Those shows on TLC are very misleading

by Lacey

I was due on November 13, 2005.  This was my first baby and I had no idea as to what to expect.  I knew that I wanted to go as long as I could without pain medicine and planned on sticking to that. I had watch all of those shows on TLC and Discovery Health and let me tell you they are very misleading they kind of made giving birth look simple. 

On Thursday November 10th at about 1 pm I started getting these painful contractions and timed them for a while. They were coming pretty close and I felt like it was the real thing.  So I called my husband and told him I thought I was in labor so he came home to get me. We arrived at the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors and checked me out.  I sat there for four hours and even walked around and no progression so they sent me home and labeled it as false labor.

I went home and we ate dinner, and I took a bath and relaxed for a while.  That night was the first night in a while that I made it to bed before 11 pm. I had finally drifted off to sleep and at midnight on the dot I awoke with the most mind numbing pains.  I got up and assumed it was more false contractions and went into the living room to watch some TV until the pain subsided.  There was no such luck doing that so I made me a small salad and tried eating that, I couldn't even finish the whole thing the pains were so intense, or so I thought they were.  I paced back and forth and then went and went back to the couch and tried to lay down for a bit.  I was too uncomfortable so I decided to take a warm bath and relax a bit.  The warm water made me feel so much better so I thought I was relieved from the pains so I got out of the bath and got dressed and went and lie back down on the couch.  The pains started back up and they were much worse than before. I was miserable and the only thing to relive the pain was to walk.  So I paced back and forth throughout my house and even walked outside and walked while shouting a few things with each contraction. 

5am rolled around quickly and it was time for my husband to get up and go to work so I went to awake him and right then I had another contraction and it made my knees buckle.  My husband jumped up out of the bed and grabbed me and asked what was wrong, I replied "nothing" and told him to get ready for work.  He said he was going to wait around until the pains subsided and then he would go to work.  He went and lay on the couch and I sat in front of him and with each contraction I would lean back over him and grab for whatever was closest to the left and right of me. 

After about an hour of torture my husband decided enough was enough he was taking me to the hospital.  We arrived at the hospital and I had to wait 30 minutes to be checked in and then once I was taken back they asked me to change in the bathroom and empty my bladder and they would hook me back up to the monitors.  Well I lost my mucus plug in the bathroom that morning and freaked out sort of. I waited in the triage for a short time and then they sent a doctor in to check me, I was already 7 centimeters dilated and so they took me back and got me into labor and delivery. 

At this point I couldn't handle the pain anymore and began to beg for the epidural.  They gave me my epidural and I was happy.  This was about 10 am.  I rested for a bit and around noon I was ready to push.  I pushed for 5 hours with little progression. My water had broken as soon as I got the epidural and they saw that it was stained and knew my son had had a bowel movement.  After the 5 hours of pushing I was exhausted and my son's heart rate started to drop. They came in with papers to do an emergency c-section.  I signed them quickly and they rushed me back. This was a little after 5p m.  He was delivered at 5:39 pm a very healthy 9 pounds 1 ounce 21 3/4 inches long.  He had a short stay in the NICU but he was fine.

My labor and delivery was nothing like I expected or could have expected.  But I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Once he was born all the pain I had gone through had disappeared from my mind. Although it was a less desirable labor and delivery I didn't know any different so it didn't seem all that bad for me. 

Thanks for reading my labor and delivery story. Good luck to all of you expectant mom's out there and know that childbirth is so unpredictable but it is such a beautiful experience.