Hannah-Marie was born October 18th at 0409 at Sentara Norfolk General. I was suppose to be induced that morning at 6 am. I had stayed up till around eleven o'clock working on some homework, after laying down for what seemed like only a few minutes I was woken up by my water breaking! I was excited that I got to experience it naturally. I almost went back to sleep I was so tired, thinking it's only my water breaking. I got up a few minutes later when a painful contraction hit me. I woke up my husband and jumped in the shower. I thought the water would stop, but it just kept gushing out of me. I got dressed the best I could and we left in a rush. The baby felt extremely low to me, and I started to worry. We arrived at the hospital and had to go through the ER, I kept telling them, I'm having contractions the baby is really low we need to get upstairs. My bp was 172/102 when they checked me in, they finally took me upstairs to labor and delivery and at this point the contractions were getting more intense.
The nurses didn't seem to hurried to see me and get me in a room. I remember being in pain and thinking what is taking them so long! Finally a nurse came into the room I was in and hooked me up to the monitor and started asking questions. They checked me and said I was only a 3 cm which I didn't believe. I was in extreme pain at this point with each contraction. They could not give me an epidural until my labs came back because I was on Heparin. It seemed like an eternity before they got the results and the lady started the epidural. It's was impossible to stay completely still while she tried to start it. She told me she had to work through my contractions, at this point I was throwing up after each contraction and almost passed out twice due to the pain. My bp was through the roof. She finished and they laid me down. Well the epidural took forever to kick in and it only barely numbed my feet, not my waist at all! They checked me again and I was at 7 cm, they went ahead and re-did the epidural to relieve my pain. Finally it started numbing the contractions and I got to lay down.
Arnold went to move the car from the ER parking lot, and the RN started hooking me back up to the monitor. She couldn't find the baby's heartbeat anywhere. She started calling people on the phone to come to my room stat, she called it a "cold baby". Then there was seven or eight people in my room in a matter of minutes. While she is trying to check for the baby, someone checks me and I am complete and crowned! They told me I needed to start pushing now, and of course I couldn't feel anything from the waist down. A RN called my husband who ended up making a U turn and parking the car in the exact same spot, he literally just left the parking lot it was that quick. He ran all the way to my room, as soon as he walked in they told him to hold my right leg and it was time to push. They told me when to push, it only took four contractions and my Hannah was out. She cried immediately and they rushed her off to be checked out. The doctor said she had the cord wrapped around her body a few times. It seemed like forever before I got to hold her. Finally they gave her to me and I got to met her. She was so quiet and just stared into my eyes. She nursed right away.
I was in an after delivery room by 6 am. It happened so fast I couldn't even grasp that I had just had a baby.
