| Though becoming pregnant with our fourth child
was a huge surprise, when the shock dissipated, my husband and
I knew we wanted the Family Nurse Midwives to deliver our baby
again. I had experienced a very successful, natural birth of
my third child with their assistance and was hoping for another
successful birth of my fourth child. With my three previous pregnancies,
I had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes, thus it was no
surprise when my testing confirmed that I was borderline diabetic
for this pregnancy as well. When I received the news of the test
results, I immediately started my diabetic diet to keep my blood
sugar levels under control so that my baby would not grow too
large or experience low blood sugar when born. With my last pregnancy,
the midwives let me wait until my due date until they needed
to induce labor because of possible diabetic complications. I
went into labor only three days before my induction date with
that pregnancy. My due date this time was February 20 and I very
much wanted to avoid an induction for a second time. Braxton
Hicks contractions started for me around my seventeenth week
of pregnancy. They persisted and grew stronger as my pregnancy
progressed. In the final weeks of my pregnancy, my contractions
were uncomfortable and they were occurring regularly, sometimes
five to ten minutes apart. At my 38-week pre-natal appointment,
my cervix was dilated to two centimeters and was starting to
efface. I was glad that the annoying contractions were getting
my body ready for childbirth. On Saturday, Feb 11, I was having
contractions five to ten minutes apart all day long and they
persisted throughout dinner at a buffet even though I was walking
around. But the contractions got no more intense, so I assumed
that they were more false/pre labor contractions. It wasn't until
right before bedtime that night that I knew I was truly in labor
when I discovered some bloody show. After packing up our hospital
bag and our two older children Alex and Ryan, ages seven and
five, and getting a baby-sitter for Minnie, our 21 month-old,
we headed out in a snow storm to the hospital, arriving around
midnight. After arrival and getting checked-in and poked and
prodded a bit, I was given the option to either sleep (I was
quite tired) or to get up and walk or shower to help the labor
progress. According to Gretchen, my cervix was at four centimeters
and was about 60% effaced, but I was so tired that I decided
to attempt to sleep through my contractions, which still were
only uncomfortable. By 5:30 am when everyone else was asleep
in my hospital room, I decided that an uncomfortable sleep was
not worth the effort after being awoken with contractions every
ten minutes for several hours. So I awakened my husband and decided
to take a shower, expecting only to get clean in the process.
Much to my surprise, in the shower, my contractions went from
ten minutes apart and uncomfortable to three minutes apart and
very painful. Although I had been undecided about an epidural
for this labor, I quickly decided when the pain started to get
bad that I would try the epidural. My kids really wanted to be
in the room for the birth of their little brother and I knew
they couldn't if I was screaming in pain like had with my three
previous births. After I quickly exited the shower and after
an internal exam revealed that my cervix was six to seven centimeters
dilated and 80% effaced, the anesthesiologist arrived and administered
my epidural. With minutes of the completed procedure, my contractions
felt merely like slight pressure. The pain was gone. Gretchen
then broke my bag of water.Not long after that, an internal exam
revealed that my cervix was fully dilated and effaced. It was
time to push. I pushed for about twenty minutes while the kids
sat off to one side of my hospital bed on the couch. For the
first time during childbirth, I felt only pressure while pushing
because of the epidural. I could feel the baby's head descending
deeper into my pelvis and I could feel my pelvis spreading to
accommodate him as I pushed with each contraction. As the baby
was crowning, I reached my hand down and was able to feel his
head. It was wonderful and surreal. Soon his head emerged and
was followed quickly by one hand then his entire body. He cried
almost instantly and my older children came running over to see
him. They were so excited! His apgar scores were both a nine
and he took to breastfeeding very easily as well! I was pleased
to have no tearing and no need for an episiotomy as well. |
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Mikey (Gregg Michael
Nogy) weighed in at 8 pounds,
12 ounces and measured
21 inches in length. He was born
at 7:20 am on February
12, 2006. He is much adored by
his parents, Dagny
and Gregg, and by his three older
siblings: Alex, Ryan
and Minnie.
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