A couple weeks ago, I interviewed my Mom on the blog. Click here to see the full interview, and to read the birth story of her first child, my brother Daniel.
Today, I’m posting her second birth story: the birth of me!
Birth story of Suzanne:
The baby was due on the 11th of May. On the 21st of May,(insert long conversation about when baby was actually due). The doctor said if I didn’t deliver in a week, I would be induced. The doctor told me when he was on call, and one of the times was that night. We really wanted that doctor to deliver, since he was such a great doctor, so we decided to see if we could induce labor that night. He then stripped the membranes, which was a little bit uncomfortable but at that point I didn’t care at all because I just wanted to have this baby. There was no guarantee that it would induce labor, so we went home, and did normal stuff. I made supper, we ate supper, put Daniel to bed, and sat down to watch TV. All of a sudden I realized that I was having pretty regular contractions. My mom was there so she could be available to take care of Daniel. John and I went for a walk down the loooong driveway, and back up again. By the time we got back, the contractions seemed to have stopped, so I took a shower and went to bed. We had just laid down when I said, “This is pretty serious. We need to get to the hospital”. The hospital was at least 30 minutes away. We went to the hospital, and it was sort of a like a birth center, but it was not like birthing centers nowadays. They were very hands-on, but they let me labor and deliver in a non-L&D room. They let me labor normally, but there were a couple of things that I had to do then that I wouldn’t have to do now. They had me on a fetal monitor, so I had to stay in bed. I also had an IV in for hydration. I actually wasn’t too upset about either of those, because after Daniel’s birth, I was welcome to any medical care they wanted to give me!
If John had his hand on my stomach, he could feel a contraction before I even felt it. This was so helpful to us because thenI could relax and focus throughout, but the nurse got mad at him for this and that really threw off our laboring groove. I asked for ice chips, since that got me through my other labor, but they wouldn’t let me have any. The nurse then asked me when I last ate, and I responded “6 pm”. The nurse huffed “well, what did you eat for?!?” Well, because I was hungry, it was dinner time and I wasn’t in labor! All of this was really frustrating and probably slowed down my labor.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was hitting transition. I suddenly felt very overwhelmed. I kept saying, “I can’t do this, I can’t do this! Give me something for the pain!” I wish they had just told me I was in transition, and that I was almost there, but no one mentioned it. They gave me some kind of shot in the IV for the pain, but it didn’t do a thing. Then, the doctor gave me a pep talk, telling me to work with the contractions in order to have the baby. (Dad: The whole birth felt a lot less natural than the birth that we had with Daniel. There was too much all the time going on).
The doctor then told me I could start pushing, and I don’t have a clue how long I pushed for. It seemed like an average amount of time, not too long, but not too short.
Finally, she was born! 7 pds, 11 oz. Suzanne Esther. They were getting oxygen ready because she didn’t breath right away. In the end, she didn’t need it, but I don’t really remember much at that time. Around that time, we realized that the placenta was not coming on it’s own, and due to my past experience, the doctor immediately removed the placenta manually, before anything bad could happen.
All that took place in a labor/birthing room, so after that I got moved to a post-partum room. Suzanne was with me in my room, except at night when both the Mom and the baby were sleeping, they would put the baby in the nursery. I requested no bottles would be given, and that she be brought to me when she fussed.
I recovered very quickly from that birth! When I was still in the hospital, a nurse’s aid came in a gave me a back massage! I was only at the hospital for 30ish hours. When Daniel came to visit, he climbed up on the bed and started talking to me, and when Suzanne heard his voice, she turned her head to him- she recognized his voice!
And that is the much gentler, much less terrifying birth story of Suzanne Esther!
If you would like to contribute a birth story to the series, do not hesitate to post a comment or shoot me an email at sdevalve@cedarville.edu! I would love to hear it…and I know that my readers would love to hear it, too!
If you want to read the other birth stories in this series so far:
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