The Delivery: From Dad's Point of View

Here is what happened from Daddy's point of view.  It was about a week ago, Monday, August 27th.  Right after dinner I was sitting on our couch showing some pictures to Uncle Ray and Aunt Loretta who had just arrived on a surprise visit.  My phone rang with Susan calling me.  This was strange. I thought she was just behind the wall from me in our bedroom.  She asked me to come and see her.  She informed me her water had broken, and she had spoken with the OB and they told her she needed to come to the hospital immediately.  Susan was very distraught because she had not begun contracting yet.  She had hoped to be able to labor for a while in the comfort of home before going to the hospital.

We decided we would slowly get ready to go, but we didn't need to go this minute.  Maybe in an hour or so.  I gave a tour of the 4-H Center to Uncle Ray and Aunt Loretta.  When I came back to the house about a half hour later Sue was really feeling the contractions.  "WOW!  This is really it now," I thought.  We've been waiting so long.  The baby's due date was 3 days ago, so for the past two weeks  I knew it was possible every day.  Several times a day I'd ask Sue how she was feeling, but her response was always, "Pregnant."
Now I quickly finished packing the bag and put some food together.  The contractions were getting stronger and stronger for Sue.  When we finally pulled out of the 4-H center in our car, I was very excited.  I tooted our car horn as we passed the staff house, and I wanted to start calling people.  During the car ride, Sue couldn't really talk much, she was struggling with the pain of the contractions. Sue's mother, Marguerite, came with us in the back seat. She had the great idea of just saying a prayer, the Rosary, while we drove there.  That was really the best thing to do in this moment of excitement and nervousness.  It was about a 35 minute drive to the hospital.

At Candler hospital we had to wait to get checked in at the ER.  Sue was doing her best, but definitely annoyed that she had to answer all these questions and sign her name to things as she was experiencing labor contractions that were getting stronger and stronger.  When we arrived at the birthing floor, they took Sue to triage and told me and mom to wait until they were all settled there.  After about 15 minutes I was able to get back to Sue.  The nurse was so glad to see me.  She was afraid Sue was going to fall out of her bed because she was moving around so much to deal with the labor contractions.  Sue was then able to hold on to me as she moved around to try to find comfortable positions.

Once a room opened up we moved to a delivery room.  This was a bigger room with stuff for the new baby on one side.  It was very exciting for me to see them getting everything ready for the new baby.  They rolled several things in like a scale, warming lamps for the baby, bassinette, and other carts with equipment and supplies for the baby and for the delivery.
Sue requested an epidural shot this time to avoid some of the pain.  By the time the anesthesiologist came to work on giving her the shot, she was 7 cm dialated.  I think this is a little later than when people usually get the shot and it turned out to be a very tense time.  It was very difficult for Sue because she had to sit up and be totally still while he inserted a big long needle into just the exact position in her spine.  The doctor kept on stressing how she needed to be very still because if he did not get in just right she would have a horrible headache and the shot wouldn't be effective.  All the while Sue was experiencing sharp labor pains and being able to move around and change positions is her usual tactic to cope with them.  The situation in the room was very tense.  The doctor kept on asking calmly but firmly "Honey, You NEED TO KEEP STILL FOR ME TO DO THIS", and meanwhile Sue was screaming, moaning, crying with the pain.

I was holding both of Sue's hands, to comfort her and to help her keep still.  The situation was stressful.  But I was trying to help her as best I could. I felt so sympathetic for her.  Then something happened that really surprised me. I nearly fainted.  It was just like a movie or TV show.  I asked the nurse for help and they got me a chair and some juice.  I now had one nurse and Marguerite attending to me, and one nurse and the doctor attending to Sue.  I felt bad, but I really was on the verge of collapsing and I needed to recover.

The anesthesiologist was finally able to deliver the shot and Sue started feeling much less pain in about 20 minutes.  The nurse was periodically checking her cervix, and it was opening up more and more and reaching the critical 10 cm.  This was exciting and so good to hear about the steady progress.  When it reached 10 the nurse called the OB in, Dr. Morgan.  This was exciting, because it felt like we were really close now.  There was about another 30 minute wait until Sue started to feel an urge to push.  This is when things started to get a little tense again.

The OB and nurse were giving Sue instructions on when to push and how to hold her legs to help the baby come out.  But the progress seemed to be quite slow compared to how much effort Sue was putting into it.  I was on one side of Sue and her mother was on the other side.  We were each holding her hand at times and also pulling her legs back and down  to help the pelvic bone be in a good position.  The nurse was at Sue's side with her hand on her uterus.  She could feel the contractions and would tell Sue when to push.  The OB was standing facing Sue, watching the computer monitor and looking down the birth canal while coaching Sue.  There was a rythm to going on.  There would be a pause for perhaps 30 seconds.  Then usually Sue was say "Is this a contractions, should I push?".  The nurse would be feeling the uterus and say, "not quite yet".  The OB would say let it build up, hold on, ok...NOW! PUSH!  1...2...3" and she would count up to 10.  Sue would be moaning and groaning in her effort, mom and me would be holding her legs down hard and we were all hoping each time that the baby's head would pop out.  The problem was, it seemed like a lot of work for Sue with no progress.

This was scary because this is exactly what happened last with Mathieu.  Sue pushed for a long time with Mathieu,and he had seemed just on the verge of coming out.  But he could never fit so we had to be rushed to the ER for an emergency C section.  No one  wanted that to happen again but everyone knew it was a possibility.

Finally the doctor said, "There's the baby's head!".  I was excited, but when I looked I didn't see anything that looked like a head.  Luckily they had attached a small probe to the baby's head to monitor the heart beat, so I could see what the probe was attached to.  It was just some white wrinkly folds of skin with a little hair.  Not what I was expecting but finally something new to look at!  I thought, "Mathieu never made it this far so this is encouraging".

Disappointingly, we stayed at this point for a long time.  I have no idea how long it was, but the situation was so tense even 20 minutes felt like a long time.    I started to worry about the baby being stuck at this spot again.  I think the OB thought this as well.  She said something vague like, "we are going to do something to get this baby out fast, right Sharon (the nurse)."  It may have been some kind of code word, because then they both got busy doing things.  They adjusted the bed so the bottom half came off, stirrups swung out for Sue's legs.  The OB, who was already in the blue surgeon type scrubs, put on another layer of scrubs including a face mask.

Then we were back to more of the pushing.  It din't take long and the whole head popped out.  NOW I COULD SEE A BABY!  She gave some quick scweeky cries.  Then before you knew it, the whole bloody baby was out!  The OB had her in here hands.  She announced, "ITS A BABY GIRL!".  The baby was crying a little, but this was a wonderful sound to hear.  It was like a realy living baby had just appeared out of nowhere.  I truly felt like it was a miracle.  Sue and I were both crying.  It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.

The OB let me cut the umbilical cord, they wiped off some of the blood and then the baby went right onto Sue's bosom.  Sue was able to nurse the baby a little bit, and do a lot of holding.  We were all so happy.  We were especially excited to experience a vaginal birth.  We are so thankful to our OB, Tania Morgan-Bowen, and the nurses of Candler, who all worked hard to help deliver the baby.  Sue's mom was also so thrilled to be a part of the birth and we were glad she was there.

I enjoyed the 2.5 days we were able to spend in the hospital room.  It was like a vacation.  Food was delivered, I was not worried about house projects, work, or anything besides baby Lily and Sue.  Sue's parents stayed at home with Mathieu.  We are so thankful they have been able to visit for a few weeks to help us.  They came with Mathieu each day and Mathieu is thrilled to be a big brother.