Written November 27th

Where to begin? I guess at the beginning.

Recap from the Pregnancy Journal: 
Woke up Monday morning with a weird feeling.....

After writing that last entry in between contractions, I was up walking around doing basically nothing but wandering around the house hurting. I had been having some mucous discharge from my cervix effacing (thinning out) so I didn't really pay attention to the trickle I felt at first.

Then when standing in front of the washing machine, I leaned over it and felt a bit more than a trickle. I stood up really quick and sort of stood there trying to figure out what was going on.

duh Renee.

I walked out and told Stuart that I thought my water had broke. Obviously to men this is THE sign that it's time. Because how he acted the night we went to the hospital for the first time and how he acted then was pure comedy.

He jumped in the shower and I called the doctor's office and they told me to come down to get checked out. I wasn't thinking all that clearly because I forgot to send out a notify to my list.

So we jumped in the truck and off we went.

He was having a fit at all the slow-drivers. I was telling HIM to calm down. I knew I wasn't THAT ready to have the baby so I wasn't in a great rush.

We get to Goldsboro and what's going on? A Train. Sitting on the tracks, pulled across the road, NOT MOVING. LOL! Stuart just about went ballistic at that point. We only sat there for about 10 minutes though.

Finally we arrive at the doctor's office. They were expecting me and took me right back to get checked out. It was that Doctor again that wasn't so gentle the last internal check but this time he didn't hurt me. I was still only about 3 centimeters dilated but my water had indeed, broke. So it was time to go check in at the hospital.

I was ready this time. I guess I had had enough time to mentally prepare myself for what was ahead.

By this time the contractions were hurting and really uncomfortable. Nothing like I knew was coming though. Stuart did the admitting and I walked up to the Labor and Delivery myself. I wanted that last minute of freedom.

They put me into a room and I stripped and got on the gown and did the urine sample and got into the bed. She checked all my vitals then did an internal. Still only 3 centimeters. The time was about 4 p.m. on Tuesday the 24th.

I lay in the bed with the fetal and contraction monitor strapped on my belly. The contractions were still only 5 minutes apart but they were gaining in strength. Every time a contraction would start I would have to roll onto my side and try and breathe through it. It hurt a lot worse if I stayed on my back during one.

At about 6:00 p.m. the contractions were starting to hurt like a bitch. They had put me on the Pitocin drip (speeds up labor) and some other thing that I needed before I could get my epidural.

I was hanging in there but then at about 6:30 p.m. the contractions tripled in strength. I went from hanging in there to fucking totally losing it. The pain is absolutely indescribable. My Mom, Stuart's Parents, and Stuart were at the hospital at this time though only Stuart, my Mom and Stuart's Mom were in the labor room with me.

The unending hurting from the night before until that point, the lack of food and sleep, and now the great ripping pains completely undid me. I started crying in between the contractions. Crying because I knew they weren't going to stop and I was tired of hurting and didn't have a clue when I would get any relief from the pain.

Stuart was ready to go find the Epidural guy himself if he had to hunt him down. The guy was finishing up a C Section and the Nurse said that he would be up in a little while. Stuart said to have him GET MOVING. He showed up about 5 minutes later.

Oh God. I thought I was hurting before! This guy didn't do the sitting and leaning forward type of epidural. So in the middle of hellacious contractions, I had to scoot myself all the way over to the edge of the bed while laying on my side.

Then they had to have me draw me knees all the way up to my stomach and draw my head down into my chest as far as I could get and then NOT MOVE A MUSCLE. While having contractions and a needle stuck in my back. I could barely breathe.

The nurse, a wonderful nurse by the way, had to help hold my legs up because there was just no way I could do it at that point and Stuart was there at my head helping me hold myself into my body AND trying to get me to slow my breathing down so I wouldn't start hyperventilating. I had already had the uncontrollable shakes just a short while before. I wasn't cold it was just from breathing too fast and from the hurting.

The epidural hurts but having to do it in the middle of such hard contractions was a fucking bitch to be quite honest.

It was finally done though. Finally. About 10 minutes later I could feel the numbing effects starting throughout my legs and waist.

I was perfectly fine then. It was about 7 p.m. Stuart was totally freaked out by this time. I can't say what he felt but I know he told me it is not a joyful thing to watch.

I lay there and chit-chatted with Stuart's Mom and mine and Stuart til about 8 p.m. My Doctor came in then and told me he was stepping out to McDonald's for some dinner and told me not to go anywhere.

I love that Doctor. Very humorous and just a good doctor. He doesn't take himself so VERY seriously like some I've seen and trys to ease the patients mind and just jokes around trying to lighten things up at the right times. So I told him that yeah, I'm fine and to go ahead and eat something for me.

I was starving at that point. I hadn't eaten anything since about 9 that morning and here it was almost 12 hours later. Thirsty too! You're not allowed to drink or eat solid foods once you are definitely in labor. Just ice chips and they don't go very far. Although I did have Stuart sneak me a sip or two of his Coke. I didn't care if I threw up in the middle of delivery or not. I needed a bit of a boost.

Guess what everyone but my Mom forgot to bring? Cameras. Christ. So at about 8:45 I asked my Mom to go get some extra film down the road at the store. I made sure that someone gave her very good directions because she isn't familiar with the town or hospital and my Mom is a bit...ummm.....directionally challenged. hehe. I love teasing her about that.

So she gives me a hug and tells me to hang in there. Stuart's Dad had ventured back into the room now that things had calmed down a bit and it was Stuart's parents and Stuart now with me. I talked to Mary at about 9 p.m. and assured her that I was doing okay and just sort of waiting now.

A few minutes later Doctor L walks in and needed to check me so out went Stuart's parents. This was about 9:10.

The baby's head was actually showing when he checked me. I was fully dilated and he said it was time.

This dragged me up mentally and I'm like WHAT????? Now????? but I'm not ready!!!!

I guess I thought I'd be laying there waiting for a little while longer and hadn't prepared myself for the ACTUAL delivery/baby arriving part.

I asked how many centimeters I was dilated and he said "all the way!" They flipped the table up and around and all of a sudden there were handles for me to hold and leg stirrups and lights and boom, he was telling me that when the next contraction came along, to push.

I could still feel the contractions as pressure, just no pain. So I waited until the next one and pushed. It didn't hurt because the epidural was still barring the pain from coming through.

Pushed again. Then about 3 more times and that was that!

Erica Shay was born into this world at 9:22 p.m. on Tuesday the 24th of 1998.

Wow. That was amazingly easy. The delivery part that is. No episiotomy, no tearing....damn that was easy! :)

She weighed 6 lbs. 15 oz. and measured 20 inches long. Blondish hair all over her head. Her APGAR score taken at one minute was a perfect 10 and same for the 5 minute score. No conehead. Absolutely perfect.

Of course there are a million things I'm probably forgetting but I'll fill those in over at the Postpartum Journal as they come back to me. That journal will be up and running hopefully this weekend sometime.