The Birth of Althea Raye

My original due date was 10/1/05. I was home from work for a month already. I was huge. I was in pain. I was so DONE being pregnant. I could barely walk, my feet were swollen, my sciatic nerve was throbbing, and I was petrified! I was so scared of giving birth. I walked (waddled) around like a ticking time bomb, I could go off at any second!

Every time I felt a twinge in my stomach (which was every day at that point) I would let out a deep sigh, my husband would jump off the couch…."Are you ok?!?!?!" I would look at him in fear….."I guess so". My doctor told me from the very beginning that I was probably going to go early, hence why they moved my date up a week. He thought maybe even earlier than that. I had a big baby, they said, and she’s already head down in the blastoff position!

Meanwhile….here it was my due date and nothing! I was going to the doctor once a week, and he would do an internal (which at this point I started to welcome, thinking maybe he would move things along) and every time he would say the same thing…."Nope, she’s WAY up there….she don’t wanna come out!" He would add: You’re the perfect incubator! “GREAT” I thought, but I promise I’ll be a better MOM so tell her to GET OUT!

On my due date they did a non-stress test and an ultrasound. After the ultrasound the doctor came in, did the exam, and gave me the spiel: You got a big baby in there, especially for your size. (I’m 5’1") She’s fine in there, but I’m not sure you’re going to be able to deliver her naturally. One more week, and she’ll hit 9lbs, no problem! I think she’s not dropping because she can’t fit. If I induce you, you’ll probably labor all day and we’d still end up with a c-section anyway. So let’s just cut to the chase, we’ll do an appointment c-section, and go and get her.

We made an appointment. On my mother’s birthday 10/7/05 5:00pm, be there at 3:30 pm, I was gonna have a baby.

Friday was the longest day of my life. I sat at home…..alone…..trying to come to terms with the fact that I was going to be someone’s mommy by the end of the day! My husband came home early. I was freaking out. I was worried about getting the local and being numb and just the WHOLE THING. I had too much time to think about it. I think sometimes it’s better if it just HAPPENS.

We got to the hospital at 2:50 pm. They wheeled me up, and gave me a gown and my husband scrubs and stationed us in a room that looked like a closet with a bed, a TV, and a shared bathroom. We sat in that room for four hours! In the first hour I got an IV, and they shaved me (nice, right?) and asked me some questions, but after that we just sat there.

Apparently there were other c-sections, EMERGENCY c-sections that needed to go first. I was petrified. I wanted to be like, "Ummmm ya know what? I think I’m just gonna go home….never mind. I’ll be fine!" Everyone kept calling and asking if there was a baby, we kept saying…NO! My parents and Mike’s mother had been in the waiting room now for five hours! But the Yankee Game was on and it was the playoffs, so it kept us entertained.

I was having some pain, but I was having false labor for the past week, so no big deal. I was hooked up to the fetal monitor, and I started to realize…..ummmmm I’m having contractions!! They were very early contractions…but STILL!! The nurse came in and with a huge smile…I said "I’m having contractions!!!!!! Does that mean something?!?!?!" She looked at me like…..THOSE little teeny contractions are NOT CONTRACTIONS!!! You’re still going in for the section.

Finally at about 8pm, they brought me in. Alone. Without my husband. He wasn’t allowed in until I was all set up and numb. I remember thinking the table was so narrow. It was like the width of a weight bench, it didn’t look comfortable at all. Have they looked at the size of my ass?? It was also in the shape of a "t" so my arms could stay straight out on either side. I made all the nurses promise me that they wouldn’t tie me down. I heard they did that. They said as long as I didn’t move….they wouldn’t tie me….DEAL!

I got the needle in my back. It hurt but not as much as I thought it was going to. I forced the nurse to hold my hand (I’m such a baby). As I laid down my legs already started to get numb. It wasn’t as freaky as I thought, there was too much other stuff going on. While they were hooking me all up, they let my husband in. They sat him in a chair next to me, and he held my hand and asked me if I was ok. Now that he was there, I was. There were two doctors. One was my regular OB and the other I never met.

They started. I didn’t even feel it. My husband was trying to distract me so I wouldn’t pay attention, reminding me to breath. I was listening to the nurses and doctors. I heard them say they needed to make the incision bigger. Then they were talking about her being so big. My doctor told me they were going to push a little on my stomach to try and get her out. The nurse started pushing….nothing. Then both nurses started pushing….still nothing.

I was having trouble breathing, because they were pushing on my diaphragm. One doctor and two nurses are now JUMPING on my stomach trying to get her out. I see my husband’s eyes get real wide. I keep asking what the problem is. He gives me a fake smile and says nothing. (Turns out both my heart rate and the baby’s started to go down, and he could see it on the monitor behind me). I was coughing and coughing cause of all the pushing…it hurt, but because of the numbness it’s a weird type of hurt. Finally I feel some pressure and moving around in there….and she comes out. *SIGH OF RELIEF*. The nurse says to me and I quote: "I think you just gave birth to a toddler!"

She was 8lbs 13oz and 20.8 inches long and she wasn’t born until 9:03 pm. They wrapped her up and gave her to her daddy. Her face was all swollen, but she was adorable! She looked like my grandfather! LOL Her eyes were wide open and she was moving her head around like five minutes after she was born! I couldn’t hold her until they were done closing me up, but daddy was holding her and showed her to me. Then they took her into the nursery, and daddy went with her. Then I laid there while they put me back together. Finally they rolled me into recovery; my husband came back in without the baby.

My parents and my mother in law came up to see me in recovery. My husband brought them to see the baby through the window, meanwhile I’ve still yet to hold her. That part sucked! I didn’t get to hold her till almost midnight, and she was born at 9pm. There were no rooms (it was a busy night) and they couldn’t bring the baby into recovery. Finally when I did get a room it ended up being a private one (so it was kinda worth it…kinda). Finally when they did bring her in all I kept thinking was WOW, this perfect little baby was inside of me! Crazy!

My husband stayed over that night on a fold out couch thingy. The nurses came in and bothered me like every 5 minutes…so there was no sleep that night. Then the next night….he went home to deal with the 6 inches of water in our basement (on no sleep whatsoever) because it not only rains on every special occasion we have but it POURS!

Anyway, the second night I was alone. And truthfully it was nice. They brought her in to me every three hours to eat (or to attempt to breastfeed even though my milk didn’t really totally come in yet…ya know back in the first day or two when breastfeeding was easy and you thought – pssshaaw this is no big deal!). And those middle of the night times were amazing. It was just me and her in there and she was always wrapped up tight with her little head sticking out the top, eyes always wide open looking at me.

She was perfect! Still is!

Jenn is a proud, now expecting number two, Mom who details her adventures at Maniacal Days. When she’s not there, she’s hashing it out with her husband at Dad Says, Mom Says.

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