Here is the story of “The Watson Traverse, Take 2”:
On Friday, November 13th I woke up at 4:30am with back pain. It was a bit uncomfortable so I rolled over and went back to bed. This happened every 30 min, give or take, until 6am when I decided it was too uncomfortable and went downstairs to try to rest in the chair. At 7am Nate came down to ask how I was doing, I told him my back was still intermittently sore but that I didn’t think it was anything major so sent Nate off to work. As the morning progressed, my back pain continued; in greater frequency and intensity. I emailed work to tell them I was too uncomfortable to come in for the day. I also emailed my parents to tell them how I was feeling. In order to distract myself, I decided to put in a load of laundry and pack our hospital bags, just in case.
By 10:30, things were getting more intense and I started having to use some of the coping techniques we learned in our birthing class. Even at this point, I still didn’t believe that I was in labor. I was certain that I was experiencing “possible” signs in labor but that I wasn’t actually in labor. I had been emailing my parents all morning and my mom was convinced that I was in back labor and that I should call the doctor. I shrugged off the idea.
Meanwhile, Nate had been talking to his mom at work that morning about what was happening. Lynne was also convinced I was in labor but just didn’t realize it and told Nate he should head home to check on me. At 11am, Nate called to check-in. I remember being on my hands and knees as the phone rang and telling him, “I think you should come home now, things are getting a bit more intense”. I decided that maybe I should start timing my back pain – however, managing to use the stopwatch, while coping and writing down times was more than my mind could manage. At noon, Nate came home and took over with the stopwatch.
We timed my pain, which we now realized were likely contractions, for an hour. They were coming every 5-6 min and lasting for a full minute, like clockwork. At this point, we called the OB office. The nurse said it sounded like I was progressing and suggested that we come in to the office at 2pm to get examined.
We got in the car at 1:30 and of course, got stuck in traffic on I-5. By 2pm we were at the OB office and I was shuttled to the back of the office for a Non-Stress Test. Dr Johannsen, the OB on-call who coincidentally I had seen on Tuesday for my weekly appointment, came in to check on me after I had experienced 3-4 contractions on the monitor. She asked if my water had broke, I said, “I don’t think so. It would be obvious, right?” A few minutes after she left the room we heard a “pop” on the monitor and I felt a flood of liquid; it was very obvious that my water had broke. The two nurses who were in the room with us got really excited because they had never heard someone’s water break on a monitor before! This was at around 2:40.
The nurses sent me to the bathroom to clean up, where I had a few contractions, all the while Nate is knocking on the door asking if I am okay. They lead me to an exam room so the doctor could do an exam to see if I was dilated. My contractions (which I still only felt in my back) started coming in faster waves, every minute or so, and were suddenly much more painful. After only a few minutes of waiting in the exam room, I told Nate he should go get the doctor because things were happening WAY too fast. Nate ran out to the nurses’ station and told them to send the doctor in. The first thing Dr Johannsen commented on when she came in the room was that I looked much different than I did when she saw me the last time. She did a quick exam and was quite surprised to announce that I was 6-7 cm dilated.
A wheelchair appeared outside the exam room door and the nurses literally ran me, with Nate chasing behind, through the skyway system to L&D at Swedish Hospital. I remember the elevator doors opening a few times and the nurse frantically pushing the door close button to keep people from getting on the elevator with us, which was not successful. Those poor people! This was at about 3pm.
The L&D department was ready and waiting for our arrival and we were whisked into a birthing suite. Immediately when I entered the room, a nurse asked me if I wanted an epidural. Since everything had happened so quickly, we never had a chance to give the nurses/doctor our birth plan, in which we requested that I receive pain medication only if I ask for it. Having them ask me if I wanted an epidural was a bit stressful, a tough decision to have someone in my position make -- of course I said yes. The nurses helped me onto the bed and in between contractions, which were coming every minute or so, would get me prepped for the epidural. First, blood pressure; next, fetal and contraction monitors; next, try to start the IV; and so on.
Dr Johannsen suddenly appeared at the exact moment that I felt the urge to push; she told me to go for it. I remember saying, “really?!” because I did not think I could be at the point of pushing already. I went through two contractions of pushing and was told the anesthesiologist was ready. They asked me if I still wanted an epidural and I had no idea what to think. Dr. Johannsen said I should try two more pushes and see how I felt, so I did. At that point, everyone in the room was getting excited and exclaiming, only two more pushes and the baby will be out! At 3:43pm, 20 minutes after I started pushing, Isaac Anders Riensche was born; a beautiful, healthy, screaming baby boy. Nate and I were overwhelmed with emotion.
As you can imagine, the experience of giving birth to Isaac is not at all comparable to the Watson’s Traverse. Both are exhausting, physically and mentally, but it in very different ways. The best part about labor though, is that when it is over, instead of greasy potato chips and half of a beer, I got a beautiful and healthy baby boy (plus a grilled cheese sandwich and a chocolate milk shake). You could not ask for a better end to the day. ;)
Isaac Anders Riensche
November 13, 2009 at 3:43pm
7 lbs 10 oz
19.5 inches
