Birth # 1

My first child's birth. All I can say is WOW! There was so much I'd read about but so much I still didn't know. You see a doctor every month and then near the end every other week but they don't give you much info.

His birth started with me leaking amniotic fluid that morning. I called the doctors office and got the on-call dr. He rudely told me that it was probably just my bladder leaking. I was pretty sure I would know if I peed on myself! I nicely told him thank you and hung up.

We decided to slowly make our way to Lake Charles. We stopped at the Factory Connection Outlet and when I got out of the car and stood up the amniotic fluid started leaking again. We decided we should just go ahead to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital they checked me in and did a strip test to see if it was amniotic fluid and got an inconclusive result. Probably because all the amniotic fluid was gone by that time. They called the doctor and because I wasn't having contractions and my blood pressure was a little high he told them to start me on pitocin. Looking back the blood pressure issue was probably because I was nervous about being in the hospital and because the first nurse had me laying on my right side.

A little while after being there the nursing shift changed and my new nurse was one from the birthing class we had taken. The first thing she did was tell me to lie on my left side. When they started the pitocin she told me that the contractions would get painful and if I wanted pain meds it would be best to get them early on as they may not work as well further into labor. I went ahead and asked for the pain meds. They put me on Demerol and I fell asleep. I don't remember much after they gave me the meds. I remember coming out of the fog a few times and going to the bathroom once. They tried to get me to use a bed pan but that was just crazy.

At some point I came to enough to tell them I needed to push and they wheeled me to a delivery room. I remember it being all very sterile and bright. By this time I was in a lot of pain and just wanting to go back to sleep. Vinson held my hand and after just a few pushes Tanek was born at 12:56 pm, weighing 8 lbs. 5 oz. The doctor held him up for me to see but my glasses were back in the room so he was mostly blurry. He had a good set of lungs and let us know about it.

The next thing I remember is being back in my hospital room with Tanek swaddled in a blanket. Vinson, my parents and Vinson's mom were all there oohing and ahhing over our new bundle of joy. I fell back into my medicated haze.

When I woke in the morning I was still a little groggy but happy to have my new baby boy in my arms.