Scrapbooking Savings Week!
Free Gift + Take an Extra 9% OFF with code: CRAFT
×

Cheers

Give a Cheer
Give cheer Give a Cheer
Favorite

My experience of giving birth to my son, Jacob.
Journaling reads:
LABOR of

LOVE


December 13th, 2003
9:00 a.m. – 7:06 p.m.
The Birth of Jacob Lee Riley.
As told by your mother, Amy Dawn Lee-Riley…


On the morning of December 13th, 2003, I awoke, groggily at 8:00 a.m. and groaned to myself because I had not slept well all night. My Legs and back had ached all night long and I even had to get up at one point and take some Tylenol. I just felt crummy.
As I contemplated my day, I felt a strange sensation as though something was leaking “down there.” Strange, but not that strange since my body had been doing strange things for 8 months or so…
As I rolled out of bed, I felt a “pop” and fluid began to pour down my legs. I am not sure how I made it to the bathroom without getting a single drop on the bed or floor, but I did. I called for Craig and was really scared. I was kinda in denial. Had my water broke? Was the baby okay? Oh my Gosh, was I in labor? Ummm…duh. Yeah, girl. You are.
Anyway, I panic and start running around the house freaking out and getting my stuff together. Craig gets a shower.
Yeah. That’s right. A shower.
I could have killed him. How could he think about anything else at a time like this???
We got to the hospital around 9:00 a.m. and they did a Nitrazine test on me and it was +. “Yep, you’re in labor.” Says the nurse.
Duh.
They move me to a labor room and the wait begins. They start Pitocin on me around 10:00 a.m. and I am told that I was probably in labor all night, I just didn’t know it. “Okay”, I think. This won’t take long. Yeah right.
By 3:00 p.m. I am about ready to die and I am only 3-4 cm. I need an epidural and I need it badly. The anesthesiologist was my best friend. He hooked me up with an awesome epidural and I finally got some relief. I dozed. Craig watched to see who would win the Heisman Trophy on ESPN. The movie “The Money Pit” was on one of the TV channels.
Dad came in a sat with me for a while. By this point I was shivering and shaking as Jacob moved farther into my birth canal to be born. My cervix continued to progress gradually to complete dilation (“10”) by about 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. I was able to push. And boy did I ever push! I pushed for almost 2 hours straight. I don’t ever remember working so hard or being pushed so far to the edge of exhaustion in my life. Jacob was “stuck” in my pelvis in a posterior position and could not descend any farther until he had rotated anteriorly.
Those nurses had me almost standing up in the bed, trying to get gravity to help.
Thank God, finally, once the little booger got turned he just sailed right on out.
I remember thinking to myself the whole time I pushed…”God, please just let me get through this…” and the first thing I said when Jacob was out was “Thank you God!”
Dr. Dagostine was yelling “Here comes your son, Amy. Here he comes!”
The excitement and the pain and the delirium and love and joy and exhaustion all flooded in at once. And there he was.
Screaming, red, and slimy.
They placed him on my chest and I cried for joy and relief and that it was over. Craig and Mom cried and everyone was shaking and wiping tears. They couldn’t put Jacob all the way up onto my chest because his cord was so short. So they hurried up and had Craig cut his cord so I could hold him for a minute.
Then they wisked my baby off to the waiting open warmer to suction his nose, listen to his tiny lungs and heart and stick goop in his eyes. Craig and Mom said that he just laid there and looked around. He didn’t cry. He just looked around and was quiet.
What a miracle. What a wonder of God. That I became a mother and Craig a father.
That our little boy was finally here and he was healthy and that my pain and suffering were over.
I would do it all over again if I had to. It was worth every ounce of pain and blood and tears.
I will always remember my labor as a painful, but joyous experience.
A labor of Love.


I


Report
SavedRemovedChanged