Time Travel Tuesday

Annie at My Life As Annie hosts a weekly post called Time Travel Tuesday. This is a way for all who participate to tell a little more about their pasts. This is my first time participating, but I know several other blogging buddies who do regularly. So here's this week's question:

Join in to share your birth story!
What did you think when you first saw your bundle of joy?
How was the birthing experience for you? hubby?

Scamp is our only child so far, but we do hope to have more. From all the birth stories I've read and been told, mine seemed to be extremely easy, especially for a first birth. Two days before Scamp was born I went to visit my cousin Jenn in the hospital who had just delivered her newborn. We grew up together and were ecstatic when we found out our babies were due only a week apart. Scamp was due first, but due to some complications, Jenn had to deliver Baby B early.

My due date was three weeks away, so I was quite surprised when I awoke on Saturday morning at 6 am to use the restroom and found my water had broke while I was sitting there. How convenient, huh? I thought I would be in hysterics, but I calmly woke Beef up and told him it was time.

He loaded the car up with our overnight bags, and we started the 40 minute drive to the hospital, mind you I had not had a single contraction. We arrived shortly after 7 am and as soon as we entered the room, I was given a hospital gown and was immediately strapped to an IV. Less then half an hour later, they plugged in my epidural and told me the baby would be born after lunch since the IV was laden with pitocin as well to speed up delivery.

Still contraction free, I welcomed our families within the next hour or so as the epidural took effect. The nurses told me I was supposed to only be numb from the belly button down. If the numbness climbed any higher, it would make it difficult for me to breath. Shortly after I did notice the numbness had reached my chest and began to feel lightheaded. The nurses rushed back in, turning down the epidural and fanning my to help me not pass out.

I started feeling contractions in my buttocks and upper thighs then. The worst pain I experienced was from a catheter and the fetal monitor the doctor strapped to Scamps' head while she was still inside me. Around 1 pm, I was dilated to 10 cm and was ready to push. I was surprised that the doctor didn't come in until Scamp's head crowned. It only took 45 minutes of pushing due to the help of an episiotome. The pain wasn't too bad, but the gross sounds coming from below was sufficiently embarrassing. But, I guess the nurse and doctor are used to that.

Beef did a remarkable job, staying on his feet while holding my hand and watching the birth. He was so proud and so excited. It's hard to say how I felt immediately after I saw Scamp. It was so surreal. I knew a baby was growing inside me, but the awesomeness of seeing the real thing, the baby that is, is hard to explain in words.

I had been told that you literally fall in love with your child. A couple of days after we had gotten home, I felt the surge of those feelings, just like when I knew I was in love with Beef.

My birthing experience was emotionally and physically challenging, especially during the healing process afterwards. Not that my birth story was worse than anyone else's because by far it wasn't. There's so many miraculous things going on in and around you. Your hormones are running haywire. You're in pain, and you have this new little person to love not to mention keep alive! In a way the pain was healing to me, but that's another story. I would go through it all again for my little Scamp. And isn't God the most magnificent Creator!


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