Birth Story Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

The contractions grew really strong at the end. I remember being surprised by the intensity. I found that closing my eyes and making some kind of noise through them helped. I was still in pretty good spirits though because I remember asking if I was being too loud only to have Jetty and the nurse laugh and say no. I was squeezing Jetty's hand through each contraction. I think it was partly because I wanted some way to convey the level of pain I was feeling. Jetty later told me that he had to take his wedding ring off because I would squeeze his hand so tightly that it would make the ring dig right into his fingers.

Finally I thought I must be at 10cm and asked the nurse to check. She let me know I was just about there but still had about 1cm to go. For some reason this made me mad at her as though it was her fault I wasn't there yet. So back to my chair it was to make it through a few more contractions. Finally I really started to feel the urge to push and during a few contractions I could feel my body doing it involuntarily. I asked the nurse to check again and she said I was ready to go. I was so relieved. I was excited to have the OB come in and get our little baby out.

Unfortunately it wasn't time for the OB to show up yet. The nurse insisted that I start pushing before the he showed up. This also made me angry because it made me realize that she thought it would take a long time for me to push. I wanted so badly to prove her wrong. I started pushing as hard as I could with each contraction. The nurse and Jetty would let me know when each push was effective. All of a sudden my contractions started slowing right down. One of them was even 7mins from the previous. This gave me time to recover and get ready for the next push. Finally the nurse called the OB and I pushed while waiting for him to show up. He also had an intern with him for the delivery and she was the one that would be delivering our baby.

They asked Jetty if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord and after confirming that he couldn't "mess it up" he agreed that he would like to cut the cord. They also asked him if he wanted to announce the gender and we both agreed we'd like him to do it.

The next few pushes it felt like I was getting nowhere. I remember through a few small contractions saying that they just weren't strong enough for me to push effectively. Finally I had some really strong ones. I remembered being told about the "ring of fire" and was so determined to just push through it and not let it hold me back. Because I was ignoring that and pushing against the pressure I don't remember a distinct "ring of fire" moment. After a few more strong pushes the head came out. When they told me I couldn't believe it had just happened. I felt the Dr. rotate our baby and let me know to get ready for a strong push to get the shoulders out. I was so excited to find out whether our little one was a boy or girl. I gave a strong push and looked up to see our little baby being lifted to my chest.

I knew Jetty was supposed to announce the gender but as soon as I looked up I couldn't help saying incredulously "It's a BOY?!" I was shocked. I think I even said this before Jetty had a chance to say "It's a Boy!!" He was placed right on my chest and Jetty and I just snuggled and stared at him. I couldn't believe he was finally here. After an hour of pushing our baby was here!

The nurses and staff excitedly asked his name as we hadn't told them our names up until then and we shared "Elias William" they all said it was beautiful and marveled at his long dark hair. We got a few family pictures while I delivered the placenta and was checked for tears. Everyone told me that I wouldn't really realize whether I was getting stitches or not and wouldn't remember that part, but I had one ear listening in on the Dr.s convo as they discussed the fact that the small tears I had didn't require stitches. Yay!

Finally I felt I could relax as we stared at our little boy.  Jetty made some quick calls to the grandparents and my parents headed right over to the hospital. Everyone was so excited to hear that Elias had made it safe and sound.

We were parents- mommy and daddy. It just blew our minds and we were filled with love.

More Elias William stories to come...