Chaos Chronicles

At mid-afternoon on Thursday, July 24th, 1997, at 38 weeks pregnant, I went into labor. It wasn’t progressing though so they sent me home, but said if I didn’t go into full blown labor by tonight, then tomorrow at 7:30am I would have to be induced, because my amniotic sac had been punctured and that could cause infection. Well I went back home and at 8pm that night I went back into labor. It wasn’t until 10pm or so, that labor fully set in. At 11pm I went into the hospital and was met there later by my midwife, Milrey. My mother, my fiance, Terry, and his mother, Mary, were the people in the room with me. I was all hooked up to the IV’s (after numerous unsuccessful pricks in my hand and writst, they put it in my inner elbow) and had a fetal monitor strapped to my belly. The baby was hiccuping through out labor and it was amusing. Labor was hitting me hard now. The demerol they gave me didn’t help one bit. I had to wait till I was 7 cm dialated before I could be given stadol. So into the shower I went. Milrey suggested I get into the shower and get on all fours. Boy did that help! The warm water beating on my back was soothing. It seemed like forever, but 7 cm. finally came. They injected the stadol into my IV and immediately I could feel it’s effects! The first words out of my mouth were ” Oh I love this stuff!”. The pain was still there, but the stadol was making my body relax and sleepy so the contractions didn’t hurt as much. I wasn’t supposed to fall asleep lol, but I did. I was in and out. I remember Mary asking if I wanted the baby to be kept in the room with me all the time or if I wanted the baby kept in the nursery. I believe that in my head I said something like, “I want the baby in the room with me during the day, but when I sleep I want the baby in the nursery.” What they heard was “shmakl. lkdjsoi. nowmadfkj. wantbawlkjsdnuserlkjalkd.” LOL. Finally the medication wore off JUST as the time to push came. When it was time to push they brought Terry and my mother to hold my feet back so I could push against their hands. Mary helped me with the breathing. That helped alot. I pushed for about an hour or so and out came our little Paul Wesley Reilly. He was born at 7:36am on July 25th. 6 minutes after they were supposed to induce me if I didn’t go into labor on my own! The midwife cut his cord because Terry didn’t feel comfortable doing it. Paul didn’t cry right away or make any noises, so I thought there was something wrong.. but a few seconds later he let out a huge cry.. I felt so much better! I held my little precious baby for the first time and it was wonderful! He definately looks like his father. My birth experience was so wonderful and I couldn’t have done it as well as I did (only in 8 hours since getting to the hospital) with out Milrey and Mary there.