It was December 28th 2002 and our induction date was finally here. I am 11 days overdue and boy am I miserable! On our way to the hospital we stopped at the Mustard Seed restaurant where I got an order of Sweet & Sour Chicken and rice. I thought that I would need the food for energy during labor. I ate it in the car on the way to the hospital. We arrived at Deaconess Medical Center at 5:40pm. The nurse checked us in, took my vitals and had me pee in a cup. They were having problems with the computer system so the check in process took quite a while. At 7pm the nurse tried to get an IV started but she blew out one of my veins, so she called an IV specialist. At 7:20pm the IV specialist came in and got the line in. At 7:30 the midwife on call Kathy Bentley, came in to say hi. We also had a nurse sift change and Wendy came in. Wendy was a wonderful nurse. She was the nurse who had helped us when I was in the hospital with pre-term labor. It was nice to see a friendly face.
Midwife Kathy did an internal exam and found that I was 2-3 cm dilated 50% effaced and the baby was –2 station. She told me if I wanted I could just start with pitocin and skip the cytotec as my cervix was ripened enough to do that. But she also said that sometimes Cytotec causes women to go into active labor and they wouldn’t need pitocin. We were trying to avoid the pitocin so we choose to go with the cytotec first. At 7:50pm Kathy inserted the cytotec. I had to stay in bed for an hour to make sure the cytotec dissolved. She said that we can continue the Cytotec throughout the night. We could re-dose every 4 hours. Kathy also wanted me to try to get some sleep. She told me that they often use Morphine as a sedative for laboring women. She told me when I was ready to go to sleep to let the nurse know and they would give me the shot of morphine. At 8:10pm Tim & I called our Moms to give them an update on our progress. At 9:00pm Sara called to check on us. After Tim gave her an update, I called the nurse to request the morphine so I could sleep. At 9:15pm Wendy gave me the shot of morphine and I almost immediately felt sick to my stomach and felt lightheaded. Wendy said that it was probably from the Cytotec not the morphine. The cytotec also gave me stomach and bowel like cramps. So from about 9:30pm until 11:00pm I just felt sick. The morphine didn’t make me sleep at all. I just felt like I was drunk, but not drunk enough to pass out. It was horrible. So in between 11:00pm and 11:30pm Tim & I decided to just go ahead with the pitocin. We figured that I was already not sleeping and feeling crappy so we might as well just get labor going and get it over with. We told Wendy that we wanted to start the pitocin. She told us we had to wait until midnight because of the cytotec being in my system.
So in the meantime she suggested I get into the tub to relax. So I got into the tub around 11:30pm. At around Midnight I started to feel very sick to my stomach. So I got out of the tub and got dried off. I was headed back to bed to start the pitocin when all the sudden this wave of nausea hit me. At 12:10am I made a mad dash to the bathroom and threw up. So that Chinese food all the sudden did not sound like such a good idea! After I threw up and then dry heaved for a while, Wendy got me cleaned up and back into bed. At 12:45am we started the pitocin. The contractions were not that bad. I tried to rest off and on. Tim went ahead and got into his cot to try to get some rest. At about 3am I felt this "pop-pop" feeling in my lower abdomen. It was between my belly button and pelvic bone. I thought it was weird to feel such intense contractions in one place. I tried to go back to sleep. Then about 15 minutes later I needed to go to the bathroom. I asked Tim to come over and help me maneuver the IV pole. He got up and came over to help me out of bed. I stood up and feel this **GUSH** and felt fluid run down my legs. I guess the "pop-pop" was my water breaking. We called Wendy and she checked the fluid and said it was clear and looked fine. I went to the bathroom and had some "bloody show". We decided that since things were moving right along that we should call and get Mom and Sara at the hospital. I also called and updated Aunt Kathy.
After I got cleaned up and they changed my bed, they started a bag of penicillin since I am positive for Group B Strep. Then the contractions got stronger and stronger to where I needed help through them. Wendy brought us a birthing ball and I sat on that and leaned up against the bed. When a contraction would hit I would breath and rock back and forth on the ball while Tim rubbed my back. Between the contractions I would lean forward and rest my head on the bed and try to doze. We did this for about an hour. At about 4:40am I felt this wave of nausea come over me. I knew from earlier than evening that once the wave hit me I should head to the bathroom. I told Tim to help me maneuver the IV pole and fetal monitors. We headed as fast as we could to the bathroom. As we were rounding the bed, Mom walked in. Unfortunately, at that same time I could no longer wait and I threw up at her feet! Tim hit the call button and Wendy came in and threw a towel over the vomit so that I could make it to the bathroom, where I finished throwing up. Wendy decided my labor was in full swing so she stopped the pitocin. I was miserable at this point, so I asked Wendy for my epidural. She went to check on it, but the anesthesiologist was doing a c-section and had 2 other women ahead of me. When there is more than 1 women needed an epidural, the women furthest along in dilation gets to go first. So me being only 3 centimeters dilated was last on the list. So Wendy offered me some Nubain (a narcotic) to take the edge off the labor. I took her offer and then climbed into the tub. The jets in the tub didn’t cover my whole belly so Tim came in and sprayed the shower nozzle on my belly to help distract me from the pain. The Nubain made me feel a little woozy, like I was drugged and kind of out of it. I didn’t like how I felt.
Sara arrived at about 5:10am. Tim and Sara took turns spraying me with water. I dozed in between contractions while relaxing in the tub. I was really wanting them to hurry up with the epidural and asked Sara to check on it a couple times. She was afraid to come back and tell me how long it was away so at 6:15 Wendy came in and told me the epidural was ½ hour away. She said that I needed to be monitored for ½ hour before they could give me the epidural, so I got out of the tub to be monitored. The contractions were barely 2 minutes apart. I tried to doze between them. Sara & Tim helped me through them. They would stroke my arms and breathe with me telling me to relax, Tim would tell me when the contraction was coming to an end by looking at the monitor. I was sleeping between the contractions. At 6:30am Wendy did an internal exam. The baby’s head was at –1 station, I was dilated to 3 cm and 100% effaced. The baby’s head was right on the cervix, so they expected me to dilate more now. At 6:40 Wendy let us know that Kathy Bentley my midwife would be there around 8am.
At 6:45 the anesthesiologist arrived to start my epidural. I leaned over Wendy’s shoulders while Tina the anesthesiologist did the procedure. All I really felt was the first poke from the numbing medicine. By 6:55 the procedure was done and they put the epidural medicine in. Tina did a great job and everything was perfect. By 7:00am my butt was burning and felt asleep and my belly and vagina felt warm. The epidural was WORKING!!!! Sara at this point asked if I wanted pictures taken to remember the labor by. I said NO! At 7:05 they turned me to my left side and but a blood pressure cuff on my leg. Now that the epidural was in they needed to monitor my BP every 15 minutes or so.
At this point I was very tired so I asked everyone to leave and give me a chance to sleep. At around 7:25 they changed nurses and Marcy came on to put in internal monitor for the contractions. I was at 4cm and –1 station. Marcy was an interesting nurse. After she made a joke she would suck air in through her teeth in this very obnoxious way. That little habit of hers was annoying all the way through my labor. It is funny now that I think of it. At around 7:30 Sara, Mom and Tim left to get breakfast. I slept like a log the whole time they were gone. The epidural was great. I could feel my tummy get tight with the contractions but I didn’t feel any pain! Everyone got back around 8am. They gave me another bag of penicillin for the Group B Strep and they wanted me to turn onto my other side so the epidural would work on both sides.
At around 8:30am I started to feel lots of pressure in my vagina and butt. The pressure was making me tighten my perineum so Tim started to rub my legs to help me relax. Sara warmed up some rice bags to put on my butt to help me relax. At 8:45 I asked to be checked again and found that I was 7-8 cm with a paper-thin cervix, and at 0 station. So in just over an hour I went from 4 cm to 8 cm. I loved my epidural!!! And because of my great progress they decided to re-dose my epidural. At 8:46 am my Aunt Kathy calls in for an update. She tells my mom to give me the message of encouragement and for me to think of all the women who have gone before me and to draw strength from them. Hearing that message was wonderful. I could feel Kathy presence with me in the room. I felt the whole room was full of peace and strength. It really helped me to be calm when I headed into transition.
At 8:50 Midwife Kathy arrives and re-doses my epidural. Kathy suggests I get on my back and kind of sit up so that the epidural will get down to soothe the pressure in my bottom. I keep saying, "the baby feels like it is going to come out my ass" and Kathy said " well that’s good". I asked Kathy to call Val, my favorite midwife from the clinic and let her know I was in labor so that maybe she could come down and deliver my baby. Val had told me to do have someone call her if I delivered sometime over the weekend. Kathy told me she doubted that Val would come but that she would call her and ask. Kathy came back a few minutes later and told me that Val is excited and is on her way! I totally cried tears of joy. I was so happy that Val would be there. During my prenatal visits Val and I had talked about how much I wanted her to be there. She told me that if she couldn’t be there that I had to trust that the right person would be there to take care of Tim, our baby and myself. I was so happy to hear that the "right person" was going to be her.
By this time Sara & Tim are working with me through the contractions. They are helping me relax and breath. At one point around 9:30am Tim said "alright sweetie I want you to take a nice cleansing breath" I, in my moment of pain, told Tim, "You can take your cleansing breath and shove it up your ass". In my defense I was in transition and the contractions were very intense about 2-3 minutes apart. At 9:43 they came in and put a catheter into my bladder to empty my urine as I couldn’t get up to pee nor did I have the sensation to pee. They also checked me again and I was 9cm. At this point I lay down on my left side to get more comfortable and tried to sleep some more.
At about 10:00am I feel my body start to involuntarily push the baby down. With each contraction I could feel my uterus move the baby down. At 10:05am they took my temperature and saw that I was running a low-grade fever of about 99.3 degrees. They were kind of concerned because of me being positive for Group B Strep. They were concerned I had an infection of some kind. It turned out that my temp was high because I was in labor and nothing else. At 10:10 am I started having to breathe the hee hee hee hoos through the contractions. I am also starting to do this moaning thing through the contractions. Where I moan and do the hee hee hoos.
At about 10:20am they do an internal exam to find that I am 9cm with just a cervical lip they are pretty sure the baby is facing my spine like it should be. I started asking where Val is because I know it is getting close. At around 10:25 I start to get the urge to push, but I am afraid to push. I know it will hurt more to push, so I wait and I breathe through the contractions with Sara and Tim’s help. My Mom later said that Sara & Tim were the "picture of devotion" as they helped me labor. At around 10:30am the nurses start to prepare the room and warm the blankets for the baby. At 10:35am the urge to push is getting stronger and the nurses and midwife Kathy all tell me its OK to push and help move the baby down. Tim gets the cameras ready. At 10:39 the nurse tells me to grunt and push down to help take edge off the contractions. I don’t believe it will help, so I just continue to breathe through them. Everyone in the room is really supportive and said things like, "Jen you are a strong proud life giver" and other words of encouragement.
10:45am the contractions started to peak higher and were only about 90 seconds apart. They decided to increase the IV fluids because my temp was still high and the baby’s heart rate was a little high. Val finally arrives!!! I feel so safe and secure knowing she was there and would deliver my baby. She checks me and says that the cervical lip had receded and the baby was right there ready to be born! Val says, "you are the only one who can push this baby out". Then she put me in a good pushing position and she and a nurse tried to grab my legs to help me push. I said "Wait, wait, wait, I want Tim on one side and Sara on the other". They moved out so that Sara & Tim could take position. I felt very strongly that Tim & Sara be there to help me. I didn’t want them to look on from the sidelines, I wanted them to be in the action!
At 11:00 am we started pushing. They had told me that some women like to push because they get to work with the contractions, well not me. I hated pushing. I could feel my vagina skin stretch and burn. The pushing only made that worse. So on some of the contractions I would just lay there and breath through them. Tim and Sara tried to encourage me to push, but I would tell them I didn’t want to push. I complained that it hurt and said. "No, I am not pushing". I am sure it was quite comical to watch, there I was writhing around on the bed pounding on the bed rails cursing and refusing to push all the while knowing that the only way to stop the pain was to push.
Eventually I figured out that I had to do it. Kathy the midwife was encouraging me and was quite the Drill Sargent/cheer leader. She was saying things like, "push the pain out of you". And then Val was there rubbing oil on my perineum and the baby’s head trying to help me not tear. She was encouraging me by telling me how far I had come and how much of the baby’s head was showing. She would tell me to reach down and feel the baby’s head. At around 11:27 I was crying and having a hard time focusing, then it was like I got a second wind and really started to push. The pressure in my butt was unbearable and I could feel my skin stretch and tear. Val was holding a piece of gauze over one of my tears to make it stop bleeding. Val then got her gown on and started to prepare for the birth. At 11:34 Tim was saying encouraging words like "keep on it" and " we are almost there". I could feel the baby rotating his head trying to negotiate the pubic bone. It was a weird sensation to feel his head move inside my vagina. Tim and Sara could see him rotate his head too. They said it was cool to see him move.
At about 11:36am the baby crowned and didn’t slide up anymore when I stopped pushing. I keep pushing and pushing. I would grab a quick breath and then go back at it. His head moved down and down. Then at 11:47am one final push and his head was out and then out slipped his body with one fluid movement. He was born! They put him right on my tummy. He started to cry before he was all the way out. He laid on my tummy all wiggles and wet. The covered him with blankets and started to rub him down. Everyone was asking what’s his name? What’s his name? Tim and I at the same time said, KALEB JAMES. Everyone was excited and talking at the same time and hovering over the baby.
Tim cut the cord and they whisked him off to the warmer to be dried and checked out. 
Much to our surprise Kaleb weighed in at 9lbs 2 oz and was 20 ½ inches long, his head was 14 ¼ inch in circumference. We were not expecting him to be that big. Val had estimated that he would only be around 7 ½ pounds. So we were quite shocked that he weighed over 9 pounds. 
I could hardly wait to hold him again. Everything seemed very surreal and seemed to move in slow motion almost. I couldn’t believe I had done what I did. It was the most amazing thing. It was almost unbelievable.
I delivered my placenta and Sara & I took a good look at it. It is a very amazing organ. Then Val repaired a small tear above my urethra and a larger tear in my perineum.
Much to our surprise Kaleb weighed in at 9lbs 2 oz and was 20 ½ inches long, his head was 14 ¼ inch in circumference. We were not expecting him to be that big. Val had estimated that he would only be around 7 ½ pounds. So we were quite shocked that he weighed over 9 pounds. I could hardly wait to hold him again. Everything seemed very surreal and seemed to move in slow motion almost. I couldn’t believe I had done what I did. It was the most amazing thing. It was almost unbelievable. I delivered my placenta and Sara & I took a good look at it. It is a very amazing organ. Then Val repaired a small tear above my urethra and a larger tear in my perineum. About an hour later Kaleb breastfeed for the first time, and as I looked down at him I was overcome with such powerful love it was amazing. I can’t believe how much his birth brought Tim & I together and how much we love him. 
Our First "Family" Photo!
Then
Now
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