The Day of Brandon's Birth
Brandon has been nothing but a surprise to us. We didn't know whether he would be a boy or girl. I suspected he might be a boy because of all the kicking he did while I was pregnant. That's not to say that only boys kick so hard but I just had this "feeling" he was a boy. He was also due November 22 but he came out about a month earlier than expected which led me to suspect that I was a couple of weeks off in estimation because he did not look like a preemie at all. In fact, he was 7lbs. 7 3/4 oz and 19 1/2 inches tall.
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On October 22, 1998, I went to see my obstetrician and he said I was already 1 cm dilated. That was kind of a clue about the things to come. I am embarassed to say that throughout my pregnancy, I very rarely read any books about pregnancy, childbirth and baby care and I didn't buy any baby things. I was superstitious about being too excited about the baby and I was afraid that if I was too happy, I would jinx myself. I had planned to catch up and prepare myself the couple of weeks before my due date. We even signed up for Lamaze class somewhat late. But those three Lamaze classes that we did manage to attend before Brandon arrived turned out to be vital. We knew what to expect. I do not have any close friends that have had babies nor do I have much contact with babies so I was quite ignorant when it came to pregnancy and childbirth.
In Lamaze class, we learned that the norm was not your water breaking first as depicted in many movies but that contractions are suppose to come first. If your water broke first, it was somewhat dangerous because the risk of infection increased and labor would have to be induced within a short period of time if contractions did not begin. Well, as you probably guessed, my water broke on October 26, 1998 at 6am. I woke up feeling some leakage and thinking that I had somehow lost bladder control, (pregnancy seems to do all sorts of weird things to your body so naturally I attributed this seeming loss of bladder control to pregnancy), I ran to the bathroom to check it out and before I could say "Yikes", a gush of water came out. I yelled out to my husband who was still asleep and he very groggily stumbled over to me. We weren't sure at first if my water broke because this is our first baby and we were both in a state of denial because it was a month before our due date. We had learned from Lamaze class that the water was suppose to be clear and odorless. The water was clear and I had Albert smell the towel. The evidence was incontrovertible, my water had indeed broken!
I called the doctor and she told us to sit tight until my contractions started and were 5 minutes apart. If I didn't start to get contractions by noon, then I should just go to the hospital and have labor induced. We then ran around and tried to figure out what to pack because naturally we were unprepared in this respect as well. I started to feel the beginnings of a contraction around 8am and by 10am, they were about 5 minutes apart. My father-in-law lent us his car and we were on our way to New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center which is all the way uptown (we live downtown). We drove on the FDR and luckily did not hit any traffic.
I got a great birthing room. According to the nurses, it was the biggest birthing room they had with a great view of the East River. A nurse started my IV which was very painful because I had to be stuck several times before she got it in right. Then she got the pitocin started and an external monitor was also hooked up to check Brandon's heart rate. By 2pm, I really started to feel the pain of the contractions so I asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist was so good, I didn't really feel a thing. My blood pressure did drop soon after. Several medical staff surrounded me and gave me an oxygen mask because the blood pressure monitor was not looking good and I told them I felt like I was going to faint. The oxygen mask helped me and my blood pressure returned to normal. At about 3pm, the doctor told me my cervix had gone from 4cm to 8cm dilated. At about 5pm, the doctor told me that they would give me a little more epidural and then I should be ready to push in about an hour.
At 6pm, my nurse taught me how to push (our next Lamaze class would have been on pushing!) Albert and the nurse coached me and helped me breathe and helped me hold my legs up while pushing. Then, Albert and the nurse said they could see the head in there. This made me feel really good but it just seemed that whenever I tried pushing, I could not move the head further along. The doctor finally came in and I pushed some more. My pushing was very very slowly advancing Brandon. The epidural did take care of the labor pains but not the incredible pain of the pushing hour. The incredible pressure on the rectum and bladder was extremely painful and the amount of effort required for pushing made me feel like I could not go on. I don't think I ever worked harder in my life! And during the latter part of the pushing hour, my doctor asked me if I wanted a mirror to see the baby's head! I was definitely not in the mood at that moment - I was already ready to drop dead from exhaustion.
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Finally, when I thought I could not do it anymore - at 6:51pm, Brandon came out and let out a loud cry! What a wonderful sound. They whisked him off to the next table and cleaned him up. But alas, it wasn't over yet - the doctor started to poke and prod me to get the placenta out and that wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. I still had to push! Finally, Brandon was brought to me. I was told he got a 9 and a 9 on his Apgar scores. He had a full head of hair and he was all mine - well I guess I do have to share him with Albert too. I hate pain but I would do it all over again for our Brandon. I was later whisked off to recovery and didn't get to see Brandon again until about several hours later. The nurse taught me how to breastfeed and when Brandon latched on for the first time, I was hooked!