Judah's Birth Story: part three (the final installment! sort of)

So, there I was pushing away (in case you missed it- part one & two)...

Pushing. Screaming. Crying. Overheating. Pushing some more.

This goes on for some time (well, it felt like forever, but in reality wasn't actually that long).
I am minimally aware of my surroundings at this point. Every now and then I hear people telling me I'm doing a good job. Or to take deep breaths.

Then I hear the midwife saying that he's going to come out on the next push. Hallelujah! That is what I wanted to hear. What I didn't hear is that he HAD to come out on the next push because he heart rate was dropping. I must say, I'm pretty glad I didn't hear that part.

The next contraction comes and I PUSH and I feel a little release of pressure and then BLAM-O a big release of pressure. Judah was out. Next thing I now he is on my chest and I just cannot believe I now have a baby. What I missed in my daze was that I had an episiotomy at the last second (the first little release of pressure) because Judah was coming out with his hand up by his face (superman style, if you will). I also was unaware that when he first came out he was super purple and not moving/making noise. Bill was all too aware of all these things. It felt like forever to him from the time Judah came out to the time he took his first breath. That was a very scary time for Bill. When Judah started to wail, Bill started to cry and collapsed onto the floor (which was all gross with my blood and guts- according to him anyway). From that position on the floor he called his parents and tearfully told them Judah was here and it was all alright.

With Judah on my chest we let the cord pulse out before Bill cut it. I was surprised that his cut was made pretty far down. Someone else (the midwife? a nurse?) made the cut close to his body. I was able to hold Judah for a little while, but his body temperature was low so they had to take him away and put him under a heat light. Bill went with him (this all happened in the labor and delivery room, just a few feet from the foot of my bed). They also cleaned the meconium out of his orifices and did a preliminary cleaning of the rest of him (there was definitely still poo stuck in his hair, ears, fingers, whathaveyou).

While Judah was warming up and getting cleaned, they gave me a shot of pitocin, a drug used to induce labor in most cases. I was receiving it so that my contractions would keep going and I could get my placenta out quickly. It needed to come out asap, because I was bleeding quite a bit and my midwife wanted to stitch me up. Not only was I bleeding from the episiotomy, but I also tore. In several places. Inside and out. They gave me shots of local anesthesia to numb me up, but I gotta say, that shit still hurt. I definitely could feel her sewing me back together.

Judah was born at 5:37am after only 24 minutes of pushing. My blood pressure returned to normal as soon as delivery was over. It was a pretty quick and intense labor (well, I think so anyway). All in all, I spent about an hour at the Birthing Inn and an hour at the hospital (half of that in the freaking waiting room of the freaking ER). We stayed at the hospital until 11am the next day (it's hospital policy that you stay at least 24 hours).

Although things did not go according to our birth-plan, at least they went quickly. There was no time to debate our choices, or mourn that this wasn't what we had wanted. It all happened so fast that we just went with it. And, in the end, we did get what we wanted: Judah.

Oh, did I mention that when we first found out we were pregnant Bill and I talked about how cool it would be if Judah was born on the solstice? Looks like he was listening. Of course, later on in the game we definitely took back that wish and instead were hoping for before the due date rather than after. But our boy wasn't having it. He waited until the solstice and was born with the sun. I started pushing at 5:13, the exact time of the sunrise on the longest day of the year. Pretty crazy, no?

Hmmm, well I think that might be it. Except for pictures (no gross ones, I promise). Those will come another day. And, with that, I guess I finally have finished Judah's birth story (5 weeks and 2 days later).