Eilish - A Birth Story - Part 2

When we last left our hero (that would be me) she had just been offered an epidural. Contrary to popular belief, getting the epidural was virtually painless compared to the contractions I was having. Mom and Owen stayed in the room while I got the needle and it pretty much kicked in right away. My feet started getting tingly and that feeling traveled all the way up to my waist. Life was good.

I was told I'd have another 13 hours or so to go before the baby arrived and was advised to get some sleep. I sent Owen and Mom home to make some phone calls and settled in to relax before the big event. At 7:30 there was a nursing shift change and I was assigned the most wonderful nurses, Judith and a student nurse Kim. They were angels and I liked knowing that chances were they would be in the delivery room with us. Around 8, Judith told me that she was going to recommend that I be prescribed some medication to get my contractions coming a little stronger as they had spaced out after the epidural - we just had to wait for a Dr. to OK the call. Before administering the meds another doctor and her student (did I mention Mt. Sinai is a teaching hospital?) came in to check me and break my water as that sometimes moves things along. And that is where the shit hit the fan.

Once my water was broken the doctor checked me again, called for an ultra sound machine and determined the Eilish's bum was where her head should have been - Eilish was breach. "Jennifer, your baby is breach. You're going to have to have a c-section, probably within the next half an hour.". I was speechless. Actually, that's a lie - I had lots to say about how I knew throughout my whole pregnancy that what I was feeling under my ribs was way too hard to be a bum. I had asked Dr. Pervy at every visit if what I was feeling was the head and he assured me that it wasn't.

Every.

Visit.

I called Mom and Owen who were stuck on the Gardiner (it was 9am!) on their way back to me at the hospital and filled them in on the situation. I'm told that Owen broke numerous traffic laws to get back to me and when they did I was waiting to go into surgery. Mom wasn't able to be in the operating room and was relegated to a waiting room and Owen had to wait in the hall while I was prepped for surgery. They topped up the epidural and I immediately got a bad case of the shivers. They brought some warm blankets to put on my arms and head so when Owen was allowed in all he could see was my face. He sat down beside me and told me he was proud of me while my teeth chattered. I didn't feel them open me up but I did feel some pressure as they removed the baby and all the stuff that comes with a baby.

Eilish didn't cry when she came out but when they announced "It's a Girl" I screeched. As they cleaned her up I kept yelling out instructions to Owen: check her toes, check her fingers, is she cute? etc. When I got affirmative answers from him I stopped crying until they weighed her. We all gasped when the nurse said 9 pounds.

Owen wasn't allowed to leave the operating room and come back so I sent a nurse out to tell Judes that it was a girl and she was 9 pounds. We were another hour or so in the operating room while they 'cleaned me up' - I shudder to think what that meant.

Coming soon Eilish - A Birth Story - Part 3 - Recovery