Cameron's Birth Story

My son was born on July 17, 1997. He weighed 6 lbs., 10 oz. The labor progressed like this:

I went into labor at approximately 9 pm. Right from the start my contractions were 5-7 minutes apart and gaining. I took a shower, drank water, did all of the Lamaze things. When they were three minutes apart I called the doctor and went to the hospital. As they hooked me up to the pressure monitor, they found that when I got out of bed my blood pressure would skyrocket. So I wasn't allowed to get out of bed. Thus the Lamaze technique of walking around wasn't able to help me at all. I then requested pain medication and my doctor recommended an epidural. I didn't really want to use that except as a last alternative, but he said it would help the blood pressure (it wasn't that bad). After the epidural my labor didn't progress. I was able to sleep and I went from 6 cm to 10 cm in one hour with no pain. Yippee! Of course I had the help of pitocin. My baby didn't progress down the birth canal and there was meconium in my amniotic fluid. The doctor decided to use forceps and an episiotomy to help him along. Thank goodness I had a very experienced doctor.

The baby had some problems right away with breathing, heart rate, and regulating his temperature, but he spent an hour in the NICU and recovered with no complications.

The worst pain I felt was the urinary catheter.

It's true what they say -- you do forget the pain after it's over and you're holding your very own baby in your arms. My son, Cameron Deen, is two months old today, and the most precious thing in my life.