If you missed part 1, check it out here first!
After I knew for sure that I wasn't being sent away and that we were definitely having a baby before we left the hospital, my whole attitude was greatly improved.
Contractions? Those little pains that came and went? They were no problem (that's only slight exaggeration)!
Megan, our nurse, got us "officially" set up in the labor room we were already in. She then brought in everything to hook me up to the IV. She couldn't quite get it in my wrist (I now have a giant ugly bruise to prove it), so she had a different nurse come in.
This nurse proceeded to hook it way up my arm past my elbow, which I thought was strange, but whatever. While she was literally about to stick a needle in my arm, the heart rate monitor on Graeme stopped. I remembered from our childbirth class that this was pretty normal.
Megan also reassured me that he had probably just grabbed his umbilical cord and I needed to move to a different position so we could find him again.
Despite her calm voice, she hurried me to roll over this way and that. Then she paged the doctor. Keep in mind there is another nurse keeping my arm still with a needle about to go in it. I think the whole situation only lasted about 10 seconds, but it was quite the ordeal. Thankfully, we heard his heart pick right up where it left off when I had rolled over to my other side. The call to the doctor was cancelled. And the only bad part of the whole thing was that I still had to have a needle shoved in my arm and a tube taped up in there. It's all for the cause, I know.
After all of that drama, things calmed down. I wasn't ready for an epidural but took some pain medication through my IV. Megan warned us that it would probably make me a little loopy. Aaron was excited about that.
It was a pretty odd feeling once it hit me. Everything seemed pretty funny. Plus, Megan, who I have already said is awesome, was quite hilarious. Her and Aaron quickly bonded over their love of making up random songs, coming up with movie quotes for every situation, and breaking out in random accents. Lucky for me, I was not short on good entertainment to distract me.
Soon, we were visited by my parents, my brother and his fiancé, and Aaron's parents. They were laughing at my good mood.
Aaron's dad said, "I've never seen someone smile so much while they were in labor!"
Not to say I still wasn't hurting from the contractions every few minutes, but the thought that Graeme would be coming so soon was way more distracting. And when the contractions did come, I made sure whoever was in there just kept talking to keep my mind occupied as much as possible. It was much more helpful if they carried on and pretended I was not making a face of pain and breathing weird.
Eventually, after about two hours, Megan and I decided it was time to put in the call for the epidural. The doctor was going to come break my water, and she said it was probably a good idea to have it done before then. At this point, even though I had been dreading the epidural (I've had one before so I knew what it entailed), I knew it was going to ensure less pain in the long run.
Aaron had all along stated that he couldn't stand to be in the room for my epidural. This was fine with me. You could only have one person in the room anyway, and that person had to sit down no matter how "tough" they were. My mom, a former nurse, was more than willing to sit in there with me.
Megan helped me up to go to the bathroom one more time. When I came back, Aaron came over to the side of the bed. "If you really want me to stay with you, I will."
"Oh!" I said surprised. I thought to myself, "Is he saying that because he's trying to be nice or because now he is regretting saying he would leave?"
I studied his face for a few seconds, but couldn't tell. He looked nervous, but that had been his face for a lot of the situations during this day anyway.
"Well," I finally said, "Of course I would choose you to be in here over anyone." I felt like that still left it a little open-ended. To clarify though, I added, "But I really will not be upset at all if you can't. I definitely don't want you to pass out. You need to be around for what happens later!"
To my surprise, he said he would stay. Megan told him he would still have time to change his mind, and my mom agreed to be right outside if needed.
When it was just me, Megan, and Aaron in the room again, she started getting us set up. I sat on the edge of the bed, and she brought a chair over for Aaron. Aaron, by the way, was starting to look quite pale.
Megan started to explain what was about to happen, and Aaron started to look worse. Megan commented on his demeanor.
"Yeah, um, I feel really light-headed."
I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I didn't think there was a way him being in there would end well. "Are you sure you want to stay? I really don't care either way. It won't take long. My mom can come in here."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes."
He left, and I was glad to know that he would be awake for the more important act of his son being born later.
I was filled in later of what occurred when Aaron went out in the hallway...
Apparently my dad had stopped to use the restroom so my mom was standing right outside of the men's door waiting for him. Aaron came hurrying down the hall exclaiming, "Switch! Switch! Switch!" My mom, worried about me, wasted no time in even talking to Aaron but hurried to my room. Aaron, not knowing my dad was in the bathroom made his way to the lobby. That left my poor dad completely alone and clueless when he finally emerged. He said he waited thinking she had gone to the bathroom. He tried calling her too. Eventually, he just gave up and figured he was abandoned. Of course it was all explained later.
Back to our story then...
My mom came back in the room and took Aaron's chair, followed by the anesthesiologist.
He was very nice and made me feel a lot better. Obviously he does his job hundreds of times a day, so I knew I was in good hands.
The epidural was just as awful as I remember it, but I guess it's not the worst thing ever. I squeezed my mom's hands to death, but she didn't complain. I was definitely glad when it was over. I got situated back in the bed and Aaron came back in.
Just a few minutes later, around 11pm, Dr. Anderson came in to break my water. I really couldn't feel anything at all, but was glad to hear that everything looked to be in great shape up in there with Graeme. I had also progressed to five centimeters. We were halfway there. Now it was just waiting for Graeme to make his way into the world!
To be continued...
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