Lanai's Story

It was six days before my due date, Halloween night, and I was extremely anxious to get my baby out of me. All I kept thinking was "six more days, six more days". I showered and went to bed around 10:00 p.m. Around midnight, I woke up to go to the bathroom; for the past four weeks, I had been running to the bathroom every two to three hours. I went back to bed hoping that I would go right back to sleep.

I was awakened to the sensation of what I thought was urine about to wet my bed, so I jumped up as fast as I could, but could not stop myself from losing control of my bladder. At least that's what it felt like. As I was about to change my clothes, a whole bunch of liquid gushed out of my body; I knew that I could not be urinating that much, but still didn't think that my water had broken because I was having no contractions and the baby was pretty high. So I went to my mom's room and told her what had happened. She said that it was my water and to get ready to go to the hospital.

My bags had been packed for the past month and a half, so I threw on some pants and was ready to go, but my mom decided to hop in the shower. I had just showered before I went to bed, but had to wait for her while my water continued to leak. It soaked through my sanitary napkin and my pants; I grabbed a new pair of pants and rushed my mom out of the house.

We got to the hospital around 2:00 a.m. I was wheeled up to labor and delivery, changed into a gown, hooked up to a monitor, was asked a million questions, and the nurse checked to see if my water had really broken, which was certainly the case. Then she checked for dilation, and I was only 1 cm. dilated, so I knew it would be a long night. The nurse drew some blood and moved me into my room.

I had been afraid to get an IV, even before my pregnancy. My original nurse had to go order some antibiotics, so she had another nurse insert my IV. That nurse stuck me on the outside of my arm and messed up, so she stuck the inside of my arm, and messed up again. I was so mad, because I hate needles. So, she called my original nurse back, who inserted the IV on my hand without a problem, but it still hurt. I was still having no contractions.

I was too nervous to sleep, so I watched TV while my mom slept. Around 8:00 a.m., I dropped off for about an hour, then called my sister to ask her if she was coming to the hospital. She said she would be there around 10:30 a.m., so I continued to watch TV and begged my mother to bring me a sucker. I was hungry and thirsty, and ice chips just weren't working.

My doctor came in around 10:30am to see how I was doing. I asked for Pitocin because I was tired of just sitting there with nothing happening. So my mom ran to room as they started the Pitocin. She didn't want to miss anything! The drug only took about five minutes to kick in, but the initial contractions weren't all that bad. Around noon, the contractions had gotten pretty bad. I couldn't talk through them anymore, and I started feeling a lot of pressure like I had to make a bowel movement, but the pain wasn't unbearable.

Around 2 p.m., the nurse checked to see how far I was dilated, and I was still at 4 cm. I started getting irritated with the pain and pressure, and didn't want to go through (what I thought would be) another six hours of pain, so I asked for an epidural. My doctor said that she preferred that I try Stadol first, which I thought was fine, and I went to sleep.

I could still feel the pain, but I could just deal with it so much better. The Stadol started to wear off around 4:30 p.m., and the pressure was horrible, but I found relief in rubbing my lower back. The nurse saw how uncomfortable I was and decided to check me; she said that I had a little more cervix to go. About 20 minutes later, she checked me again and told me to start pushing. I pushed twice and the baby was right there, so she got the doctor.

They broke the bed and the delivery began. It was pretty easy to crown my baby, then the bigger part of her head started coming out, and that was a pain that is indescribable. I thought that I wouldn't be able to do it. I tried grabbing my sister very tight, pulling on the hand rails, curling my body, and having my mom and the nurse push my feet, but that only got the nurse a good kick in the face. I begged the doctor to use suction, because the baby was not coming. Everyone in the room encouraged me, and I finally pushed her head out. The doctor cleaned her mouth, told me to push, and the rest of her body came out with no problem.

The doctor sat her on my stomach, and I checked to see if she was really a girl. We all knew she had strong lungs, because she was using them to the fullest. I cut her cord, and the nurse took her to clean her up, and that's when I began to cry tears of joy, because it hit me that the daughter that I had spent the last nine months waiting for was finally here and healthy.