I thought my water broke, but I was not sure! It was my first experience. "Lets wait until I am really sure that my water break", I told my
husband who was working through out the night.
I tried to recall every single article related to water break and labor, and tried comparing my symptoms with those mentioned in them. I thought it would take a while to experience a water break, but it happened all of a sudden!
"Can you please call someone at the hospital?", I asked my husband, still unsure of what's happening.
"Sure!", he said, dialled a number that he had stored in his mobile and talked to a nurse on call. "Today morning, around 5 AM", he answered the attender, spelling my name carefully, answering to a lot of questions most of which are to do with symptoms.
After talking to the nurse, he called our wonderful friend who had offered us a ride to the hospital. Meanwhile, I woke my mom up who went to bed only a couple of hours ago. "The long walk we went last evening to the ice cream shop did the trick", she exclaimed.
I had mixed feelings; I was excited, scared, happy, nervous, blissful all at the same time! I checked my hospital bag one last time, made some coffee for my mom and husband and left our house to receive the sweet new member.
"I am excited and nervous than you are", my friend said while taking me in to her car.
There was not much traffic early in the morning when she rushed us to the hospital. A nurse at the entrance to emergency section asked me if I need a wheel chair to proceed. Even though I am not into labour yet, I accepted her offer and said "Yes! Thank you!", out of curiosity to travel in a wheel chair.
Since the hospital has experience in dealing with labor, they already have measured the weight of the wheelchair that they usually make patient sit on the chair while measuring the weight. But I was so excited that I rushed to the weighing scale, leaving whole world behind.
As soon as I checked in and entered into a labour room that was allotted to me, the nurse on call, Tricia, checked my vitals and said "perfect". She asked me if I am getting any contractions. Since my response was negative, she consulted the doctor on call, and made me wait for another 4 hours to see if the labour pain is induced naturally. Since there was no lady doctor available on call that day, Tricia asked me if I am OK with Dr. Stern. I hesitated a bit to be treated by a male doctor, but I accepted since my mom and husband suggested me to have a doctor check me instead of a midwife.
Even after four hours of long wait, my body did not induce pain naturally. Dr.Stern then prescribed a pill which he explained will let my body know that it has to induce pain and get into labour. My cervix have dilated only for 2 cm by then.
To keep me engaged, my friend brought her playing cards. We were playing cards by noon time that Kary, the nurse on next shift, was surprised! After waiting for a few hours, my friend went home telling us not to hesitate to call her if we need some help or our baby is born. She did not want to leave, but was really tensed at the long wait and was eager to meet our new family member.
My husband and my mom took a short nap while Dr.Stern gave me another pill around evening, to help my body induce pain naturally.
The pill started working as I started feeling unbearable pain in a pulse. Kara examined my cervix and said "you are at 3 cm now". When I complained about pain, the nurse called anaesthesia specialist and arranged for an Epidural shot. But the anaesthesia specialist was busy then that I had to wait for an hour with pain till I got the shot.
With moments ticked by, my mom was getting very tensed, which bothered me a lot. So, I asked my mom to wait outside of my room and asked my husband to stay with me.
After a while, an Epidural shot was given which relieved me of any pain, but the shot itself was really painful. After the shot was given, I felt numb. My pulse and blood pressure reduced which was having its effect on the baby's heart beat. I was worried that something would happen to me and cried secretly.
Looking at the jump in my vital signs, my concerned nurse consulted with the anaesthesia specialist again. She suggested to adjust the amount of epidural and glucose drips and asked me to raise the alarm if there was any jump further.
My husband found me crying. He advised me to be bold and tried convincing me by saying that I'm going to hold my baby soon. But I was not sure. Tears flowed from my eyes uncontrollably. He talked to my nurse about my condition in front of me, even though I was not convinced. Ms. Tricia met me in private and told me that there is nothing to worry and asked me to speak up. But words did not come out from my mouth. I cried even more and asked her, "why is this happening to me?"
Everything was perfect from the beginning of my pregnancy. She had no words. She tried to console me saying this is normal and had happened with many first pregnancy cases before. She understood that my mom was not supportive to me as my mom was scared and crying all the time when she was with me. Later, she called our doctor who then explained to me that everything is normal and my cervix is dilating in a normal way. He felt sad seeing me crying and reassured me.
Dusk had set in the room making it dark. In a remote corner inside the labour room, my mom and my husband slept. I could not catch any sleep and kept starring at the monitor. I get tensed whenever I found my baby's heart beat was lowered. On the next visit to my room, the nurse hide the monitor from my view so that I can get some sleep. Meanwhile, Tricia kept track of my vitals periodically and checked my cervix every three to four hours.
I lost my hope. It was around 2 AM next day when I got my first ray of hope. After examining my cervix for umpteenth time, Tricia said "You are over 8 cm now". I woke my husband up and shared the news saying our baby is going to place her feet in this world soon.
The nurse made every arrangement for our little princess arrival and helped me in pushing her out around 5.30 in the morning. But then, Dr. Stern had to perform a C-section to some other patient that he made me wait for another 20 minutes. Effect of epidural was coming down and I started feeling the keen pain of my life time ever.
The pain became unbearable when I started to push myself into labor at 6.30 on Sunday morning. The nurse asked me take a deep breath and count from one to ten and give a push. "I can see your baby's cute black hair", she exclaimed when Dr. Stern entered into the action around 6.50 AM. He got dressed up for labor immediately as I hold Jam's hands tightly and started pushing with every counts from one to ten. That was unbearable pain and doctor said me that he is going to cut my perineal tissue. I asked him if he can wait for two minutes as I could not bear the pain already.
Counting and pushing continued every time the monitor measured the ascend of my contraction. Suddenly, everyone asked me to open my tightly closed eyes. "Was something wrong? I don't want to open", I thought. But when I opened, I saw my sweet little plum cake letting out her first cry. That was the moment I felt worth taking all the pains. The long pain saga was over with the cute little pie on my hand, or so I thought. The real pain was when the Doctor pulled the placenta out of my body. The pain ended up with stitches on the torn perineal.
Meanwhile, my husband had his
happiest moment of his life when he cut the umbilical cord and welcomed Hrdaya to Earth. It was worth waiting for 26 hrs!
That is how my story of 25:59 awful hours and 26th awesome hour came to an end.
