birth story

I really wanted to document this and I'm not quite sure how so I've been putting it off. Well I need to just get it done. You'll need to prepare yourself, this is not short!! I realize only the strong will survive the length of this story. You may need to take breaks if you're really interested....here goes nothing!!

The birth story of Isaac Vaughn Munns...

On August 1st we had a work softball game. It was probably the hottest day of the week. I bet it was in the high 90's and our game was at 5:30. I'm 8 months pregnant and I'm still playing second base. Everyone thought I was crazy, but my doctor never told me not to (she knew I was playing, but probably assumed I'd quit by now). At the game, the girls were asking me when I planned taking maternity leave. I mentioned how I needed to work 80 hours in August to get insurance benefits for September then when I supplement my leave time in September, I would qualify for insurance in October...confused? Anyway, one girl asked, "well how many hours have you worked?" hello? it's August 1st! I'd worked 8... we laughed and played our game. I had two great hits and was really proud of myself. I had been hitting pretty crappy all season. After the game, Shelley Greiner took me to the YMCA where I had my water aerobics class from 7-8pm. Derik came to pick me up afterwards and as soon as I got home I started making something for dinner. I was standing in the kitchen and I said, "hey derik, i think i just had a contraction." He was like, "oh really?" I just figured it was braxton hicks since it didn't really hurt (which I came to find out is NOT an accurate depiction of the 'fake' contraction). I'd always wondered what they felt like and questioned whether I'd felt them yet, but once I really did have one I knew exactly what it was.

I went to bed that night pretty late...probably 9pm. I'd been going to bed at about 8ish every night. Most nights I'd try to get ready for bed at 7:30 or 8 because I was so dead tired from being pregnant and the heat was really draining. So getting to bed around 9 was not a good thing!

After not being able to sleep that night, I woke up at 2am searching for a phone number. I knew I had to call someone because the contractions were so intense. I literally had NO sleep! I wasn't timing them, but they were probably 4-6 minutes apart. They were inconsistent only because I wasn't keeping track. Heck, I didn't know what to do! I finally found the 24 hour hotline for my insurance company. I talked to the nicest lady who asked me a bunch of questions. She advised me to call my doctor's office and speak to the doctor on call. I started getting freaked out and started crying. It reminded me of when I was little and got called into the principal's office. For some reason I always started crying...even if I wasn't in trouble! I think I would just get overwhelmed. That's what I was going through right now. Poor Derik has no clue what's going on here. He's just snoring away, peacefully (as peaceful as snoring can be...). I called the doctor's office and they had Dr. Frank call me and he asked a bunch of questions, also. He said, well since they're not consistent (but they may have been....) and I was only 36 weeks and 4 days along that I wasn't in labor. He said they were braxton hicks contractions and I would be experiencing them until birth. I say thank you and good bye. Then I'm sitting there thinking, ok if that's what this is going to be like for 3 and a half more weeks....I quit!

I went back to bed and tried to get some sleep. I finally fell asleep around 4 only to get up at 6. That morning as I'm getting ready to go to work....(which was very unsuccessful. I couldn't even do my hair. I showered and blew it dry, but as for styling it...forget about it! I looked like poop! I had been crying all night and was still crying that morning from the frequent pain)...anyway, Derik asks me if I'm ok and I say no. Then I told him that I'd had contractions all night long. He felt bad, you could tell. My mom shows up to take me to work (we work 4 blocks from each other so we carpooled) and I'm just a wreck. I don't think I stopped crying and the contractions were 3 minutes apart. The only thing that made me feel better was to stand up and lean over something and breathe through them. Oh man, were they painful!

Once I got to work, it wasn't long before I knew I couldn't go through the day like this. My mom asked if I just wanted to stay home, but I felt that if I had something to concentrate on I would get over it and be fine. I was scheduled for a doctor's appointment at 3pm so I was just going to wait. When my sister got to work (she works in the same building in the basement...I'm on the 4th floor) she called me and could tell that something was wrong. She came up to see me and I was still having to stand up every 3 minutes to breathe through the contractions. She was really worried and wanted to take me to the emergency room. That just scared the crap out of me and I just said that I would call the doctor to see if they would take my appointment early. I called at 8am and they were still closed. Apparently they don't open until 8:30am. My sister went back to the basement and told a co-worker, Robyn, about the contractions. Well Robyn was an OBGYN in the Navy or something so she got concerned and called me asking me to come downstairs. When I got down there she felt my stomach and confirmed that they were contractions. At this point I didn't know for certain what was going on because I felt the pain really low in my pelvis. She felt my stomach and could tell that it was tensing up...the pain down low was so intense that I couldn't tell that my stomach was contracting. She timed the contractions and they were consistently 3 minutes apart and told me to just go to the doctor's office and ask to talk to someone. So Kaliska drove me out there and once I got in to see the nurse she asked a couple questions and told me to go to the hospital to get checked out. I'm freaking out now.

I had Kaliska call Derik because I knew I would just start crying if I did. I checked myself into the hospital and they sent me to Triage for monitoring (apparently it's a stress test...?). They hooked me up to two machines. One to monitor the baby's heart rate and the other to monitor the contractions in length and intensity. They were still really close together...2-3 minutes but I was only dilated to a 1 and a half or something. The sweet nurse let me walk around for an hour and she was going to check me again. So here's Kaliska, Derik and me walking around the hospital...for some reason I felt like I was in the 7th grade with my friends and we were doing grown-up things on a school day. After getting checked again, I was still less than 2 cm dilated. The nurse said that if I didn't start dilating I would probably be sent home. Well we're sitting there watching the monitor and the contractions are still consistent, when the monitor says "ADMIT PATIENT". We all freaked out and were really excited. We figured they were admitting me because of how frequent the contractions were. Boy were we dumb! The nurse came in and said that the doctor wanted to admit me because of my high blood pressure. What?! I don't have high blood pressure! Then, as the nurse is getting me ready to move rooms, she says, "it looks like today's the day!" Wait, what?! Today's what day? Like when you say 'the day' what do you mean? I freaked. Derik asked how likely it was that we were delivering that day and she said that we would be having that baby either that day or the next. Uh-oh! If you remember to the beginning of this day, I look like POOP! I never imagined I'd start out looking like such crap on the day I gave birth! Sure I'd look like crap afterwards, but not before!! I was bummed!

Of course we start freaking out and calling everyone. Well, Derik called everyone. But once we get out of Triage, the new nurse (who was not nice and definitely NOT gentle) told us that the high blood pressure was a sign of pre-eclampsia and could be harmful to the baby so unless they could get it under control, they'd have to get that baby out fast. She said, "I want you to know that you probably won't be having this baby if we can get your blood pressure under control. We will send you home..." Rude! I'm not going home! Either the contractions stop or this baby is delivered, you understand? They wanted to make the room as relaxing as possible for me because they had a theory that the only reason my blood pressure was high was because of the events of the day. They got me to go into the spa tub and had very few visitors. My doctor came in and told me that the blood pressure was under control, back to normal, and they would be giving me a drug to stop the contractions. Tributeline (sp?). I told her that I didn't care if the contractions stopped or the baby was born, I just needed one of the two to happen. After the drug kicked in, my contractions started to slow down and they sent me home at about 6:30pm. I was very reluctant to go home because I felt so comfortable in the hospital. Right before I left the nurse told me that they'd rather see me 100 times rather than have me deliver this baby at home. She said that if I felt like I needed to go back to trust myself and come back.

I slept on the couch after we got home and Derik slept in the recliner and kept track of my contractions all night. He also cut up little bites of food and fed them to me while my eyes were closed because it hurt too bad to move and I wasn't eating very well. I had a Safeway sandwich and watermelon. He was so good to me. The contractions slowed to about 6-12 minutes apart. I was under the impression that they would stop completely. How very wrong I was!

The next day I was a little better, but still had them at least every 10 minutes or so. I really needed a change of scenery so I went to my mom's house to eat her popsicles and watch her tv (we didn't have cable at the time...only channels 8, 10, 12, 22, 32, & 49). I felt like crap and just couldn't imagine going through this for another 3 and a half weeks!

Saturday rolls around and I'm still having the contractions and I'm just sick of them. I don't know what to do to make myself feel better. Nothing is working and I'm searching for any reason to go back to the hospital. On the discharge form from Thursday the very last reason listed for re-admittance to the hospital was "or if you are uncomfortable being at home". I was ready to take advantage of that reason, but wanted to have some basis for going back. I started paying closer attention to my contractions and wishing they'd get closer and more intense (only because that's a sign of real labor).

At about 2:30pm I called the doctor and asked what the procedure was for people that go through these intense contractions for this long....the on call doc called me back saying that I should just take some tylenol pm and try to get some sleep. That there was no common procedure. Whatever! This was really starting to tick me off. What in the heck was I supposed to do? They gave me no drugs, no relief whatsoever! What the heck! I'm ticked! So I call my beloved Tanya. She's in AZ with Travis and isn't due to come back until the next day. As I'm talking to her I notice my contractions are starting to get closer together. They were 6 minutes apart moving to 5. The last thing I said to Tanya was "I'll try not to have this baby until you get back." I seriously did not think I would have him before the next day. Afterall, Tanya has been there for every major event in my life (baptism, confirmation, wedding, endowment, sealing)...how could she miss me giving birth?!

I monitored my contractions for the next hour and half or so and determined that they were close enough (3-4 minutes) and that I'd go back to the hospital. I decided to put together a little toiletries bag...just incase. So I tell Derik that we're going back. I just couldn't handle it anymore and they were less than 5 minutes apart for at least 2 hours, just like the discharge paper suggested for a return to the hospital. I paid special attention to looking decent that day because I would not start out looking like crap again!

So I get checked in and back up to Triage. The sweet little nurse from Thursday was there again. When she saw me, she just looked at me like, "aww you're still pregnant...you poor thing!" I got hooked up again for monitoring...I knew the drill. She checked me and I was at a "loose 2". Progress...not much, but that's good for me. Apparently it's not good enough for them to consider me in labor, though. So she tells me to walk around again to see if we can jump start this labor thing. I get back to the room and I'm at a "tight 2 and a half". Not good.

I've failed to mention the severity of the pain by now. I'm bawling through these contractions. I can barely walk. They are coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting about 1 minute or so. So the way you time contractions is from the beginning of one to the beginning of another. So one will start and last one minute...then one minute later another one will start and that's a two minute contraction. That means I'm getting one or two minute breaks between contractions and I'm using that time to calm myself down from the previous contraction. This is miserable!! I went to the bathroom while the nurse was trying to figure out what to do since I told her there was no way I could go home and I overheard Derik asking her if this was normal. She said that people get braxton hicks that can be intense, but that I was obviously having them worse than she's seen before. After she talked to the doctor, they decided to give me some Vicoden to see if that would help calm me down. I took one pill...waited 30 minutes...nothing. She gave me the second pill...waited 30 minutes...nothing. I'm still freaking out. Derik is having to feed me crackers and apple juice so the meds don't make me sick and I'm just beside myself. Poor Derik. I can't imagine being in his position...so helpless.

It's about 8pm and finally the nurse comes back and says that the doctor wanted me admitted and ordered me into a relaxation room to see if I could get some sleep and calm down. And this is my favorite part...I was going to get MORPHINE! Oooooh how I love morphine!

So I get in there and it's quite and dark and I'm not allowed any visitors. They just wanted me to calm the heck down so I could go home and let my baby grow for three more weeks. Before I got too settled in, my mom came down to bring some food for Derik and me and to give me a little kiss on the forehead for good luck. Then the morphine kicked in. Oh blessed morphine, how I love thee! I was slowly fading into a deep sleep and the contractions were going down! It was quickly to the point that I couldn't feel them and I couldn't be happier. I only dreaded the time that the drug wore off. They said it would wear off after about 4 hours. I wanted to make sure to let the nurse know when it started winding down so she could give me some more.

At about 11:30-12am I could tell it was fading. I called the nurse and she regretfully informed me that she was only allowed to give me the one dose. There was no more morphine in my future! How could this be? I was so happy! Don't they want me to be happy? She did offer a consolation drug...sleeping pills. I was not about to be picky, of course I will take the sleeping pills! She checked me again and said I was a "loose 3...but I don't want to check too hard because I think I feel your bag of water and I am NOT allowed to break that!" As she left the room she said to call her if I needed anything..."oh and call me if your water breaks." What?! This is for real?! If she could feel my water then that means that it's right there...ready for the breaking, right? Well she might not be allowed to break my water, but I sure can, right? I start thinking of how I can break this bag of water and to what extent I'm willing to go. Just when I start to get pretty serious about making a plan, I feel this little trickle trickle. Well things are going on down there because of how many times I've been checked so I'm not sure what to think. I sit there for about half an hour contemplating what that could have been. At about 2:30am I decide to go to the bathroom...expecting a GUSH of water. Not happening. But once I get back to bed I feel another trickle trickle. So after thinking a little more about what might be happening I decide what will it hurt? I call the nurse and say, "I think my water might have broke". She comes in and takes a sample and sends it down to the lab. She tells me it will take about 30 minutes for the results.

I fell asleep, still feeling the contractions getting stronger and once she returns with the results it's like, HOLY COW that was your water alright!! It's about 4:30am and she rushes me into the labor and delivery room. Before we even left my relaxation room she asks if I want them to call the anesthesiologist for an epidural. I wasn't even that excited when I found out I was getting morphine! Now this is happening...this is for real. It's Sunday morning and I'm having my baby!!!

They had to give me antibiotics for strep B because I was never tested and they also needed to pump me full of fluids since I was majorly dehydrated before they could get me the epidural. I remember it fondly...it was 5am and the doctor said it would take about 10 minutes to get the epidural administered and another 10 minutes for it to kick in. I was a little nervous but only because my contractions were so intense by now and I had to sit up, bend over, and be very still to get the epidural. Anyone who has had a contraction knows that it viciously hurts to bend over during a contraction. I had two contractions during the epidural and they were the most painful yet. I was shaking and pretty uncontrollably, but I was obviously still enough because the doctor was able to get a successful placement for the epidural.

It didn't take long for that sucker to kick in. Once it did...ooooh boy! I was soooo pain free and sleepy! I got a few good hours of sleep before the contractions started to re-appear. I told the nurse I could feel them and she said that was ok as long as I didn't have to breathe through them. She told me to give myself a couple more shots of the epidural if I felt it. I kept pushing that stupid button attached to my shoulder and it didn't seem to help. Luckily I was still very sleepy and slept a little longer before it started to become intense again.

At about 10ish in the morning I was REALLY uncomfortable and told the nurse I was having to breathe through the contractions and that I felt a lot of pressure down where the baby was coming from... The nurse checked me and HELLO!! there's a head! They freaked out and moved in turbo speed. They quickly moved the newborn table in and notified the doctor on call that my time was now! After watching A Baby Story and other birthing situations I felt like when you needed to push the doctors were always telling you to wait. Who knows? But when I felt like I wanted to push, I told the nurse and she very calmly said, "if you feel like you need to push, just go ahead and give it a little push". Ahhhh, that's nice. At that point the nurse (who is frantically getting everyone and everything ready for delivery) tells me to start pushing hard on my next contraction. Since I could feel everything at this point it wasn't hard to tell when that would be. I officially started pushing at 10:09am.

Once I started pushing there was something going on with the baby's heart rate. This I didn't know. All I knew is that the nurse told me that we needed to speed things up as fast as possible because that baby needed to come out. I agreed, but this is when she started the pitocin. Apparently it was unnecessary because as soon as they started giving it to me, they took it off. I was progressing very quickly on my own. So here I am pushing and pushing and pushing. I'm putting everything I have into these pushes and it just doesn't feel like anything is happening. The nurse says that the doctor was going to come in and talk to us about the possibility of using a vacuum to get the baby out because he needed to come out NOW. Well once the doctor came in there was no discussion. It was, "here's the vacuum and I'm going to stick it in there and grab the baby's head and once you push I'm going to pull". So I push and he pulls and here comes the baby's head. The nurse tells Derik to stop holding my leg and go behind the doctor. Uh, hello? No one was allowed to watch. My mom and Derik didn't follow these rules. They're going to have to petition to be at the next one...

Anyway, the weirdest part was when I could feel this baby half way out of my body. Half of his body is out and half is in....WEIRD!! Then the doctor says ok, on your next contraction I want you to give me a little push. Well the next contraction I gave a big push and just kept pushing and holy cow!!! It was like being on the front row at a SeaWorld! I'm still not quite sure what it was, but there was a huge splash of something. So huge that I was drenched up to my chest (yes, that means it came backwards) and everyone surrounding the bed jumped back a couple feet! We all laughed in amazement. Then out comes my little boy! The doctor held him up to pass him off and the baby was silent. Uh-oh, what's wrong? Why isn't my baby crying? I start asking the doctor, "is he ok, is he ok?" He assures me he's fine. As soon as they got him on the newborn table he started crying. It was the sweetest, raspiest cry I've ever heard. Of course, it's my boy!

So apparently the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and every time I pushed he was getting sucked back in. That's why his heart rate was climbing and that's why he needed to come out as soon as possible. That's also why the doctor needed to use the vacuum to get him out. He didn't have such a funky head afterwards, which I was thankful for. He was just the cutest little guy ever. I could not believe he was mine and I could take him home with me. We would be together forever. It was such a strange, yet wonderful feeling. The whole time I just kept thanking Heavenly Father for letting me have this child and trusting me to raise him to return back to Him one day.

I want to know how many of you actually made it through this story...make me feel like at least one person read it :)