Brighams Birth Day

 All smiles getting ready to hop in to the "delivery bed".

  I went to the hospital on Saturday March 10 expecting the same type of experiences that I had with my previous four births. Pretty much all about the same: Have some pitocin, Dr. breaks water, feel a few mellow contractions, ask for my epidural, feel that feeling of peace that I won't have to feel the contractions any more, dilate while talking to Beetle and maybe even take a nap-while in labor. Then have a baby a few hours later! Baby Brigham's birth proved to be much different. This baby really has surprised us since the day he was conceived!

Brigham was born on the day Regan asked me to marry him eleven years ago! He asked me to marry him at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, so we thought it was neat that our delivery room had a perfect view of the Temple. It was such a pretty Saturday morning!

The Doctor broke my water at 8:45a.m. I started feeling contractions pretty fast so I went ahead and asked for the epidural. Shortly after the epidural was given, I started feeling super dizzy and nauseous, the nurse came in and noticed my blood pressure had went pretty low so the anesthesiologist came back in to give me medication to make it go back up. I heard him tell the nurse that he was going to turn off my epidural for now but to turn it back on in about 20 minutes.  20 minutes ended up turning in to an hour somehow and I was really starting to feel contractions I was also feeling my legs and feet, I asked the nurse about it and she said the epidural pump need to "catch up" and eventually I would start feeling numb and no pain again.
Meanwhile Beetles parents and Grandma Phyl came to visit. Towards the end of our visit with them I was really starting to feel lots of pain and pelvic pressure. I was thinking the baby was coming, and I kept pushing the little red button to give me more medication but nothing was happening I could still feel everything. Everyone left and the nurse checked me, I was only dilated to a 7. I was surprised and a little nervous. Each contraction was feeling stronger and more painful. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me a larger dose of medication right through my IV, but I was still feeling everything. This is when I turned crazy. The nurse said to just give it ten minutes and maybe the medication would start to kick in. Well, it never did. I said I wanted to talk to the anesthesiologist again. He came in and explained that for some reason the epidural wasn't numbing from my birth canal down. By this time I could hardly hold a conversation, I asked if he would put the epidural in a different spot--Too Late.

 The tears started flowing. The pain was really unbelievable. I've always told people kidney stones are way more painful than labor. WHATEVER! I need to add the sentence "unless your epidural doesn't work." It honestly felt like lightning was striking my pelvis. By the time I was dilated to a 9, I was begging to push. It's really weird how your body has the strongest urge to push. The nurse told me not to push, that I needed to wait a little longer. She called the Dr. in to help me with the contractions and when he arrived he checked me and gave me the go ahead on pushing. I don't know why I thought pushing would help. With every push I felt the STRONGEST, most powerful BURN. I started to panic and yelled "I'm burning, this burns!" My Doctor said "Mindy, this is what woman call the RING OF FIRE. What a perfect explanation. The Doctor then told me the baby was posterior. Which means: The term refers to the fact that the back of your baby's skull (the occipital bone) is in the back (or posterior) of your pelvis.

It also means that it hurts-really bad. With each push I could feel the baby come out a little and then after the pushing he would go back in. The Dr. kept telling me "two steps forward, one step back, keep those pushes strong!"  can you believe I thought of Paula Abdul?
It got to the point where I said I was done pushing, but even when I wasn't pushing it still hurt-the point of no return. The Dr. said "you have to push or your never going to stop hurting." That is when I toughened up and put all my energy and pain in to those last few pushes. And he was here! I was so happy and relieved.

Who needs a Doula when you have this guy?

The whole Regan and Mindy crew