Thomas' Birth Day Story

Let's hope that little Mr. Sleeping Beauty decides to keep on sleeping right now, so that I can finally get some time to post our story.

It started on Tuesday morning around 6:00 in the morning. I had some really strong contractions for about 45 minutes, and then....NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING. So, I decided to stay up & just do whatever. Enjoyed a cup of coffee, went on my usual email/website/twitter/news update run. Then at 8:41 I had one of those iffy contractions. Feels exactly like the real thing, just really weak. I started having those every 7-10 minutes without any regularity for about 2 hours. They only went over a 10 minute period once-and that was 11 minutes apart. Steve was getting up to go to work, and I asked him what he wanted to do. We decided to call the labor & delivery nurse to get her advice. I was completely honest with her. I told her they were regular, felt exactly like a "real" contraction, but that I could talk through them. In fact, I had a contraction on the phone and said "see, this is what I sound like with these contractions." She told me that I was more than welcome to come in to be checked, but that chances were to not get my hopes up. So we took our time. We packed up the last of our bags. I did the dishes, cleaned up a little bit, got the kids finished packing for their "activities bag" to keep them busy during the wait at the hospital. We left and did a couple of errands. Steve had to stop at the bank for cash for the vending machines & stuff at the hospital. I realized I hadn't eaten anything yet, so we stopped and got some food. We had planned everything well, but didn't have any tape for the video camera (gotta love procrastination!) so we went into Rite-Aid and got the tapes. Steve was wandering towards the aisles to start perusing the cool stuff, and I was getting irritated because I was afraid my contractions would stop before we got to the hospital and then I'd lose my chance of being admitted. I started having less regular & more sporadic contractions at that point, and each one wasn't really all that painful. I was able to stand without help & whisper, I just couldn't carry on conversation too easily.

So finally we make it over to the hospital around 1:45 or so. She hooks me up to the monitor, and...NOTHING. Not a single darn contraction. She checked my cervix and told me I was about 3 centimeters with 50% effacement. That was good, because at my appointment Friday I had been 2 1/2 with 30%. Just as she was about to unhook the monitor, I had a doozy of a contraction (thank goodness!) so she told us she was going to ask the doctor what he wanted us to do. Doctor's advice was to go ahead and walk around the halls for an hour & see what would happen. So we walked. And walked. And walked. The good thing was, I started getting regular contractions, all 5 minutes apart. They started getting a little stronger. I could tell because my irritation meter started shooting up whenever one would hit!

So, after about an hour of walking with regular contractions the nurse hooks me up to the monitor again. Guess what. NOTHING. NADA. ZIP. ZILCH! No more stinkin' contractions! I asked her if she would check me again, because I knew I wasn't imagining things. So she checks me and says I'm up to 3 1/2 maybe 4. She's about to send me home when a series of contractions start up. Irregular but definitely there. So the doctor comes in, checks me and says "Nope..she's at 5" Looks at me and says "Congratulations Mama..you're gonna have a baby today" My mouth dropped....whuuuuuu?? Oh. My. Gosh. This is real now.

Ok, so here's the point in the story where I stop everything and tell you the side note about the nurse. She was definitely not the nicest nurse you've ever met in your life. The whole time we were being checked, she was being extremely rude to us. Her bedside manner was very abrupt, she didn't talk, smile, make eye contact-NOTHING. She started having a coughing fit and didn't cover her mouth. She coughed on me, Steve, the linens closet as she was looking for something, and while she was examining me. At one point she actually burped OUT LOUD without so much as an "oops..excuse me." When I said I was glad that I was at almost a 4 and at least that's getting towards the halfway point to Steve, she rudely interrupted me and said "Um, no, actually it's more like a 2 1/2 to 3" extremely sarcastic. When the doctor came in and said I as a 5 she acted like she was surprised, as though she didn't actually know how to check centimeters at all or something.

Also, one of the stipulations of my being able to deliver at the hospital so close to home was that I was to get the same Liver Function tests that I had been receiving ever since my hospital stay. It was made extremely clear to me what I was to inform the nurses & doctors about, and that it was vital that I follow the orders, because they still didn't know what had ever happened to me. She said very rudely "Honey-I don't know what you need those tests for, so I don't know what tests to perform" I told her for the umpteenth time that I had the paper in the car & Steve could go down and get it for her so that she would know exactly what to test for. So Steve leaves as I'm being rushed a bag of I.V. fluids to be allowed to start the epidural soon. All of a sudden I had the worst urge to pee EVER. Only thing was-the nurse was gone and she hadn't left me the call button. So there I am-having to go so bad that I was seriously considering just wetting the bed because it was so painful and no one around to help me. I called Steve on the bedside phone (luckily I knew how to use it from my previous hospital stint) to tell him to please figure out how to send a nurse to me because I was totally stuck there. So he's rushing back to the room-the nurse pops in for 2 seconds with this Styrofoam wedge thing and literally PLOPS it on my legs. Just as I'm about to say "oh thank goodness, I really have to use the restroom" she gets a call on her cell phone (at this point I have no idea it's the way the nurses communicate-I think it's just a cell phone) I'm opening my mouth to speak and she starts walking out of the room. UMMMM. So Steve makes it back, unhooks me from everything (again, only because of our previous hospital stay) I use the restroom & start getting back into the bed while Steve's going to hook me up again. She walks in the room, stands there blankly looking directly at Steve hooking me back up-all the while she's blocking him from getting through. At this point she takes the wedge & shoves it under my right side, leaving me totally off balance w/my back muscles trying to compensate for being elevated in such a weird position. I tell her it's really uncomfortable, is there any way I can get a pillow or something to place on the other side to sort of balance me out. She sort of sighs or huffs or whatever and leaves for my pillow. Steve and I are getting angrier by the minute. We hadn't realized that we'd be stuck with her for so long. I had talked to Kathy, who is a nurse at the same hospital, and she told me her shift would be over at 7 (2 1/2 hours away at this point) so I should consider asking for a new nurse if this was how it was going to be. So anyway, the nurse comes back and gets another call on her cell phone so she drops the pillow on my foot and walks over to my chart and starts whining "I know..I know, but she keeps insisting on these tests..no really, I understand, but if she keeps demanding them, I don't know what else we should do!"

Oh. No. She. Didn't.

So I interrupt her little phone call with "Um, excuse me, NO." She looks up startled as I say "You know what, just discharge me-I'm going to go to Kaiser in San Diego right now" So she tells whoever is on the phone "Let me call you back, I need to talk to the patient" I let loose exactly how I felt about her. Everything. How dare she drop things on my feet, leave a patient without any communication in a room all by herself delivering a BABY, treat me as though I'm a lesion because I am telling them I need some tests, force me, the patient, to even COMMUNICATE those tests back and forth (isn't that THEIR job?) and then say in front of ME, the PATIENT that I am insisting and being demanding. Isn't that a conversation you take OUTSIDE????" So that witch of a doctor comes over to my side, starts stroking my ARM and saying "I know hon, I know..I'm on YOUR side. It was the mean old doctor telling me he wouldn't do it and I was DEFENDING you" She then proceeds to tell me to basically "shush" because she knows how tired I am, and that I've been struggling with a frustrating labor so far and I need to just relax" So that was the point that Steve starting ripping into her. "Um, NO, it's not being tired-it's YOU. We were in the hospital for FIVE DAYS and if a doctor tells us to get some damn blood work done, we're gonna get that blood work done. If that means leaving the hospital and going to Kaiser, then FINE, that's what we're going to do, but he damn sure weren't going to sit here and watch his wife get treated this way for advice given to her from her doctor" The lady just about looked like she was going to cry. Good. So she whimpers "Do you want a new nurse?" Without pause or hesitation I said "ABSOLUTELY. Thank you."

So now we resume our labor story, which, by the way, is completely boring at this point. Don't feel guilty if your eyes glaze over :)~

So then things start to really warm up. Our nurse comes in, the most beautiful angel in the world, apologizes for her colleagues behavior and stunned because she was surprised that we were unsatisfied with her service. We let her know that it would impossible to tell w/out a patient complaining, because she was sweet as sugar to us whenever someone else was there.
Anyway, the nurse gets me all set up for the epidural to be started. He comes in, performs the procedure, and the nurse sat there with her forehead against mine the entire time, talking quietly, telling me exactly what was going to happen next-telling me when to breath and when to hold my breath. She whispered encouragement the entire time, and before I knew it, I was doped up!

My body decided to go into hyper drive once my epidural was in. I was feeling some pain, but we attributed it to the catheter or just the pressure that happens even though the epidural was in place. I went to7 centimeters within a matter of an hour or so. Then, all of a sudden, I started feeling really bad pain. The epidural was only working on my stomach and back, but I could literally feel myself moving up in centimeters. So as we waited for the anesthesiologist Steve got to go through the holding of the hand, wiping of the brow contractions that every man should have to help through in order to get a child. Finally the anesthesiologist comes in and gives me 2 shots of something or other which put my legs into an oatmeal mush-the kind you get when you get work done on your teeth, and you can feel how mushy your mouth is, but it feels like there's nothing there at the same time. I couldn't even assist in moving me at all-they had to heave me up whenever I started slipping. I felt like that TLC show "The Half Ton Man" as they were counting to three and shoving me up by the pads underneath me :) Anyway, at least there wasn't any more pain. Then, at around 9 1/2 centimeters I got really nauseous. They offered me an anti-nausea medicine and I said it would probably be a good idea, since we were getting so close to pushing and everything. So she put the stuff in my I.V. and oh my gosh. I turned into a total nutcase. I was freaking out-worried about pushing because I felt so weird. I was sweating, still feeling nauseated, I don't even know what else. I couldn't move my legs, I was afraid of how I was going to keep them up to push. I don't know-just went plum crazy I guess. So everyone did their best to calm me down. At that point Hannah expressed how much she wanted to be in the room also, so the nurse said she would allow an extra person (we were only allowed 4 total, so Hannah made 5) Anyway, I started feeling the pressure of needing to push-something I don't remember feeling so strongly with Andrew or Hannah. I told the nurse, so she checked me and was surprised I was at 10 (we were anticipating another 2 to 3 hours before we got to 10) So she told me to give those first tentative pushes to see if she needed to call the doctor. 2 pushes in and she was saying "don't push don't push!" So the doctor comes in, tells me to give a push, then says "OK, now give me a minute" I don't know the exact amount of pushes, but they tell me from that 1st push with the nurse to the last push it was 13 minutes. Poor Steve & Michelle got stuck holding my legs the whole time, so they didn't get to go over to the table and see him for the first 10 minutes or so. Kathy was video taping the whole time so at least we got to see afterwards everything we missed while the doctor was finishing up.

At 12:13 a.m. Thomas Nash Amaral was born weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces and 19 inches long. Hannah was extremely pleased to be the largest over her 2 brothers (8 pounds 13 ounces 20.5 inches long). Unfortunately, after the initial belly minute with Thomas on me, I wasn't able to hold him for a few hours. I was really shaky and couldn't move well. I was still nauseous and was completely afraid I would drop Thomas. The kids got to hold him. Hannah sang little songs to him, and Andrew was so overcome with emotion he started crying when he held him (remember my story earlier about Andrew's graduation-pretty much exactly like that).

Steve looked like the proudest Papa to ever walk the planet. I have never in my life seen him the way I do now with Thomas. It is the most beautiful thing ever.

No matter what happens in this life, I hope that Thomas always knows he is loved more than any one of us can express.