Sunday, November 19, 2017

Second Birth

I had my birthday without contractions. My due date was 10 days from then. The day after my birthday I woke up with strong contractions and called my mom. "Call me when you are really in labor," she said. I was frustrated by that comment and told my husband we’d call her after the baby was born. (Talk about cutting off your nose to spit your face)

I found relief in taking a bath. Around 3pm we called a friend to watch our toddler if we needed. When my mother called at 7pm we admitted we were on our way to the hospital. She felt badly about what she’d said that morning.

We went to the hospital thinking we were much farther along, only to find we were a 5. My nurse told me she thought I was crazy for trying to have birth without an epidural. I was stuck to the monitor for almost an hour while they watched the baby’s heartbeat. I asked to get in the shower, and finally they let me. I thought the contractions hurt more than the time before, but didn’t know why. The most relief I could get was when I was on hands and knees. It wasn’t till after that I remembered that baby E had had her legs out kicking (posterior) that I realized why hands and knees felt better.

I called the nurse in because my skin had become all tingly, like when you’re leg falls asleep. She told me it was because I was hyperventilating. "Don’t breathe that way," she said. I told her I wasn’t coping well with the pain and wondered what my options were. She checked me and said I was a 7, and had a bulging bag of water. She recommended an amniotomy, (breaking my water). Once that was performed, my baby was out 5 minutes later. It was intense, very intense.

I felt more powerfully during that birth that Christ really did suffer all our pain. I knew that he knew what I was feeling, in a way that only the atonement could make possible.

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