Well, here's my story. Before I start, though, I just want to say that it may sound really awful, but I don't have an awful feeling about it. I consider my childbirth experience to have been a good one, despite the problems.

My story started Thursday, Oct. 23, at 9:34 a.m. That's the time the first of the progressive contractions started. I had had some strong BH contractions during the night, at two-hour intervals, and by 6:00 a.m. had lost most of my mucous plug. When the first contraction started, I thought it was just another strong BH contraction. When another one occurred about 20 minutes later, I thought, Hmm... I'd better start recording these. At 5:30 that night, we headed to the hospital, as my contractions had gotten to three to seven minutes apart. Once we got there at 6:00 p.m., I was having some about two minutes apart. I was admitted and taken up to the maternity ward where I was greeted by a very nice nurse. She had me get into a hospital gown and then hooked me up to the fetal heart rate monitor. I don't really know how long I stayed hooked up to that--I'd say 15 to 30 minutes. The nurse would come in occasionally and check out the graph the machine sputter out and said to me once, You're having some pretty intense contractions, aren't you? These are contractions to write home about. I was eventually checked out, 5 centimeters dilated, and was allowed to get up and go to my labor/delivery room. They had a shower in there and since I was having a lot of back labor, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Probably stayed in there about half an hour, just sitting on the stool (although getting up during a contraction). It just relaxed me so much. I started feeling water-logged, so I got out and made my way to the bed, as I was feeling the need to lie down for a bit. However, this wasn't the greatest position for laboring as it made the contractions feel stronger.

I tried a few different positions on the bed and eventually said to my husband, I need something for the pain. This was about 8:00 p.m. The nurse came in (she was busy that night as there were three other women in labor!) and measured me and I was 6+ centimeters. She said she was told to break my membranes if they hadn't broken already, but apparently the exam was enough to do that because she didn't even have a chance to remove her fingers when I gushed. After that, she gave me a shot of morphine and brought me the laughing gas. I don't know if I was somehow taking it wrong or if I'm just particularly sensitive to the stuff, but it made me feel very dizzy and then I ended up throwing up. After that, I didn't want any more and the nurse said, Honey, it wasn't the gas that made you sick (I was tensing up during the contractions and she suggested that I continue to take the gas) and I said, I know. At that time, I really didn't think it was the gas, just a coincidence.

After laying there for a little while, my husband finally got me out of bed and back into the shower. The nurse brought the gas tank to me and I tried it again, but it made me feel so light-headed again, I stopped taking it completely. Then I moved back to the bed, onto my side. By this time (I don't know what time it actually was), I was starting to say, Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, during the contractions. Since walking had helped before, my husband suggested that I get up and try to walk a little. I said okay, but to wait until a contraction was over. Once a contraction was over, I'd say, I need to rest a little. Then, just as I felt ready to get up, the next contraction would hit. I never made it out of the bed. :)

It didn't take long in that position for me to start having involuntary pushes. (It was now somewhere between 9:00-9:30 p.m.) I told my husband, I'm starting to push, so he rushed and got the nurse. They helped me get in a better position on the bed and then she checked me out -- I was almost 10 centimeters. In 60 to 90 minutes, I'd gone from 6+ centimeters to almost 10. No wonder I was in so much pain, despite the morphine! (I did find that the morphine helped a bit.) So, she had me start pushing. To push, she would hold one of my legs up, my husband would hold the other, I would grab both legs and then basically do a stomach crunch while pushing as though I were having a bowel movement. If your hospital wants you to be on your back, I strongly recommend this position -- no pressure on your tail bone since your legs have been raised.

After awhile of pushing, someone (another nurse? my doctor? I have no clue) felt inside and then said to Roger, Would you like to see the baby's head on the next push? So, he got himself ready (somebody else took over holding the leg) but when I pushed, they couldn't see the top of the head. Tried again for a few more pushes -- still no top of the head. I don't think my doctor was in the room at this particular point, because I think a nurse went to get her. When she came back, she checked me out during a few contractions. She said that I was swelling inside (something to do with my bladder) and that this was stopping the baby from coming down any further. She added that the more I pushed, the more I was swelling and that they'd need to use a vacuum extractor and then what would be done exactly. So, she put the vacuum extractor in, which somehow seemed more painful than the contractions I had had, but I suppose it was really just a different kind of pain, since the area is far more sensitive. Once it was in, they sucked while I pushed. I think it took about 10 minutes after the vacuum extractor was in place to get the baby to crown. Just before the crowning, it hurts (it hurts during the crowning, too). I remember saying, It hurts, it hurts, to which my doctor gently replied, I know, Daisy, but keep pushing. (she had actually warned me ahead of time that it would hurt, but that didn't stop me from telling her :). )

When the baby's head crowned, she and the nurse at her side said, Stop pushing and pant like a dog. I obeyed and it's amazing how the pain seemed to disappear immediately. If panting throughout labor wouldn't cause you to pass out, I would think it would be an excellent pain control. Anyhow, I looked and saw that her head was out. They had me push again and the rest of her came out.

The placenta came out almost immediately. Roger cut the cord, one nurse gave me a shot in my hand to make the uterus contract, my doc set herself up to repair the two small tears (one inside, one on the side of the perineum) I had. After that, another nurse pushed on my uterus, and stuff came gushing out. A little bit later, she did it again, and more came gushing out. After it happened a third time, she said she would have to put me on an I.V. to make the uterus contract (the shot in the hand wasn't enough, apparently.) Once that was in, another nurse said that I was so swollen in the urethral area that I would need a catheter. She cleaned me up and was doing I don't know what that barely caused any discomfort, but she continued to apologize for the pain. I said to her, Trust me, it's nothing compared to the back labor I'd been having.

They weighed and measured our little Emilie -- 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long. We called Roger's family from there and my mum and I tried to nurse, but she just wasn't in the mood. And despite laying there with a catheter and an I.V., I felt completely at peace. Throughout the whole labor no matter what pain I felt or what had to be done to me, I felt completely safe. No worries.

I look back on this whole thing and to someone who hasn't gone through labor I imagine this all sounds pretty horrible, but I think of myself as having had a good childbirth experience. The hardest part was from 8:00 p.m. (when morphine was taken) to 10:43 p.m., when Emilie was born. That I needed a catheter didn't particularly matter to me -- I was actually quite happy about it later, since it meant I didn't have to get my swollen derriere out of bed and get to the bathroom. The I.V. came out the next day, and even that didn't bother me, although I was previously completely bothered by the thought of having an I.V. I guess the way I see it is that nothing major went wrong -- I was still out of the hospital within 48 hours despite the little problems, so they're really not that big of a deal. I think the thing that really helped me the most was that before the labor began, I had eliminated all of my fears. I'd completely analyzed them and saw that it was pointless for me to be afraid. This helped me take things as they come during the labor and afterwards which made it all probably as relaxed as it could be, given the circumstances.

Well, I've made this long enough so I'll quit now! :)