Labor story...Part two

Eric and I just tried to relax until I was fully dilated. I thought that it would be several hours so I tried to rest as best as I could. Eric started to watch The Big Bang Theory on the laptop. When the nurse came in around one fifteenish to check me she told me that I was fully dilated and effaced. Gen had turned how she was supposed to so everything was going pretty well. I was in complete shock. Everything was happening so fast and I was freaking out because everyone had said that with a first delivery it usually took a long time before you had the baby. Gen was in some kind of distress because her heart beat was dipping low on the monitors and the nurse kept pushing me further onto my side because that was helping her heartbeat go up. The nurse started calling in lots of people for backup. Dr. Cannon was preoccupied with another patient but Dr. Macy who also works at the Avenue’s Women Clinic, who had come in to check on one of her patients, came in to get me started pushing. They had a specialist nurse come in because they thought that Gen might be flaccid when she came out because of the meds that I had been on during pregnancy. Dr. Macy was all gong ho on delivering the baby right then. She started having me push but I was so drugged from the epidural that I couldn’t really tell if I was pushing or not. Finally when Dr. Cannon arrived Dr. Macy stepped back and she stepped in. She decided to give me a shot of medication to slow down my contractions because they were literally right on top of each other so as to give Gen a break. She also wanted to wait a little while to start pushing. I was kind of irritated because now that I was finally a ten I just wanted to get it over with but I wanted to make sure Gen was okay. They put me on Oxygen and let me rest a little while. After a while the nurse came back in and had me start pushing again. I was letting the epidural wear off because I found that it was easier to figure out where I needed to push. I got to the point where the nurse thought it would be best to have the doctor there and so we finally got down to the business of delivering Gen. It took me a while to push her under my pubic bone but once I had gotten past that point I only had to give one good push and her head popped out. The doctor and nurse were impressed because they thought it would be another couple of pushes before she came out. The doctor made me stop pushing because the cord was wrapped around her neck. She pulled it off and then I was able to push her out. The doctor snipped the cord before Eric even had the chance to because she wasn’t breathing. She was handed off to the specialist nurse and another nurse. I was anxiously waiting for that first scream but it never came. My nurse called for more Oxygen and I was really concerned. The doctor was working on massaging my stomach and delivering the placenta. I couldn’t tell what was going on. I was so scared that something was seriously wrong. Gen wasn’t crying and so I thought something was seriously wrong with her, but when the anesthesiologist came in and asked if they still needed Oxygen they told him no so I knew she was at least breathing. The nurse asked for me how everything was and the specialist nurse said everything was good Gen just didn’t want to cry she was just looking around. She didn’t end up crying until much later either. She was just taking in the views. They weighed her and did everything else that they needed to do and then handed her off to Eric. Eric was amazing with her. He had never held a baby in his life before but when he took Gen in his arms it didn’t matter because he was a natural. He handed her off to me and she was just so amazing. I can’t even describe the experience of holding your child for the first time. It was just so surreal. It turns out that Gen had a true knot in her umbilical cord and a nucal (?) knot in it. I am just so grateful that the true knot didn’t become a problem. We could have had a stillborn child. The Lord truly has blessed us. The doctor delivered the placenta and then stitched me up because I had torn. The whole experience was amazing. She is such a sweetheart and I love her more everyday.