The next Tuesday, May 5th, we woke up and again said to each other “no baby yet…”.

We were scheduled to begin the induction at noon. By this point, we had pushed our
doctor’s practice farther than they had ever let anyone go, we’d tried to induce naturally
using every technique we’d ever heard of, and we’d prayed a ton. We were scared and
nervous, but we were resolved that this was must be the way things were supposed to be.
The baby and my body were being tested at the doctor’s office every few days and we
were both passing the tests with flying colors. We went to the Mexican food cart down
the street, got breakfast burritos, and packed the car. We were 18 days overdue.

I was still dilated to a 1, effaced 50%. They gave me another cytotec pill to start the
contractions. We asked again about the dangers of it. (the week before we’d asked and
the nurses had no idea what we were talking about). This nurse also said it was used all
the time, and asked the doctor on call (not our specific doctor) to come speak to us about
it. He came in and somewhat talked down to us for google-ing it. We asked about it not
being FDA approved to induce labor and he said it was just a money issue. He was upset
with us for being so overdue and said never in his 28 years had he seen a woman so
overdue. He said the baby could be stillborn and we were risking his/her life. He also
mentioned possibly needing a c-section. It is so hard to know where to draw the line
between nature and medicine. We so wanted to trust my body and our baby to go into
labor on it’s own. No one has been pregnant forever, right? And we’d met so many older
women who went 3-4 weeks beyond their due dates and had healthy babies. We asked a
few more questions which he was able to answer until I mentioned my desire to trust my
body, and why was my body not ready? He didn’t have an answer for that. He definitely
scared us and we took the cytotec. After 4 doses and 10 hours, there still was no change.
I was having contractions frequently but there wasn’t much pain.

Somewhere, during this time I was hooked up to an IV. We’d asked in our birth plan
(which was doctor approved) to not be hooked up unless it was medically necessary.
Neither Luke nor I can remember their reason for not honoring this. So much of it is a
blur. We’d also included me being able to eat and drink which my doctor also approved,
but the nurses on call were not ok with. It seemed like none of them had read our birth
plan.

The next morning our personal doctor started her shift and offered us a Foley ball as the
most natural next step of induction. I’m not sure what is natural about the Foley ball, but
we agreed since we didn’t see any other option. It was funny because I’d read about it in
one of my pregnancy books, and thought, “oh I’m sure that won’t happen to me!” It was
horrible and one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever experienced. I dilated to 4
after a few hours of it inside of me. The contractions were getting worse.

Next we asked to be able to be off the IV for a shower. I think they expected me to be 10
minutes, but I stayed in for about 40 minutes until they made me come out. The shower
made the contractions so much more manageable and I was so happy being off the IV. I
got out and began walking the room with Luke. It was our dream labor and by saying that
a few times to the nurses, we were able to walk for a whole hour. After that they checked
me again and since I had no change in dilation, they put me back on the IV. They began
giving me Pitocin through the IV after we all agreed it would be a low dosage. It quickly
made the contractions harder and more frequent. They wanted me lying down on the
bed which was excruciating – all I wanted to do was move through the pain instead of
just enduring it. Finally they let me switch off from the bed to our birth ball. The pain
was horrible and I kept finding out that they were upping the dosage without telling me.

Somewhere in there is when they offered me a popsicle. It was the best thing I’d ever
eaten in my life. I kept talking seriously about it and I remember everyone laughing, but I
was serious.

I think by this time it was maybe 4pm on Wednesday. I was mainly on the birth ball, and
in so much pain. My head was on the bed, Luke was behind me and I went to another
place. I remember pulling my hair from the top of my head through each contraction (this
is why my hair is sticking straight up in all of our birth photos!). Luke would push my
lower back at the end of each contraction which helped a lot. I would pray while waiting
for the next one to come. At this point I couldn’t talk to anyone. I was also sure in the
moment that we’d have no more children after this one! I was so sure that when they
checked me again we’d be almost there.

At 8pm on Wednesday I was only dilated to a 6. I started thinking about pain relief but
Luke was great to encourage me to try without it for four more hours. At the time I wasn’t
happy with him for that, but I was in a different place.  We decided to go 4 more hours
while they kept upping the Pitocin.

Soon they suggested breaking my water. I mentioned that I thought it was already broken
since I’d had some leaking and had thought I’d felt a pop. They were sure I hadn’t since
there hadn’t been a “gush”. Luke and I both thought it was because his head was so low
– that it could be blocking the water from coming out. Luke asked if it could hurt the
baby and they said no. So they tried three times to break my water and after no gushing
or result of any kind, they agreed that maybe it was already broken. He was born with
three scratches on his head from this. 

By midnight, 36 hours after checking in and 38 hours since eating or drinking, I was
feeling super weak. They checked me and I was sure I’d progressed – but I was still just
dilated to a 6. No change. We decided at this point, because of my weakness and
because I wasn’t fighting through natural contractions – they were extremely artificial and
harder and more frequent because of the Pitocin – that we would explore pain relief
options. It was really a hard decision. Luke was afraid I’d regret it later since we’d
wanted so, so badly to birth naturally. But since I felt that nothing about this so far had
been natural, I was ok with it.

We were given an epidural at midnight and the entire room (for me) changed. I could
speak again. I could laugh! I was okay. They wanted us to rest and turned the lights
down low. There were a few problems with his heart rate during contractions so nurses
and doctors kept coming in and out to check on us. At one point they put an oxygen
mask on me, had 1 doctor, 2 residents and 3 nurses analyzing the monitors, and began
talking about an emergency c-section. I think at that point I just laughed inside since I’d
felt like I’d endured and experienced just about every possible induction and birth
method available so a c-section wouldn’t have surprised me. But we prayed. And the
next time I was checked, I had progressed and was ready to begin pushing. I wonder if
my body needed the epidural just to relax and open up? I definitely wasn’t relaxing at all
before it and wasn’t making any progress. Either way, we were so thankful! It was 3 in
the morning on Thursday.

I pushed for two hours. It was really surreal. Luke was holding my left leg, our awesome
nurse Allison was holding my right, and I’d requested a mirror so I could see what was
going on. I kept talking about how wonderful the epidural was – my legs were numb and
I was having conversations. We’d watch the monitor and I’d push through each
contraction. Then we’d have a few minutes waiting for the next one where we’d ask
Allison about her life, talk about Grey’s Anatomy vs. real hospital stuff, tell her about
Unica, etc. Then more pushing. Pretty much conversations you’d have at a coffee shop,
except I had two people holding my legs wide open. I had no idea it could be like that.

So towards the end of the two hours, Allison brought in the doctor (not my assigned one
but the one on call who ended up being really great), and a few other people. I began to
feel pain and thought “there is no way a baby is going to be able to come out!” Everyone
was encouraging me and each one said I was such a good pusher, which made me try
even harder. I definitely felt the “ring of fire”. Suddenly they all got excited and with one
last push he was out. Luke announced “It’s a boy!” and they put him on my chest. It was
5:07 on 5/7/09.

Luke and I were crying and laughing while Mateo was facing me and his eyes were
darting back and forth. I remember Luke saying, “He’s grabbing your shirt!!” several
times and “look at the hair on his arms!!” I remember immediately thinking, “Ok, this is
why we go through it” and realizing I could have 100 more babies. Or something like
that. I remember I felt bad for him coming out of the womb to his shaking and loudly
crying mama’s chest. He didn’t cry very much.

At some point early on, a nurse or doctor asked what his name was. Luke said “Mateo”.

I’d had a 2nd degree tear while pushing and they were stitching me up right away while
we held and were in awe of him. Such a good idea, timing-wise, no? I remember feeling
some pain and commenting on it and the doctor being very surprised since I wasn’t
supposed to be feeling anything.

They let him stay on my chest for almost an hour I think before measuring and weighing
him (like we’d requested). We tried to feed him, but he just wanted to suck his tongue,
which made really loud smacking sounds that made us all laugh. The nurses had me
walk to the bathroom. In the bathroom I remember my body getting tingle-ey and there
being stars everywhere and then a nurse saying “stay with me Pam!” and all of a sudden
there were 5 nurses around me and they were having me smell something. I apologized
over and over for falling asleep and later they told me I’d fainted. I’m sure this had
something to do with going 42 hours without food and water while also working the
hardest I’d ever worked in my life. After I came to, Luke (who’d been making phone calls
to the new grandmas) came in and said “wow, you look green!” He didn’t know I’d
fainted either.

So they moved us to the mother/baby center where we stayed 2 more days, soaking up
Mateo, trying to sleep between nurses coming in and out, learning how to breastfeed and
trying to order as much as possible for each included meal for me so it could feed both of
us. We loved ordering the food. I think we ordered apple pie and ice cream with almost
everything.

The doctors and nurses told us that we hold the record for being most overdue, and hold
the record for having one of the longest labors there.

The hospital pediatricians predicted that Mateo would be a very adaptable baby and
adaptable in life, and so far we think they are correct. They said we are really lucky since
that is not too common. He is super happy and mellow most of the time. He’s been
sleeping through the night or waking up just once a night since week 2. He’s spit up just
a few times so far in his life. (And he rarely poops – we’re talking once a month here.)
He’s really amazing. We are adjusting to our new family together and we are so blessed
by his life. His name means “gift of God” which is exactly what he is to us.