The Birth Story-Teresa's Point of View

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009- One of the scariest and happiest days of my life! In order to get the full picture of the story though, I've asked that my mom and Spencer both blog their versions as well.

My Version of the Birth of Henry Allan Shell:
On Monday, October 12th, 2009 I was taken to a delivery room at Northside Hospital to begin the induction process. My nurse, however, was a bit crazy and decided that I did not need to start the Cervidil after all. And so, Spencer and I spent the night in the delivery room as our last night together as just a couple.

At 5am I was woken up to begin the day. I was allowed to shower and then it was back to bedrest. The nurse began the Pitocin which brought on contractions and Henry's heart rate, as well as my blood pressure, were continuously monitored. At about 8:30am, my OB, Dr. Henke, arrived and decided that the night nurse was incorrect and I should have been started on Cervidil. Too late for that, she decided to break my water. Because it was so early, breaking my water was VERY painful. Even the OB said I did well for being in such pain, but at least I was one step closer to having my baby. On a side note, there is a LOT of amniotic fluid in a uterus. At one point I was able to get up and go to the bathroom, but when I got in to the bathroom I realized I was flooding it. I quickly jumped into the bathtub to continue the flooding and called for Spencer. He opened the door to see me squatting in a tub in a hospital gown looking at the flooded floor. His words were: "Oh Dear God!" hahahha. End of side note.

So around 10:30am the contractions were getting quite a bit uncomfortable. The nurse was able to give me a painkiller that she said would only last for 30mins to an hour, but I took it. Around 12 noon the pain was QUITE uncomfortable so the nurse called for the OB and they decided to do an epidural. I was told what to do for the injection and I was told that it would probably put me to sleep or I could expect a long day of watching daytime television....oh how wrong they were!

So at 12:15 pm the Anesthesiologist arrived to give me the epidural. He was finished in about 5 minutes (12:20pm) and left the room. He said the epidural would take 30 minutes to go into effect, but I figured I could handle 30 more minutes of pain.

The nurse immediately begin searching for Henry's heart rate to make sure there were no side effects of the medicine. She had me lay on my right and she shook my uterus, but couldn't get a good heartbeat. Then she rolled me on my left and checked and then back to my right. I had no idea what was going on, but Spencer could see the monitors. Apparently Henry's heart rate which was typically between 130 and 150 was now in the 40s. I didn't know this though and was very confused as to what was going on.

Between 12:20 and 12:25 the nurse looked for the heart rate and then called another nurse to go find my OB. A few seconds later my nurse pushed the intercom button and did an all call that said "Any OB to Room A-3 stat." I still didn't realize what was going on, but I was definitely still in a bit of pain (remember, the epidural wasn't effective yet). Then I remember a whole bunch of doctors and nurses coming into my room and one of them asked me to get on all fours. I did as I was told, although this confused me even more. My OB arrived at 12:26pm and said to take me immediately to the Operating Room and she was going to go scrub in. The team of nurses unplugged all of my monitors and began racing my bed down the hallways. I remember the bed hitting a door and then going super fast until the bed broke in half. Yes, that's right, the bottom part of this collapsible bed decided to collapse with me on it. At least I'm short. They left the bottom part of the bed in the hallway and continued to race to the OR. Eventually they hit a housekeeper and her cart which stopped the bed. They turned the corner into the OR and I remember seeing about 15 people in the room. I kept thinking, "wow, is this an assembly line? who all is in here?" Apparently I was the only patient in there and all 15 medical personnel were there for me!

The nurses lifted me from my broken bed onto the operating table and hung a sheet in front of my face (just like on TV). Then I heard my OB say the word "scalpal" and I looked up and said "Wait, I need anethesia!" The Anesthesiologist that had given me my epidural was there, but didn't realize I was that same patien from 6 minutes ago! He said "there's no time" to my request and then I felt the first slice into my skin. Apparently it takes your abdominal muscles in order to scream because I couldn't get a scream out. All I could do is moan loudly! I felt a few more cuts and then I felt two hands pull open my skin. The doctor said I would feel a lot of pressure on my stomach as they pushed Henry out. At this point the anesthesiologist had gotten the general anesthesia set up and he put me under. A minute later Henry was born at 12:40pm. Seriously, the one part I'd want to be awake for and they put me under! Oh well. Let me just advise to any other pregnant women that "going natural without drugs" and having a C-Section are two things that should not be combined. And in case you didn't do the math, the epidural didn't take affect until around 12:50pm. Ten minutes too late!!

After that, the next thing I remember is waking up in a small makeshift room surrounded by curtains. This room was apparently the Recovery Room, but I was pretty loopy at this point. I couldn't feel my arms or legs or any pain actually. I stayed there for awhile though and eventually they wheeled me into a real room and I got to see my family, Spencer, and Henry. Although Henry was in the Recovery Room with me, I can't remember him. Spencer's version of this story will have more details of this time.

And that room is where we stayed until Friday, October 16th when we got discharged. Apparently I was supposed to stay until Saturday, but come on...I'd spent enough time at the hospital by this point.

Now it has been about 2 weeks since Henry's birth and we are learning a new routine at home. Motherhood is hard...very hard... and I just hope every day that I'm doing it right. I guess only time will tell, but I sure do love my little Henry and Spencer, the greatest husband in the world!