Katherine's Birth Story

On December 5, 2007 at 5:30 AM, I was trying hard to get my husband out of bed. It was hard enough for me to even get out of bed at 36 weeks and two days along, and when I stood up, my water broke. I got scared, and said to my husband, “I think my water just broke.” He shot out of bed like a bullet and was dressed before I could even make it to the bathroom. I called my doctor and he told me to go to the hospital. By 6 AM, I was admitted, given an IV, and not allowed out of bed. My contractions were maxing out the machine, reading 100 at every contraction. I was only dilated to a three but at 8 AM when the nurse checked me, I had progressed to a four. That’s when the pain began and the contractions got worse.

During the whole time I was pregnant, I had said I didn’t want to get an epidural and I would be OK with just the IV drugs. But then I changed my mind and decided I wanted an epidural. He went to tell the nurse and when he came back he said the nurse said it was too early for one and she had laughed.

Around 10 AM, the nurse checked me and said I was six centimeters and I could have the epidural at that time, which I answered in a hurry that I did want it; anything to ease the pain.

Once the epidural was in, I began to itch beyond anything I’ve ever felt; I scratched my face raw. Shortly afterward, I was dilated to 10 and the doctor was having me push when I felt the need to, but it wasn’t helping so he had the nurse turn down my epidural.

My mother-in-law and husband would have me pull their arms for leverage so I could push harder, which the doctor said was doing some good. After two hours of pushing, there was still no baby, just the top of her head. With every push, everyone said they could see her head and hair, but then it was just going back in. The doctor said the problem was she was stuck under the pubic bone.

By this time, I was entirely exhausted from pushing and couldn’t make it past the count of six. My 17-year-old sister-in-law was in the room with us and was on the cell phone, giving everyone in the waiting room a play-by-play on the speaker phone as I pushed. Eventually, the doctor cut me a bit so the baby could come out easier. I felt pressure and relief, and thankfully, no pain with that! Not even a minute after he cut me, my baby Katherine was born! I was in shock; they put her on my chest and I had no idea what to do, what to say, or even think. All I knew was that she was finally here and I could hold her.

I’m glad my sister-in-law did have me on speaker phone throughout the whole thing because even though everyone heard me yelling and pleading with the doctor, they also all heard my baby’s first cry!