Oh my, where has the year gone?!! Last year I had one week off for summer vacation before I popped. And, as is my tradition, the following is his birth story.
Friday, June 2, 2006 was Evan’s first night at work at his summer job, cooking at TGIFridays (and no, no flair required). He worked 12 hours, and stumbled in stinking and wet at 11:30. He cracked open a beer, just as I had a very uncomfortable feeling in my tummy. I couldn’t get to sleep; I had all of this energy pulsating through me. Finally, I decided that the ache would probably subside if I got in the shower. As I did so, I called to him, to not get to comfortable, that this might be it. I called my mom, my hypnobirthing instructor, and asked sort of frantically if she could please come over and spend the night, as I was not feeling well. I opted for a bath instead of the shower, and wished that we had a huge tub so that my enormous belly would fit in it. Evan came rolling around to check on me, and when I wouldn’t let him talk to me during the pain, he decided to get the bag ready to go. At this point, my surges were coming pretty close together, and I was getting very anxious. I couldn’t dress myself when I got out of the bath. I called the mid-wives and simply said, I coming. Deborah Wage called back, and said given your history, you are probably right, come on down. When my mom finally arrived she came in perky, and I just said, “We are leaving right now for the hospital.” As I labored out to the car, she helped Evan, as he and Ollie where to follow us to the hospital separately. The bumpy roads drove me insane, and the car ride was probably the hardest part. All in all, though, I accepted that this was labor, and that it was supposed to feel like that. I’ll admit spending the entire night in that much agony seemed daunting. When I got to Vanderbilt, the receptionist wanted to talk, and I just couldn’t handle it. My mom was parking the car, and I was trying to go to the bathroom. During contractions, I would ask those dummies to just be quiet for a minute, and they just kept talking to me. They wouldn’t let me use the bathroom, something about “Do you know how many babies have been born on toilets?” I needed to focus and concentrate, couldn’t they see that??? When I finally made it up to the room, my nurse insisted on checking me. I had gotten in the shower, and she stuck her hand in, and pronounced, 5cm. I almost cried. Instead, I asked for an epidural. I spent some time on the toilet, in the bed, and back in the shower. When Deborah came in, she very diplomatically said, what was your birth plan, we will support you in any way, are you sure, yadda, yadda, and let me check you one more time before we give an epidural. When she checked she said, you are at 10, it’s time to push. Oh halleluiah. She said, you’ve got to listen to me, and push when I tell you, so that we have a more successful birth time than last. I did what she said, pushed about 4 times, and Elijah Robert Rayburn was born at 2:54 am, June 3. All in all, it was a peaceful birth with no screaming. Evan and Ollie came in immediately. They had only been at the hospital a little over an hour. I had a first degree tear that Deborah stitched up. Ollie kept saying, “What’s the doctor doing? And what’s mommy doing??” It really was magical and so different than the onslaught of people that were in the room with Ollie. The lights were dim, voices quiet and only 3 people besides my family in the room. Several times I would have thrown the clock that was staring me in the face across the room, but other than that I was able to remain calm. I never listened to my music, used my aromatherapy, or sat on my birthing ball (I think Deborah caught the baby on it). Recovery has been much smoother and positive, than with Ollie, too, and if I can just get the hang of this breastfeeding business, life will be peachy. So in short, perfect hypnobirth, 4 pushes, and about 3 hours of labor.
