Andrew's Arrival-- Part 3

Let's see. So... I just got the epidural and am feeling much, MUCH better. Hubby came back in and started making phone calls to let people know I had been admitted and this was it. After he got through the list, I had him call my mom back and remind her to call my dad. Turns out, she was up and dressed and getting ready to head to the hospital. I guess she decided the birth of her grandson was more important than singing in choir at church that morning!

Mom showed up and her, the hubby and I sat around for a few pretty uneventful hours. I'd feel just a bit of pressure with the contractions, but was not having any pain or discomfort. I tried to nap a bit, but was much too excited. And, in all of this, I couldn't get rid of the "shakes." From early on while laboring at home, I'd get the shakes in my legs. Uncontrollable shaking. For a while at the hospital, it was my whole body that would shake. After the epi, the shaking calmed back down and was just the occassional deal. Until I started getting further along and the contractions getting stronger. Then it was back to my whole body shaking again. Really made it hard to nap through. But, like I said, I was too excited to sleep anyways.

After a couple of hours, the nurse checked me and I had made it to 8cm. I was still progressing, so still no breaking my water. Somewhere around 10:15 AM, my nurse checked me again. She said my water was so far down into the canal she could barely do the check for fear she might break it. But, she was guessing me to be at about a 9. We talked, and since I was so close at that point and it was right there, I agreed to let them break my water at this point. We figured it would be just the thing needed to get him to drop that extra bit and get me dilated the rest of the way. So... the nurse went to call my doctor and to tell the resident and have her come do the procedure.

The resident came in, went to do an internal check, and broke my water while doing it since it was right there. She agreed with the nurse that I was about a 9 and it shouldn't be more than an hour or so and I'd be pushing this baby out. That was at 10:37AM. (the nurse actually gave us the exact times later on). At 10:40AM, nurse was suddenly shifting my position around in the bed and pushing the call button for extra help. Andrew's heartrate had crashed and wasn't coming back up.

I was immediately surrounded by a half-dozen people that I'm pretty sure just materialized through the walls. They cathetered me, put a scalp monitor on the baby, put me on oxygen and continued to poke and jostle and shift. The resident breifly explained what was going on and said they needed to be ready to do a c-section if his heartrate didn't come back up. Thankfully, it did... though they had me sign the consent form, just in case.

They had found a position that baby was happy in and basically told me I couldn't move from there. It was not at all comfortable, but after all of that, I wasn't moving an inch! All I cared about was keeping his heartrate steady and keeping him okay. I was scared to death in all of that, yet managed to stay very calm. I think I was too worried to freak out, for fear it would make things harder on Andrew. It also helped that while everything was happening at such a lightening speed, the doctors and nurses remained very calm. There was definitely a sense of urgency in the room. But never a sense of panic... which made it easier on all of us.