The Birth

Pitocin is the devil.

It is the devil but a necessary evil I suppose, and one that I am almost grateful for.

My whole pregnancy I wrestled with the idea of going au naturale during labor but I gave myself one stipulation: if I needed pitocin, I was going to opt for the epidural. That was the plan and I was stickin' to it! So, when I decided to be induced a week early, I entered the hospital knowing that the epidural was coming and I took comfort in that.

Then they started the pitocin and I took comfort in nothing.

For those of you out there who have not had the pitocin experience, let me just explain the process. They hook you up to a drip of the drug and slowly, every half hour, they crank up the dosage. And your body that wasn't in active labor when you showed up, is thrown into the perils of said labor without a chance for it to acclimate. Pitocin does not make the contractions stronger or more painful but it does force them to come faster so there is no break, no time for your body (and mind for that matter) to settle into the process. By the second hour I was sure I might die.

For those of you who have never experienced a contraction, imagine your entire body, internal organs and all, going into a class five charlie horse.

Lucky for me, I had my bestest friend present who just so happens to have an interest in midwifery and she knows a thing or two about delicious pressure points. Did you know that there is a point in your knee caps that will send a counter pain shooting into your body that helps to cancel out the contraction pain? There sure is, and oh my but it is delightful!!!

By hour three I politely asked for that darling long needle and an hour later my knight in shining armor walked into the room.

Because the epidural process is considered a sterile procedure, Bobby and my Beth were asked to leave the room. Labor with Murdock took 36 hours so I really thought I had all the time in the world and told them to go grab lunch and take a break. The needle went in, my water went out and in minutes I had to push...but the drugs had no time to kick in.

I got my wish.

Natural it was.

I called my husband and I am sure that he broke the speed limit because he and Bestest walked in just in time.

I pushed for about forty five minutes and did the thing I had told myself I would not do: I cried. Not the loud or ugly kind, but there was crying and whimpering and thoughts of a blissful death. I kept apologizing to everyone for being a giant sissy but they kindly assured me that I wasn't being obnoxious so I guess that counts for something.

I got charlie horses in my thighs, I shook like a crack addict going through withdrawals and I knew that something was wrong.

Before the pitocin kicked in, I had the impression that the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck so I asked a nurse about it. She assured me that it wasn't very common and that everything was fine. I tried to take comfort in her words but in my heart, I KNEW that we needed to hurry and get him out.

My Dr and her nurses laughed and kept the mood as light as possible but I saw the look on my Dr's face when she announced she needed to give me an episiotomy to get the baby out. I nodded between sobs and pushes and within minutes I saw a blast of white light and felt an enormous rush of relief as Mr Watson A. Semon made his grand entrance into the world.

There was no time for Bobby to cut the cord like he did with Murdock for indeed, it was wrapped around my little one's neck. The Dr worked fast and the nurses and the pediatric specialist soon had my baby right as rain.

8lbs 4ozs and 20.25 inches

In less than 5 hours.

No hands.

Totally worth it.

Sometimes you have to come in contact with the devil to appreciate when you are in the presence of an angel.