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Week by Week

Baby Kordek

OK when I was due to have Adri my first child my mother came down to help out and be there for the birth, as well as help out later, after the baby was born for a few weeks. She came down and immediately helped me to organize and start to get a lot of my neglected house stuff done. I had all my laundry folded, even the summer stuff (it hadn't been done yet in Jan yet). She got me to walk every day and was just all around good for me and my state of mind.

My due date came and went, finally on the 8th day after I was due the contractions started. I had had an appointment the Friday before and my OB whom I adored told me he would not be available if I had the baby over the weekend so not to go into labor until Monday morning. He also told me I was going to have a 7 1/2 Lb baby from his estimate.

Monday morning I woke up at 5:30 DESPERATLY needing to pee. I didn't get 3 steps down the hall towards the bathroom before I felt the first contraction, it swayed me and I said to myself "oh I know what that is" and continued to the BR to empty my bladder and went back to bed. I DID NOT sleep but I did take note the Ctx were far apart (15-12 min apart) and irregular in strength and duration. When Mark woke up I did not tell him I was in Labor, I had an appointment that day and would find out if this was the real thing then. I did tell him I was not gonna get him his breakfast because I was not comfortable because of the Ctx (I had been having a lot of Braxton-Hicks lately, he understood that much). When mom came downstairs I told her and we Timed them and did some exercises she remembered from her being pregnant to ease the discomfort, most of them worked quite well.

I went to my appointment and when Dr. asked how I was feeling I responded with "not bad, I am in labor though." He smiled and said he was going to check the position of the baby. When he was checking I had a Ctx and asked him how her position was, he mumbled "I have to wait for this contraction to finish" I felt so smug, I was right! The position was good, I was not very dilated, maybe 2cm (I'm not sure I remember), and he said I might even have an 8 Lb baby. He sent me across the street to the hospital for a Bio-physical Profile (an ultrasound with a contraction monitor to see if the baby was reacting well and how my fluid levels were. She was fine, and I was in some easy labor, I was sent home.

Mom convinced me to take a LONG walk, she bribed me with a piece of German Chocolate Cake at a restaurant called Le Bus almost 2 miles from our house, almost all down hill. I went, slowly, and had my cake. Then we started back UP HILL, the long way to help labor along. I kept stopping every few min to catch my breath and rest through a Ctx. When we got home the Ctx were still 10 min apart but regular and increasing in intensity.

After Mark came home from work I told him I was in Labor but not ready for the hospital yet. That night Mark had a class and I had to go pick him up at school. When I did he was not waiting out front so I parked the car DIRECTLY on the corner (big time illegal parking spot) and went in to find him. While I was in there he came out the other building and was furious that I "was not there" from that building he could not see all the car and I was inside looking for him. A few min later I came out and he saw me going back to the car. He lit into me for "fucking around and making HIM wait" In the ride home (10 min) Mark was VERY verbally abusive and it continued at home. My mother later told me she was shocked at how he was willing to aggressively, actively hurt my feelings.

My Ctx slacked off in intensity, and I was able to sleep through the night. Mark told me he did not sleep, he watched me have Ctx after Ctx in my sleep, none of them actually woke me up but the reaction was noticeable, I would grimace and roll over at least my head, if not my whole body. In the morning I was back at 10 min apart and less than a min in duration.

Finally at about 2pm my Ctx were at 4 min apart, and almost or just a minute long each. We called Dr. Melon (Drew) and told him we were on our way in. I was doing fine with the discomfort, I was at 4cm and my contractions were still "mild", and He guessed the baby was about 8 1/4- 8 1/2 Lbs. I couldn't really talk through the Ctx but I could finish my conversation around them. I was hooked up to a monitor and assigned a student Nurse and put in a labor room (tiny little thing with no room for support people at all. I remember I was in the last room on the left after you came in the door, in the corner (this was supposed to be a slightly larger room since I had 2 people to assist me).

I was there a while (it being shift change and all) and about 4:30 I was moved to a LDR so I could have BOTH Dh and Mom with me, and be more comfortable. Just before I was moved Drew asked if I wanted him to speed things up, I said yes and he augmented my labor by rupturing my bag of waters, and since they were ruptured I was required to start pitocin. I was at 6 cm and was probably having a 8 1/2-9 Lb baby. All this increased the severity and frequency of the contractions. Once I was in a stronger labor I was moved.

I was also assigned a NEW student nurse, this one was a woman. She was more outgoing but they were both into education and communication, she just seemed more comfortable being an active participant than an observer.

I was offered an Epidural and decided I was tired, I agreed to have on so I could get some rest. Within minutes the Ctx became unbearable to me.. HUGE waves of tension and pain, that never seemed to end, as soon as one would end I would catch my breath and another would start. Some of them were double peaked. The Anesthesiologist came in to place the Epidural and Mark came over for me to rest on his (big) belly, and hold on to. He also used some light trance, hypnosis to get me through the insertion of the Epidural (it was the only thing that caused me to pass out in nursing school) When the anesthesiologist asked me how the Epidural felt I told him I would have to wait for a contraction, then I felt a tiny little tightening in this small part of my belly below my bellybutton. the Epidural was PERFECT. My student was watching and she did everything she could to keep me comfortable. At one point she got me all propped up on pillows, some of which she had to go out and find for me. The only problem was the only position I was comfortable in was on my Right side, not the preferred Left side. She had just gotten done when her instructor came in with her tight short dark hair, and her lab coat, and grabbed my pillows and removed them and positioned me on my left side, just like the textbook told all student nurses to do. She told me this was a much better position for me and I asked her if I was comfortable yet. She took the student by the arm and guided her to the door, I heard her tell the student that when first time mothers got near or in transition they got a bit irritable and not to take my snapping at her personally. As soon as the Instructor was gone the student grabbed the pillows and pulled them out and put me back in the original position, it only took one adjustment and I was perfectly comfortable (all things considered) and it took her a couple of minutes not the 40 she originally had to do.

I dilated more quickly after that, I did not feel most of my contractions after that, except for the little spot under my bellybutton. Finally at about 9:30 Drew came in to tell me I was no longer Dilating past the 9th cm, and we needed to talk about alternatives. I knew he was talking about a C-section and since I was a post op nurse who took care of post abdominal patients most of the time I was NOT gonna let him do THAT to ME. I grabbed the siderails and pulled myself into a semi sitting and said through clenched teeth "Like pushing, RIGHT?" He told me I could try, I never did get an urge to push, I just kept doing it.

At one point I heard him say "this pushing is ineffective" and so I used my imagery to change the angle of my pushing, not straight out of my belly but down into my sacrum and BOUNCING her off and out that way. I heard him tell me "oh that's Much better." and she came out after that. I don't remember getting an episiotomy, but I did. I don't remember how long it took. I do remember my mom holding my leg and Drew telling her to hold it higher. I do remember on one BIG push emptying my bowels, and Drew cleaning me up because the baby was crowning at that point. I think I remember him letting me touch the head, but I am not sure. I do remember him plopping her down on my belly and announced she was 9 1/2 maybe 10 Lbs. I was wondering why he hadn't handed her directly to me, She was still attached I know now but then it was a puzzle to me.

They took her and washed her up and I fed her from my breast, she was so gentile, and took to it so fast. I was crying, my mom was crying, mark might have been too. She was so beautiful, and she seemed to smile at me. I am not sure I ever felt so complete in my life, EVER. Drew did an internal of the uterus to be sure there was no retained placenta, and informed me I STILL had a lip to my cervix. while he was stitching up my episiotomy they announced she was 10 Lbs 7 oz, I again pulled myself up into a sitting position and looked down between my legs to where he was and said "you lying SOB" He just smiled and shrugged his shoulders at me. I was transferred upstairs, and Drew ordered me some Tylenol, regular and extra strength, as well as some T-3s if I thought I needed it. I had a "I am a healthy breastfed baby" card on her bassinet. And I told the nurses that I knew since she was so big they would be checking her sugar but if it was high "I" was to feed her from my breast FIRST and then they could give her some sugar water from a bottle. One of the nurses TOTALLY disregarded my wishes on this. I also had to argue with one nurse about how bad my pain was. I asked for 2 regular strength Tylenol, and she brought me 2 T-3s I did not want any narcotics, even mild ones, and told her so. She argued with me that that was what I had asked for, but other than that I had a good experience. I have no idea why it came out looking like this but here it is. ezb Elizabeth C Kordek