Where was I? Waiting for the anesthesiologist?
I was starting to get a little anxious. Our nurse finally set me up with an IV. My contractions were coming close together and were intense enough that I just kept my eyes closed. I didn’t even see her do it. I have bad veins, but this nurse got it in one try. Nathan was impressed. I would have been if I was really paying attention! I was more relieved that I was one step closer to getting some relief from the pain. I was happy to hear that she had called the anesthesiologist.
I don’t remember for sure, but I think I still didn’t have the belt on to monitor the contractions. Instead of having the print-out to tell Nathan when I was having a contraction, I would tell him when one started and when it stopped. I wasn’t getting more than about 20 seconds between contractions.
I told Nathan that I was thought I was in transition. I couldn’t just quietly breathe and focus on relaxing. I switched to shorter breaths, and saying “ow” over and over, but still did my best to keep my muscles relaxed. Since the anesthesiologist hadn’t arrived yet, I tried not to seem like I was in too much pain. I must have done a pretty good job of that since our nurse didn’t think she needed to check me to see how progressed I was!
At about 2:30, the anesthesiologist arrived! Woohoo! I was happy to see him, but I was thinking he was too late. The pressure was really intense. He asked me all the necessary health history questions and was telling me all the risks involved. I didn’t care. I wanted him to get the show on the road, stop talking and get the epidural placed. The contractions were so bad that I knew it would be hard to find a break in them for him to get it done. A contraction ended, and I rolled on my side and curled into a little ball for him and lay there without moving.
The contractions didn’t really cooperate. I decided that since I was getting the epidural, it wouldn’t hurt for the nurse to know how much pain I was feeling. I assured them it wasn’t the epidural, it was the contractions. Once the catheter was in place and taped, I think I announced that was going to have the baby right then. That was news to the nurse. She told me that I could not have the baby yet and decided to check me. She quickly realized that I wasn’t a hysterical woman who had no pain tolerance. I was completely dilated and baby was in place and ready to be born. This was only about 2 hours after my labor started and an hour and a half after arriving at the hospital.
The anesthesiologist was hanging out in the room. I think that’s protocol. They stick around for just a little while to make sure everything is stable. He took pity on me and made sure the pain meds were flowing. I know it seems silly to labor all the way to the end and then get an epidural, but the on-call doctor was not there. They wanted me to wait to have the baby until the doctor arrived (apparently, the nurse didn’t want to deliver the baby). Until the epidural took effect, I endured the contractions and pressure by using short breaths and telling everyone how much pressure I was feeling. The medicine finally took effect and I could relax a little as we waited.
30 minutes later, the doctor arrived. She put on her gloves and gown and had me push. Isaac was born a couple of pushes later at 3:13am. I was so happy to be done and ready to send a thank you card to the anesthesiologist.
