Birth Story Part Two: The Tale of Ronan Rook

This is the part where things get a little, shall we say, TMI. I apologize if any of the below offends or disgusts anyone, but also, this is me documenting the experience, so I'm sorry if it's a little much, but I don't want to forget. That being said, let's continue.

Nurse Wendi sat at the ready position at my...uh...feet, while Tim sat on my right, ready to help when needed. I couldn't hold his hand because I had to hold my legs apart, which kind of bummed me out since I'd been counting on squeezing the living daylights out of his hand.

"Okay," nurse Wendi began, "when I say push, hold your breath and push for ten seconds. We're going to do that in sets of three with every contraction." Then, she looked right in my eye with a funny look and said, "Push like you're pooping."

As soon as I began to push, his head started peeking out. Nurse Wendi pointed it out to Tim and told me I shouldn't be pushing for too long. "Did anyone tell you how big your baby is?" she asked. "Yeah, Dr. Bowers said like seven five." "Okay, then you probably won't be pushing for even an hour." Fine by me.

And so the pushing began. Nurse Wendi kept telling me what a great pusher I was, she even laughed to herself, "you're doing SO great! It's hard to believe this is your first baby." That sure made me feel good, especially since the feeling in my body was so out of sorts, it was difficult to sense that I was pushing the right way.

"Every push, his head is coming lower and lower," nurse Wendi said. "His head is right there, Mary!" Tim told me. "Well I should hope so," I said. "His head has been stuck down there for over a month."

His head kept crawling back in, though, and nurse Wendi was getting worried he'd get stuck. She felt the head more and explained there were two reasons why that would be happening and the first was far more likely; he's much bigger than we thought.

She laid the hospital bed back farther, hoping it would help. Immediately, I asked for a throw up bag. It took a whole contraction to get it all out and nurse Wendi said it might actually help push him out a little more. Tim was right there, rubbing my back, saying, "Oh, Mary." He knows how much I hate throwing up. At the time, my mind was so focused on getting baby out, I was just waiting for it to pass. I remember apologizing at one point for slowing the progress. Once it did pass, I sat back up and said, "Alright, let's go." Nurse Wendi laughed a little, and I could tell she was impressed. I was kind of having fun getting this taken care of, knowing what the result would be, and it made me almost nostalgic, like I was winning a game of basketball for my team even though I wasn't feeling very well. Tim touched my arm. "You're doing so awesome, Mary." I grinned up at him.

Some evidence of meconium was detected and that meant baby might need some suction when he came out, so nurse Wendi sent for the nurses that dealt with that while I tried to remain calm, knowing from my sister's experience that even though he might need to spend some time in the NICU, he'd be okay.

Somewhere along the way, a nurse came in and pulled nurse Wendi out for "just a minute." I feel like this should be against the law of labor and delivery. Ummmm...my baby's head is poking out of my vajayjay. Where are you going? But she was only gone for a moment, just as she said, and things kept going.

When his head started getting lower and lower, it became more apparent his head would not come out easily. She pulled a stool to my left side and said, "this is in case his shoulders get stuck and I want to warn you now, I'll have to jump on you and push your belly down hard. It will only take a second." I could feel my eyes pop out of my head. Jump on me?!? I'm not sure I'm okay with that! I said a silent prayer his shoulders would pop out just fine and kept pushing.

Then, it was time to bring in the big guns. Dr. Bowers and a team of nurses came in and the lights in the room changed. It was time for baby's big debut.

I began to feel my contractions a little bit. Worried, I informed nurse Wendi. "Should I push the button for more dosage?" She looked at me like I was nuts. "No way, that's a good thing!" I had my doubts, but kept my mouth shut.

I started losing momentum on my pushing by the third rep. Nurse Wendi and Dr. Bowers would tell me to keep going, then get disappointed at my last efforts. "Don't push at your face," Nurse Wendi said, "push at your bum! You can do it! Dr. Bowers kept saying, "Push harder, Mary! Harder, harder, harder!" I remember thinking, nurse Wendi was more encouraging, but then Dr. Bowers would say, "You're doing great! Keep going!" and then I'd like her again. Eventually, they realized his head was not gonna come out on it's own and that's when I heard the snipping. At the time, I thought, "okay, at least I won't tear. And if this works, nurse Wendi won't have to saddle me up and shoot him out.

Everyone in the room was saying different things all of a sudden. Tim, to my left, was saying, "There he is, Mary!" Dr. Bowers at my feet was shouting, "He's monstrous!" Nurse Wendi had her hand on my belly saying, "He's still kicking!" I could feel it, too. His little legs were trying to swim their way out of me.

Dr. Bowers shouted, "He's here! He's here! Look!" I looked down and there he was, bluer than a smurf, face all scrunched up in a desperate cry, his body still not entirely out of me. That's right, good ole Dr. Bowers turned him around to face me just so I could see him. Tim later said it was the weirdest thing he'd ever seen happen. My only thought was, "Why is he so blue?"

Having a baby come out of me is probably the strangest feeling I've ever had. I'm really glad I couldn't feel the sensation in my nether regions, but I could certainly feel it in my gut. It felt like a plug had been let loose inside me, and I'm afraid to say, that's exactly what it sounded like as well. Tim told me that's also what it looked like. I felt my stomach deflate like a balloon, and all the hard kicks in my gut vanished.

"Alright, Dad, you want to cut the cord?" Dr. Bowers asked Tim. This was something Tim had been thinking a lot about. Was it necessary for the dad to do it, really? Or was it just kinda gross and weird? He said he would decide in the moment, and I could tell, when the moment came, he still wasn't sure. "Uhhhh...." he said, and it made me laugh a little. I looked down and saw a bloodied cord hanging near him. I would not blame him if he said no, but he didn't. As he would put it later, he manned up.

Then, they took my baby away from me to the other side of the room to be weighed. Out of all the moments in my labor, this was the moment all the hospital staff was most excited about. "To the scales!" someone said. "How big is he?" I asked too soon. "Woo! He's peeing on us!" one of the nurses exclaimed. I could hear Tim laughing. "Ah! There he goes again!" Now we were both laughing.

"Ten three!" they shouted. Everyone was in an uproar. I remember hearing things like, "Big baby for a tiny girl," "Can't believe you had that inside of you," "No wonder his head wouldn't come out." All I knew at that point was what his name would be.

All along, I've said we won't know his name for certain til he comes out and we can see him. But when I knew what a big baby he was, I knew he needed a big name. Ronan was the perfect name for him, and why did I not ever think so?

The nurses took him to the left side table, looking for meconium. Luckily, there was none, but he did have a lot of fluid in him, And that's why he'd been so blue before. They slurped it right out with the suction machines. At this point, I just wanted to really look at him. Nurses bodies were in the way and I could hear them suctioning the living snot out of him, but neither Tim nor I had held him yet.

When would I get to see my baby?