The Birthday: June 27, 2007

You have probably read my post from this morning that I posted just before we left, and I texted a couple of posts from my phone. Here’s the just of what went down:

5:00AM
We showed up at the hospital. The lady at the ER desk was new and had no idea of what was going on. It’s always comforting to be greeted at the hospital like that.


5:10 AM
We were kindly showed into our birthing room (Birthing Suite F).

5:20AM
The nurse stuck Lynnell with an IV (which we later found out was totally unnecessary until she wanted the epidural, and then it was necessary...so we lucked out). They also hooked her up to the monitors and got the baby monitor going as well. Contractions at this point were about 4-5 minutes apart, but not very painful…yet.



6:00AM
Contractions are still 4-5 minutes apart and getting slightly more painful.

6:15AM
We unhooked Lynnell from the monitors and went for a walk around the maternity ward. We made about 4 laps in 20 minutes. Of course that also included pulling over to the side of the hall for contraction pit stops every 4 minutes.

6:35AM
Back in the room, and contractions are getting more painful. I tell you what; I never knew my wife had such a strong grip. When she would have a contraction, I would holder her hand and tell her to breath. She looked at me like she wanted to rip my beating heart out of my body as she squeezed the blood out of my hand. It was mildly painful at first, but as the contractions got more severe so did the hand crushing.


7:00AM
Contractions! Contractions! Contractions!

8:00AM
The contractions were getting more and more painful, and at this point he tears started rolling. Luckily I have mad skills when it comes to dabbing tears.

8:10AM
The nurse came in to check Lynnell. She was dilated to about 5.5cm. That’s a good thing. That means we are moving forward. At this point we learned that the water had not broke as was previously thought. The first nurse that checked her when we came in did a test to determine if there was amniotic fluid. The test was positive, but it turns out that it was the forebag (a small sack before the amniotic sack). That meant that the actual water hadn’t broke yet. That provided an explanation as to why the dilation wasn’t moving as fast as we had hoped it would. Even more unfortunate was the fact that the doctor was downstairs performing a C-section, so he wasn’t going to make it anytime soon to break the water.

8:20AM
We are still sticking out the contractions. Word is, the doc is on the way.

8:45AM
The doctor showed up. It was our first time meeting him. He was a very nice guy. He grabbed the hook, stuck it in and popped the water. After he was done, we got back up to do some more laps. We only made 2 this time because the contractions were getting really severe now. We knew they were going to because after the water is broken the uterus is able to squeeze on something without being stopped by the pressure.

9:15AM
Contractions were pretty bad. The death grip was getting stronger and my hands were becoming more deformed. That and I could now visibly see where Lynnell’s fingers were forcing the blood out of my hands. Not only that, but the dragon (yes I’m now referring to Lynnell) was becoming more and more irritable. It seemed like she was ready to kill the first thing that came within reach. Unfortunately for me, she was still holding me in her bone crushing clutches.

10:00AM
The dragon is alive. She also started brushing up on her French a little at this point. For fear of my life, I didn’t dare remind her that she speaks perfectly good English and doesn’t need French substitutions. All I did was remind her that she was doing a great job and just needed to keep breathing. Contractions were now 3 minutes apart and really painful. I say painful based on how bad my hand was hurting and the expression on Lynnell’s face. It was a complicated formula, but I was learning how to master it.

10:30AM
Lynnell informs me that she can’t do it naturally. She wanted an epidural. I did what I thought was best. I kindly reminded her that she really wanted to do it naturally and that we could make it through this ordeal. All we had to do was take it one contraction at a time. She gripped my hand, looked me in the eye and said “I WANT AN EPIDURAL!” It was looking into the eyes of a raging bull. I was terrified.

10:45AM
Our nurse shows up min-contraction. I could tell that she knew exactly how bad the pain was when she say Lynnell (she has two kids of her own). Lynnell unconditionally and unwaveringly requested an epidural. I signed the form with my mangled hand and the nurse promptly left.

10:47AM
The nurse comes back to tell us that the anesthesiologist was on the way.

11:00AM
The anesthesiologist showed up. I really wanted to stick around to see the whole process, but that didn’t happen. I tried to reason with him, but it was like talking to a wall. Boy was I impressed…NOT! I moped into the hall where I promptly sent a text to my blog to vent (see previous posts).

11:10AM
The epidural was done, and Lynnell was just sitting there the way purring cats sit and slowly blink their eyes. Notice the thumbs up now versus the jaws of life mentioned earlier.


11:20AM
The flame breathing, hand crushing beast was now well subdued. She was just watching TV and laughing and my corny jokes and the commercials. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t do use this miracle fluid. So, I thought this would be a good time to go find something to eat. I ended up grabbing a salad from the hospital restaurant and taking It back to the room.

11:45AM
It was now time for the catheter. Turns out when you can’t feel anything below your waist, you can’t control anything below your waist. I did get to watch that. It looked like it could potentially be painful. I’m just glad we had a nurse that had enough experience to know to wait for the epidural to take full effect before sticking a ¼” tube in an 1/8” hole.

12:00PM
The contractions started to become farther apart and less severe. This is bad, so the doctor put Lynnell on pitosin. This is an artificial drug that helps get the uterus contracting. They started it out slow.

12:30PM
Contractions are more regular and becoming more frequent. That’s a good thing because it means everything is starting to move in the right direction again. Lynnell was still just hanging out and enjoying the ride. It looked like a good time at this point.

12:45PM
The nurse keeps popping in more frequently. She keeps updating us and giving great advice while carrying on good conversation.

1:00PM
The family called. They hate Montana road construction. I can’t blame them because I also hate it. Little do they know that the Montana state flag is one of those big orange road signs that reads “Road Construction Next 50 Miles.” HA. You guys wanted to come (and we wanted you to), so deal with it.

1:30PM
Lynnell is now dilated to 10cm. That means that it’s time to push the kid out, but we had to wait for the doctor to come give us the ok.


2:10PM
The doctor comes in the room, checks out Lynnell and says “It’s time to push. Next time she starts a contraction, get her pushing.” (that was to the nurse.) Then the nurse turns to us and says “It’s time!” I was rejoicing inside and very excited.



2:12PM
Next contraction starts. With the nurse on one side and me on the other, we put her into the labor pin and tell her to start pushing. She gives 3 good hard pushes (10 seconds each) for each contraction. This continues for the next 15 minutes.

2:20PM
At this point I’m really glad that Lynnell go the epidural. Contractions were somewhere between 1 and 2 minutes apart. Also, you could see the baby’s head in the birth canal. It was at this point that we found out she had a full head of hair…and it was dark brown like mine. SWEET!

2:25PM
The doctor shows up in the room, dons his delivery robe and pops a squat at the exit chute. There was also another nurse that came in to assist the doctor if anything went wrong. Our regular nurse was now busy getting the warming bed ready and making sure everything was in order to receive a baby.


2:40PM
The baby’s head is now starting to crown on the pushes (crowning means it’s poking out of Lynnell…incase you didn’t know), but it is a 2 steps forward 1 step back process. I was confident enough that Lynnell was doing such a great job to say “push hard honey, Let’s have her at 2:45.” Lynnell just laughed.

2:45PM
Lynnell gave it her best, but she didn’t have her yet. Now this is where I was slightly disturbed. Now that the baby’s head is sticking out of my wife’s vagina enough for half of her head to be out, the doctor starts playing with the baby’s hair. It wasn’t just a rub. It was a comb over and then an Alfalfa hairdo and then it was a Mohawk and then It was spikes. I couldn’t tell what drove this doctor to believe that playing with my baby’s hair as it hangs out of my wife’s vagina was ok. It didn’t bother me too much, so I didn’t say anything. I just thought it was odd.

2:46PM
Another contraction and some good hard pushing brought the baby to the brink of making her grand exit. I asked Lynnell if it hurt. She looked at me calmly and said “Nope. It just feels like a lot of pressure.”

2:48PM
SHE POPPED OUT!!! YES! It’s a girl (the ultrasounds were right). She came out just fine. No complications. The doctor gave her a quick rub, suctioned all of the fluid out of her nose and mouth and then put her up on Lynnell. She started crying right away (a good thing). That means she’s getting lot’s of air into her lungs to help dry them out. I think I saw a tear roll down Lynnell’s cheek, and I’m sure that it was from joy, not pain because she still had the epidural in.

Watching a baby come out of a woman’s nether region was definitely a new experience. Sure I saw it happen in the birthing video’s, but it just wasn’t the same as the real life experience.


2:50PM
After the placenta was delivered (at least I think it was after), the doctor clamped off the umbilical cord and I did the honors.

2:55PM
Our nurse took the baby to the little baby warming station where she did the usual stuff. At least I’m assuming that it’s usual. Since I don’t have anything to compare it to, it’s usual to me. She weighed her. 8 pounds even. Measured her head and her height (19.5 inches long).


3:02PM
I put her first diaper on her. Sweet! She cried the entire time. I probably did too (when I was born. Not when I put her diaper on her).


3:10PM
Back in moms arms.



More to come (when I have more free time)…Which could be a while