Brandy's Story

I had a normal, pre-natal check-up with my doctor on Friday Sept 8, 2002. I was 100% effaced but the baby had not dropped, nor had I begun to dilate. So my doctor scheduled an induction for Wednesday, Sept 13th, and told me not to worry if I experienced any spotting, since he had just preformed a pelvic exam. He'd said the same thing after every visit that month, and I hadn't had any problems.

When I left the doctor's office I was excited, anxious, scared, with the whirl of a hundred emotions running through me. I decided to go shopping, to make sure I had everything ready for the baby. My friend Jason accompanied me, because my mom and husband both insisted I not go anywhere alone.

We "hit" the mall and Walmart, then went on to Target. We parked the car and as I rolled out of my '96 Ford Mustang, I felt a strange rush rolling from my upper abdomen into my pelvic area, that left me with this horrible urge to pee! I made a beeline to the restroom, where I noticed some slight spotting. The doctor had warned me about that so I didn't give it a second thought, and went on with my shopping.

Saturday morning I got up to the pregnancy ritual of going to the restroom, and noticed a gross, brownish discharge, which I guessed to be my mucus plug. I called my mom, but refused to call the doctor. I wasn't hurting and nothing else was going on. I ran a few errands and headed back to the house. It was a hundred degrees outside and by the time I had finished I was wiped out!

I saw my husband off to work, while my brother and Jason headed out to a music store and my grandmother went shopping. I wasn't feeling well and decided to lay down and get some rest.

A few hours later, I woke up to an empty house, and an achy feeling in my lower back, which tended to come and go. I wandered around the house, trying to find a clock among the umpteen specimens we own, that had a working seconds hand. In the end I watched the TV Guide channel, which has a clock on the screen. This achy, rotating sensation in my back was coming every three or four minutes, so I called my mother again and told her what was going on. She finally convinced me to call the doctor.

My doctor's answering service paged him and, a minute later, Dr. DeBusk instructed me to go to the hospital. Thirty seconds later, my mom and dad tore in and rushed me off to the hospital, where I was immediately hooked up to all sorts of monitors and gadgets. The nurses said they weren't sure whether or not I was in "active" labor. I did seem to be having contractions but they were "off the chart". An examination revealed that I was 100% effaced, the baby had dropped but I was only 1 cm. dilated. It could still be days before I had the baby, so they asked me to walk the halls for a while and see if things progressed.

Mom and I headed out, and around, and around. We walked for an hour and a half, all the while I insisted that I was not in true labor! This was supposed to hurt, right?

We finally headed back to the Labor and Delivery room where a new nurse checked me, and found I was still 1 1/2 to 2 cm. dilated. She said to get my things ready, she was going to call Dr. DeBusk so he could release me. A few minutes later she seemed irritated that the doctor had ask her to admit me. So I was moved to a delivery room where they hooked me up to an IV with antibiotic and Pitocin. I continued to argue with my mom not to call my husband till we knew for sure; she called him anyway and left a message with his sergeant around 11:30 p.m.

Thirty minutes later I started feeling the contractions; they were less than a minute apart. The next exam showed I was only at 2 1/2 cm. but I was hurting. This was real! I couldn't stand for anyone to touch me or talk to me. Already I wanted my epidural! The nurse checked me again at 1 a.m. but I was stuck at 3 cm. and she refused to give me anything. Luckliy my doctor was outside the door and told her to order my epidural. I went into a contaction at the same time the anesthesiologist inserted the needle; I never felt it!

The nurse rattled something about how sorry I was going to be that I'd gotten it so soon, and that she wouldn't get me another one once it wore off.

I lay back down and immediately felt better. Actually, I felt nothing, which was fine with me! Then came this strange feeling: I had delivered my water. It never broke, instead it looked like a ziplock bag full of murky water! The nurse checked me again and I was 10 cm. dilated and ready to go. Again, she couldn't resist saying: "Well now look what you did, you just had that epidural and now you're never going to be able to push. Let's do a practice push!" As she walked away my mother and husband both held my legs and I pushed, counting to ten. And pushed again! The nurse walked back by, stuck her hand between my legs and shouted: "Stop pushing! Stop pushing!" She screamed for the doctor, who rushed in, had me push one more time and, at 2:14 a.m. on Sept 10, 2000, my beautiful baby boy was born, weighing in at a whopping seven pounds, seven ounces and measuring twenty inches long. He was the most perfect thing I have ever seen.

I am very excited because in two short months I will be giving birth to our second child, this time a girl. I am hoping that everything will go just as well with this one. Minus the nurse!