The Pitch

Alright, where was I?  Oh, right, the pain and suffering.  So, I've got the gown on, IV in, 5cm dilated, and Mike coaching me through contractions.  They have me walk to the room I would supposedly stay in for the rest of the time.  I end up changing rooms, I assume because it's a different room for c-section people.  I don't remember a lot of this part and it all kind of runs together.  I do remember that the nurse was checking my temperature to make sure I didn't get an infection after the doctor broke my water and she didn't believe the thermometer.  As if it was inexplicable for me to have a fever.  I did, but she wheeled in another thermometer machine since she didn't trust the one in the room.  She even ended up taking her own temperature.  She kept showing me her temperature and I really didn't care.  They pumped me full of antibiotics and then at some point they gave me a breathing treatment. I don't remember what happened to spur them to do that.  After that they made me wear an oxygen mask.  Mike was standing above me asking me questions.  After a nap, I remember turning to Mike and he looked so surprised to see a mask.  I guess he was so tired the first time he spoke to me with the mask on, he didn't notice it (even though it took up 3/4 of my face).  Weird.

I think that's all I remember of the events leading up to the big event, and I'm not even sure I got the order of what I do remember right.  I was so tired and it is all a big blur.  I do remember the doctor walking in to check how dilated I was.  I was at 9cm for a while and I was still there.  She told me to push a couple times to see if it helped.  I was like, "wait, is this it?  Is this THE pushing?".  I guess it wasn't, but it felt so close and exciting because I was pushing!  I was really happy.  I took a deep breath and pushed.  It felt weird because I've never tried to push a baby out, so it was really weak and uneventful.  I turned to the doctor and said, "Oops, wait, let me try that again.  I don't know what I'm doing.".  She smiled and told me to try again.  It was weird again, but better.  It's just so strange to push when you've seen it in movies so many times and it seems really straight forward, but it didn't feel easy at that moment.  She looked at me and told me that it didn't help.  She told me that I wasn't progressing and that I could wait another 2 hours and see what happens or have a c-section.  That was the first time the c-word had come up.  I looked at the clock and it was 10:55am.  I had been in labor for 32 hours at this point.  I asked what she recommended and she told me a c-section.  I felt tears running down my face and I said, "Okay, I'll have a c-section.  Do what you gotta do.".  There was an instant explosion of activity and flood of people in the room.  The doctor said that she had a different c-section scheduled for 11am that she would bump.  I was like, hey, I'm cool, you don't have to bump anyone.  I didn't realize how urgent my condition was because of the infection.  They gave Mike scrubs to put on and some guy was explaining the anesthesia to me and what I needed to do.  I was only half listening.  There was a clock in the operating room.  They wheeled me into the room a little after 11:00 am.  At 11:15am I was getting sliced and diced.