from proud ChildFun Mama Denel
Born at 5:49pm, Friday, August 24, 1990.
My sister-in-law, Kim, was my “coach”. I had been in labor off and on for nearly a month, but started hard labor on Thursday. Kim was a sweetheart, though she didn’t know what to do.
She has never had children of her own, but she loved children and wanted to be a part in the birth of her nephew.
Friday morning the nurses decided to give me some Demerol to help ease the pain. I was having full-blown back labor. This was my third child, and it had been a relatively easy pregnancy. Well, I finally started dilating, but it took me until 2 pm to even get to 5 centimeters. I warned the doctor that once I hit 5 it usually goes pretty quick, but he didn’t listen…do they ever?
Anyway, he went back to his office across the street from the hospital. About 5pm I really started to get uncomfortable. Kim was helping me turn onto my side whenever I got too uncomfortable. That started to become a useless attempt, so she called the nurse. The nurse came in, checked me, said “Oh yeah, it will be soon now”, and gave me more Demerol in my IV. Well, as soon as the nurse walked out, a major contraction hit. Kim tried to help me turn to my side, and as I was turning, I realized I could feel my child’s head crowning. I told Kim that this was it and she hit the “Call Nurse” button. Well, then she panicked, decided the nurse wasn’t responding fast enough, and ran out into the hall yelling “She’s having the baby NOW!”
She came back in saying, “Don’t push, Denel, don’t push.” As if I had any choice in the matter. The baby wasn’t waiting for me to push. He was coming without any help from me what-so-ever. The nurse came running in and hoisted me up. She was telling me to push, so Kim started saying “Push, Denel, push! Breathe, Denel, breathe.” The doctor made it in just in time to deliver my son’s feet. During this whole time I did not feel the Demerol at all. However, as soon as Tim was born, the Demerol took effect. I felt like I was drunk. But my baby was born, and he was as cute as could be, and my precious sister-in-law was just ecstatic about the whole thing.
Amazing, though, that the doctor was only in there for about 15 minutes, if that, and charged me more than most people make in a whole month! My son was worth it though.
