, honestly, I could do it again. And who knows, maybe one day, we will!