Delivery

Once I let the nurse know that yes, I would like the epidural, things got rolling.

The new nurse, April, brought in by Amanda (?) got to work on placing an IV in my hand. The IV was so that I would stay hydrated, which was important for the baby, and also to run the antibiotics for Group B Strep. (Remember, I had just had the test performed the day before. The hospital had not had a chance to run it to see if I was carrying the virus--which is very dangerous for babies if they pick it up during birth--so they treated me as if I had tested positive. No problem.)

Now, by FAR, the placing of the IV was one of the most painful things I've ever experienced. It was probably second only to them checking how dilated I was. I think this speaks to the power of the epidural, because truly, should delivery have been more painful?

One of the weirdest things I've ever experienced was how the lower half of my body felt with the epidural. I literally could not feel a thing below my belly, other than light pressure. I even tried a couple times to lift one leg above the other, and I maybe could move it a couple inches into the air. It was so bizarre.

Anyway, once everything was ready, Doctor Harward came in to talk to me and kind of talk me through what was going to happen. He asked me how I felt about getting an episiotomy, and I told him how I honestly felt. If it looked like I was going to tear, then I'd trust him to do the episiotomy. Doctor Harward told me that this next part (delivery) could take anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours, and encouraged me to push with all of my might.

Around 11:50, everything was ready to go, and I began to push.

April held my left leg, and Tyler held my right leg. I concentrated on figuring out how to push when I could not feel anything. I could tell I was pushing, but I had no idea how well (or not) I was doing.

I guess things went pretty well because Richie was born at 12:16 AM--about twenty-five minutes after I began pushing. Dr. Harward turned to Tyler and let him cut the umbilical cord.

It turns out that I did tear, and they did have to do an episiotomy. Even though Richie was so small, I was even smaller. Dr. Harward even said that it was probably a good thing for me that he was born early. Had Rich made it to full term, things would have been much more difficult for me (and I would have torn much worse).

So Dr. Harward began the process of stitching me back up, and the nurses got to work on cleaning Richie off, and getting him ready to go to the special care nursery.

Unfortunately, because he was born so early, I only got to hold him for a few minutes and give him a little kiss before they took him away to monitor how he was doing and take care of him.

Tyler followed Richie out with the nurses, and then it was just me and Doctor Harward and April (I think). April was cleaning things up, Doctor Harward was stitching me up, and I was sitting there kind of in disbelief that I had just delivered a baby. I was no longer pregnant. Our little guy was here.

Once the stitching was done, and things were cleaned up, I was left by myself for a little while. Truthfully, I got a little lonely waiting for someone to come get me, or for Tyler to return, or to go get cleaned up. I was so grateful when Tyler came back for just a few seconds while the nurses were placing an IV in Richie.

And I was so grateful to April when she came back and helped me get cleaned up so that I could go visit my son in the special nursery before heading to my hospital room (117) for recovery. (I delivered in room 6, by the way, which is my favorite number, so I knew things would all work out.)

But I was so tired, and so ready for recovery time, which I will try to remember and describe next time.

Me, post-epidural. (Seriously, I was the most comfortable at this point than I had been in days.)

Our precious little boy! (Doctor Harward is in the background.)

He's so little and so perfect!!

I just love our little guy.


(This is the picture of Dr. Harward from the Intermountain Healthgroup website, for those of you who are curious.)