Juliet's Birth Day

As mentioned in the previous post, E and I arrived at the hospital around 9:30 pm. By 9:45 I was admitted, and by ten I asked E to get the camera out to document a few things. I was lying in bed having horrible painful contractions, however between contractions I was still able to tell E a few of the types of photos I wanted.



In labor and delivery they attach two monitors to your belly. One reads the contractions, the other reads the baby's heart beat. Time at the bottom reads 9:54. Less than an hour to go...
The pain I experienced between 10:00 and 10:50, when Juliet was born, is something I have never known. The contractions were horrific, I wanted to die. I begged the nurses and E to find the anesthesiologist. I was in so much pain. I walked, I cried out, I begged it to stop. I couldn't lie in the bed much after 10:00 and spent the next hour on my feet. When my water broke at 10:40 and E ran for the nurse (per instructions). She came in, told me to lie down, they were going to check my dilation. I said no, lying down was more pain than I could handle.

Once she coaxed me on the bed, found I was fully dialed and also found that Juliet's heart rate was dropping with each contraction, I was given an oxygen mask and told to push.

I begged them for drugs. But I pushed. Two pushes later I was granted this:
A perfect baby girl. Screaming her heart out. The contractions stopped and the pain was gone. I was in love, kissing my baby and glad the scariest part was behind me.
My doctor showed up (didn't make the birth, Juliet was too insistent to make an entrance into this world) to check me over and deliver the placenta. The placenta didn't budge. What? We waited, I pushed. Nothing. I was deliriously happy about my daughter and the fact that contractions and childbirth had passed when my doc said "I'm sorry, I've only had to manually remove one other placenta from a woman that didn't have an epidural, and it was horrible."

Horrible it was. Oh my god... so so so much pain. For some reason my body didn't want to give it up, and after all I'd been through, after a med free childbirth, I had to do this. And it was just as painful, if not more.

Once it was removed the nurse had to push on my abdomen, to help stop the bleeding. I screamed. I begged for her to stop. Finally, finally, after twenty minutes of her pushing and be crying in pain, it was over.

The pain was gone almost instantly, and I was wheeled into recovery with a perfect healthy baby. E was really shaken, but a few hours rest and a baby that loved to snuggle, all was well.