Looking back at this story, I realize that I was bullied into a lot of things by my doctors and the hospital, although it isn't really reflected in the story, but it brought back a lot of memories. It is no wonder that I am hoping for a birth center birth with my baby girl.
So without further ado, here is the story of how my sweet Danny Boy was born.
Daniel Thomas Bray Rice
April 16th,
2010
7 lbs. 5 ozs. 20 inches
long.
Exactly one month before
you were born, on March 16th, 2010, I was told by my
doctor that I had tested positive for Gestational Diabetes back in
January!! He had overlooked my test results, even though I had asked
him about the results several times. It made a lot of sense that I
had GD because I had been having really bad dizzy spells, I had
swelled up a lot, and my vision was really suffering. My diabetes was
treated with diet only, it was a really emotional time, the last few
weeks of my pregnancy. I suddenly had to change my diet completely,
and I was terrified that there would be something wrong with my baby
since I had this terrible disease without treating it for so long. My
doctor decided that he would induce me on my due date because of the
GD, but I fought to do it sooner. I wanted to do it when he was on
call at the hospital, I wanted him to see me through the mess he
made, but I also wanted the baby out of me ASAP. I felt like my body
was hurting the baby, and the sooner he/she came out the better off
he/she would be. We decided to induce on April 15th, 2010,
I was 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant.
Thursday, April 15th
we woke up early to get ready to go to the hospital and start my
induction so we could have “the baby”. We didn't know if you
would be a boy or a girl so we called you “the baby” or “otter”
while I was pregnant. I couldn't sleep the whole night before we went
to the hospital, I was very nervous, but also excited at the same
time. I was afraid of what labor would be like, but so excited to
find out if I would have a son or a daughter, to see what you would
look like and to hold you for the first time.
We woke up around 5 am so
we could take showers, pack our bags, and eat breakfast. We got
everything ready to and left for the hospital. We were so excited,
but right when we left the base I realized we forgot to bring the
laptop, we knew it could be a day or two before you would make your
big entrance and we really wanted to have the computer with us. We
turned around and went back to our house to get the computer. We got
to the hospital a little late, around 7:45 am, luckily the nurses
were running late getting our room ready so we actually got there at
the perfect time. They made me go back to the room for a little while
without Daddy which made me very upset. I didn't want to be in the
hospital at all without him because I was so nervous. My nurse, Jenny
was very nice and let Daddy come to our room right away because I
told her how much I wanted him there. I got changed into my funny
looking hospital gown and sat in the bed waiting for the doctors and
nurses to come in. The nurses came in and started taking my
temperature and all my vital signs. They hooked me up to machines to
monitor contractions, your heartbeat, and my blood pressure. I was
surprised that there wasn't a doctor around to check me out before
everything got started, but by the end of the day I realized that the
nurses do most of the work, and the doctors are there in case there
is a problem. Once I was on the monitor I was happy to hear that I
was already having sporadic contractions, even though I couldn't feel
them I was happy to know that my body was starting to get ready for
labor on it's own, and we weren't taking you too early. After a
little while the nurses came in to give me an IV, I needed to have
antibiotics constantly in my system because I tested positive for
Group B Strep, which could have made you sick when you were coming
out if I didn't have the antibiotics. Jenny had a hard time getting
the IV in, she was a new nurse so she asked for help. A different
nurse came in, she was really mean and hurt me...I had a really big
bruise on my arm from her failed attempt at giving me an IV. Next the
vein specialist came in from the Maternity ER and she gave me an IV
with no trouble. My arm still hurt from the second try at the IV, but
I was happy to have that part over with.
It was about 8:30 am and I
was finally given medicine to start labor. I got a pill to swallow
that was supposed to give me contractions. I was happy to hear your
heartbeat all day long. My favorite time of the month while I was
pregnant with you was when I would go to the doctor and we would
listen to your heartbeat. There is something so special about knowing
that your baby is alive and growing inside you. I knew, at this time,
that I would really miss hearing your heartbeat and feeling you kick
and move after you were born. You started moving around a lot like
you did every morning around that time, I loved feeling you wiggle
and kick. There is something so sweet about pregnancy and motherhood,
you are so excited to meet your sweet baby for the first time, but
you also love having the baby inside you and knowing he or she is
safe. I really enjoyed our last hours together where it was just you
and me.
Throughout the day the
nurses would check to see if I was dilated, and I wasn't, they would
give me more medicine to induce contractions, and they would make me
walk around the hospital to try to get you ready to come out. I
looked like a giant in my robe walking around the hospital, but your
Daddy always said I looked beautiful. Daddy always went walking with
me, we would get so bored walking around in circles at the hospital.
The nurses also let me sit on a medicine ball instead of walking...I
thought that was fun and I could be on the computer and Facebook with
my friends. All day everyone kept calling Daddy and I to see if you
were here yet...our friends and family were so excited. Momo and
Grandpop called, all of your Aunts called, and our friends too.
Mommy's cousin Kathryn is a Labor and Delivery nurse and she was
calling and texting me all day to give me advice and find out how we
were doing. It was so nice to know that we had so many people praying
for us and excited to hear if you were here. Daddy and Mommy's friend
Mickey sent us flowers the first day we were at the hospital, they
made the room smell so nice.
Once it was nighttime our
nice nurse, Jenny, had to go home and we got a mean nurse who didn't
take very good care of me. I kept getting medicine to get labor going
and it never seemed to work. We walked around the hospital every hour
for about 30 minutes to try to get labor going. I started feeling
contractions around 10pm, they didn't hurt too bad but they were
uncomfortable, it was hard to walk around this time because of the
contractions and pressure on my belly, you were feeling very heavy!
This continued most of the night, and around 1:30 am Daddy went to
sleep and I stayed up watching TV because I couldn't sleep. A little
while after Daddy went to sleep the doctor came in to see how I was
doing, I woke Daddy up because I was nervous that it would hurt when
he checked me, it did but I survived. Daddy helped me get through the
hard stuff, and the nighttime doctor was very nice. I was really
excited to see you and very tired but I couldn't fall asleep. A
little while after Daddy fell asleep my contractions started to hurt
really bad, the nurse came in to check to see how dilated I was and I
was only at a 1 so they didn't give me any more medicine for the rest
of the night. I still had contractions all night that hurt but I just
thought about how each contraction brought you closer to being born
so it would make them easier to get through. I must have fallen
asleep around 3:00 am and slept for a few hours.
The next morning the new
morning nurse woke me up and told me she needed to check to see how
dilated I was. I was still only about 1 cm dilated. I wasn't making
much progress and I was very frustrated. I thought that I was being
put in a lot of pain from the contractions and it was all for
nothing. My nice morning nurse unhooked all my monitors and the IV so
I could take a shower without all the wires being in the way. I took
a nice long shower and I kept thinking that it might be the last
relaxing shower I would take for a long time. I also kept thinking
that I really really hope my baby will be born today. I could not
wait to meet my sweet baby, to know if you would be a boy or a girl,
to see who you would look like and to give you a kiss. I had been
waiting my whole life for you and I didn't want to wait any longer.
After my shower we had a
slow morning. We ate breakfast and talked to the doctors and nurses
about what we should do to get this baby to come out. The doctors
decided to give me pitocin to give me more contractions. The pitocin
worked and around 12:30 p.m Doctor Grogan, from my doctors office,
came in to check my progress. I was 2 centimeters dilated but it
seemed like things were finally progressing so he broke my water. I
immediately began to have extremely intense and painful contractions.
The contractions were coming right after each other so I was not
getting a break. The nurses called the anesthesiologist to come give
me an epidural but he was in the operating room with another Mommy so
we had to wait. It was very hard to go through that pain without any
medicine to help me. I took it one contraction at a time, took deep
breaths and closed my eyes during the hardest parts and before I knew
it an hour had gone by and the anesthesiologist was ready to give me
some medicine. I was afraid of the big needle he had to use and I was
upset because the doctor was mean and wouldn't let Daddy stay with
me. The procedure to insert the epidural turned out to be pretty easy
and not scary at all. I didn't feel any pain other then the
contractions that I was feeling. Once the doctor was finished Daddy
was allowed to come back in to be with me and I was soon feeling very
good. Thanks to the medicine I was able to get some sleep before it
was time to deliver my sweet baby. I woke up from my nap around 4 p.m
and felt like it was time to push. Doctor Burkett, a doctor I had
never met before, came in and checked my progress, I was finally 10
centimeters! I was so happy to hear this because I was ready to have
you. The nurses didn't want me to start pushing yet, they wanted to
see if you would come down on your own a bit. I was upset about this
because I really wanted to push. I felt ready and I wanted you to be
born before it was too late to call everyone in Maryland to announce
your big arrival. Around 6 p.m I told the nurse that I was ready to
push and she still didn't want me to. Daddy and I think it was
because the nurses were getting ready to go home and they didn't want
to get stuck in a delivery. Finally around 7 p.m we got new nurses.
The new nurse, Paula, was very sweet and said it was time to have a
baby! Because Dr. Grogan and Dr. Burkett had gone home we were lucky
enough to have Marsha Keechler, a Midwife from Mommy's doctor office
help deliver you. She was a very nice woman who did everything she
could to make sure you arrived safely and to make sure I didn't get
hurt. I started pushing sometime after 7:30. It was a lot of work to
push baby out but it wasn't too painful because I had a great
reaction to the epidural. While I was pushing the Detroit Red Wings
hockey game was on TV. The Wings were losing the game but once I
started pushing they came back and ended up winning 7-4. You must
have been good luck for Daddy's favorite hockey team. While I was
pushing Marsha said that she was very upset that the nurses wouldn't
let me push earlier. She said that she had never seen any Mommy sit
around at 10 centimeters dilated for as long as I had. She told me
that because you were ready to come out for so long but weren't able
to that you might have a cone head, but that it would go away in 24
hours. I had never seen a baby with a cone head before so I was a
little scared. While Mommy was pushing Marsha also said that you were
a little big for Mommy to get out so she did some extra work to help
you along, she was so great that she didn't need to use any special
tools to help deliver you.
At 8:21 p.m on April 16th,
2010 in Yuma Arizona, my beautiful son Daniel Thomas Bray Rice was
born. That was the happiest moment of my life. When you were born
Marsha had to unwrap the umbilical cord from around your neck, it was
wrapped around twice which was very scary, but you were in perfect
health. Marsha held you up so Daddy could see you, he looked at you
and then told me that you were a boy. I was so happy that my Danny
Boy was finally here. The nurses took you over to the table to clean
you up and make sure you were healthy while Marsha made sure that
Mommy was doing well. The nurses cleaned you up and weighed you, you
weighed 7 lbs, 5 oz and you were 20 ½ inches long. Once you were
cleaned up the nurses gave you to Daddy, he was the first one in our
family to hold you. He was so happy to hold his little boy, I will
never forget the look on his face, he was looking at you as if you
were the most amazing thing in the whole world, and you were. Daddy
brought you over to me, and he showed me how handsome my little Danny
Boy was. I asked him if I could hold you and he handed you to me. The
first time I held my sweet Danny boy you were bright eyed and bushy
tailed. You were looking around at everything in the room. You even
sucked on my finger. You were the sweetest baby I had ever seen in my
life. Daddy and I were so happy to have our first child, we were now
our own family.
Once things calmed down in
the delivery room, about 20 minutes after you were born Mommy and
Daddy decided it was time to call our family and friends who were
back in Maryland to tell them our exciting news. First we called
Uncle Joe, your Godfather, then we called everyone else. Although it
was a long, 36 hour induction, it was all worth it because I got to
hold my sweet little Danny boy.
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