I woke up Friday
morning for work and began getting ready.
While I was doing my hair I noticed that I had abnormal cramping and some spotting. I began to panic as I thought
something was wrong. I woke Kent up and
then called my mom for help. She
informed me that I should call my doctor to make sure everything was ok. My doctor's office wasn’t open so I called
the hospital. The hospital informed me
that as long as I was feeling some cramping along with the bleeding that I
would be fine and they hoped to see me soon. I went to work and the day went on without too many contractions.
The next
morning we woke up and walked around the neighborhood with my parents in hopes
to induce labor. As the day
continued contractions seemed to get a little harder and closer together. We drove to Southern Highlands to look at
some model homes in hopes that more walking would bring this baby sooner. I had a couple hard painful contractions, but
they weren’t close enough to go to the hospital. As the night went on my contractions got
closer and more painful. I paced our
downstairs for about a half hour and around 8 or 9 at night we headed to the
hospital. Before we left Kent gave me a
blessing that I could make it through this and that our baby would be
healthy. They took Kent and I into
triage and hooked me up to check my contractions and the babies heart
rate. The patient across the room from
me moaned in pain the ended up pulling her IV out. The nurses seemed to be a little annoyed with
her because she was from out of town and had no ride home (she was a prostitute).
After a little while the nurse came in to check me, but she wasn’t able to accurately get my dilation.
The physician then came in and explained to me that I wasn’t having
contractions and that they were just early labor pains and that they would be
sending me home. I left feeling so discouraged
on how I was ever going to make it through labor if that wasn’t even a
contraction. I could tell Kent was
feeling the same way and was a little annoyed that I wasn’t being very tough. We headed home.
I went home
and sat in the tub while Kent and my parents went to bed. I sat in the tub and that didn’t seem to ease
any of the pain. After a couple of hours
of getting in and out of the tub, trying to get comfortable in bed, and sitting
on the toilet I still had no luck in easing the pain. At some point I began to feel very nauseous
and ended up throwing up everything that I had eaten. I spent
hours over the toilet and eventually around 3 in the morning I called the
hospital and explained to them that I couldn’t keep anything down. The nurse told me to come in and they would
check me and if anything they would hook me up to an IV so I wouldn’t get
dehydrated. I was so discouraged from
the night before that I didn’t want to get sent home another time. I waited a couple more hours continuing to
find a comfortable position in the bath tub, on the toilet, or in bed. The most comfortable position I found was
bent over the toilet with a pillow supporting my belly. Finally, I knew something was wrong when I
kept feeling the urge to push, like I needed to go to the bathroom. I faintly said Kent’s name because I didn’t
want to startle him. He came in the
bathroom and said, “it’s so hot in here, you’re going to pass out.” I couldn’t get myself up off the floor so he
helped me to the bed so I could get dressed.
I could barely walk and I had to lean over the bed to be remotely comfortable. Kent helped me put on my clothes and we left
to the hospital around 6:30 Sunday morning.
As each contraction came I would squeeze Kent’s hand and turn my head to
handle the pain. It was interesting how
as each contraction came my body would naturally push and I had no control over
it. Once we got to the hospital they put
me in triage again and hooked me up to all the monitors. The nurse said, “I’ve been waiting for you
since you called this morning.” As I
laid on my side to make it through each contraction I noticed that the babies
heart rate was changing as the contractions were coming. This nurse checked me much quicker and
immediately said, “well you’re at a 9.”
She immediately went to the back room in a panic and the next thing I
knew I was being wheeled to the delivery room.
I remember the nurses being in a panic and everyone kept saying this
baby is coming quick. As I got to the
delivery room and moved to the other bed my water broke. It felt like somebody had popped a water
balloon on me. Within minutes the
anesthesiologist was in the room and I was being hooked up to an IV and the
epidural was being put in. I was the
most worried about these two, but everything happened so quick that I didn’t
have a chance to be nervous. My legs
began to feel as if they were asleep and the nurses began the paperwork. I was then informed that I was actually at a 10. Within 15 minutes I was no longer feeling that
sensation to push, I could hardly feel the pressure from my contractions. Within an hour they had me begin practicing
pushing before the doctor could get there.
We began making predictions on when the baby would arrive. Our times ranged from 9:15 to 10:00. After awhile, pushing became frustrating to
me because I no longer felt that uncontrollable urge to push. I think this is part of the reason it took me
so long to push the baby out. I could
tell the doctor was getting frustrated with me.
The baby’s head would make progress and then it was as if his head would
suction back up. Eventually, they ended
up turning the epidural off so I could feel my contractions. Kent was so good at my side holding my hands
or legs and counting for me. We did 3
sets of 10 second pushes. My mom was
also in the room helping hold my legs and giving me water. My dad waited outside the room for hours with
little updates. After two attempts at
vacuuming him out with no luck Brody Leroy Schank made his debut at 12:00 PM on May 17, 2015
weighing 8 pounds 4 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches long.
We couldn't imagine the love we would have for Brody. Our lives completely revolve around him.
The nurses nicknamed him "surfer dude"
"Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn't know you had and dealing with fears you never knew existed."
-Linda Wooten
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