Anneli's Birth Story: Part 2

[photos by Alisha Hunsaker]

{{Part 1 here}}

"Megan, don't push!"
"But it feels like I need to push."
"You're wearing pants. You can't push!"

Leave it to Adam to try and be logical.

I could hardly sit any longer and started to feel a lot of pressure.
Adam was flying down the road, going 75 mph in a 40 mph zone.
Thankfully at that time of night {morning?} no one was on the road and all the lights were turned off.
And no cops around.
Though if we did get stopped by a cop I'm pretty sure it would have played out like a movie scene.
[Something I secretly hoped to be able to add to our story...]

We finally had to stop at a red light right before the hospital which presented Adam with the biggest moral dilemma of his life.
"Should I just run it?"
"I don't know. I don't care."
"I'm thinking about running it. Should I run it? Maybe I should run it."
"Just do whatever I'm about to have this baby!!"

For the record, we didn't run it.

We finally got to the hospital in record time (it took us about 5 minutes instead of the usual 10, arriving there a little before 4:00am) and Adam ran in to grab a wheelchair.
He wheeled me up to emergency and very abruptly stopped the chair in front of the security desk.
He then rattled off that he was going to go park the car and grab Elijah and left me there alone, looking at the security guards, gripping the arm rests, and trying to take deep breaths.
Soon a guard looked at me and said, "Do you need someone to take you up right now?"
"Yeah. Yes, I need to go now."

A girl came out and s l o w l y started pushing me towards labor & delivery.
And decided it was a good time for some small talk...
while I'm literally doing everything I can to sit still and not start crying/screaming! 
"So, is this your first?"
"No."
"Oh, do you have a boy or girl at home?"
*talking through labored breathing and clenched teeth* "I have a son. He's in the car. My husband went to get him. I think I need to push."
"Uhhhh... don't push. I'm not medically trained."

Perfect.

She started to pick up the pace a bit once we got out of the elevator and rushed me toward the nurses.
At this point, there was no denying my water broke since I was sitting in a puddle on the chair.
Of which I kept apologizing for...

"So sorry! I leaked... I should've brought my towel... Sorry!"

When I got to the nurses the security guard told them that I said needed to push.
You could see the panic in their eyes.
They were all rushing around trying to figure out what to do and see if there was even a room for me.
It was decided that I could go into a room that was supposed to be for someone who was getting induced in a couple of hours.
But since I was there now and yelling that I wanted to push they decided I could get first dibs.

By then Adam and Elijah had met up with me and they were trying to get all of our information.
Right before they wheeled me into the room I saw a sign that said
"NO CHILDREN ALLOWED IN TRIAGE."
Well, I thought, not the first rule we broke tonight.

A nurse quickly came over and pushed me into the room.
She saw Elijah in Adam's arms and became really concerned with my privacy, trying to push me into the bathroom to change instead of straight to the bed.
Nurse 1: "Okay, go in there and take your pants off so you can get the gown on."
Me: "I can't get up."
Nurse 1: "Well, you need to take off your pants."
Me: *gets up for 2 seconds in the bathroom to barely pull my pants down and then sits back down* "I can't do it."
Nurse 1: "You have to take off your pants."
Me: "I really cannot get up to take off my pants. I feel like I need to push."
Nurse 1: "You can't push with your pants on. They need to come off to have the baby."
Well, duh!

She finally understood that I was absolutely dead serious and had no physical ability to undress myself.
I even thought about wearing a skirt but then figured that'd be too fancy & ridiculous for a labor room.
I never wanted to wear a skirt so much in my life.

So the nurse guided me to the bed and finished taking my pants off and told me to climb up.
Between the next contractions I climbed quickly into bed after some protests from me.
["I can't move." "We need to get a sheet on you and check you." "But I can't move!"]
They then told me I needed to take off my shirt which at that point I was going nuts in my head.
What was the point of taking my shirt off?? The baby was not coming out through my chest.
They again were worried about what Elijah would see, which I could honestly care less about, and quickly threw a gown on me to cover me up.
I managed to get one arm in before I started screaming that I wanted to push.

Don't push!! 

It was pure chaos.
Within a matter of seconds nurses swarmed the room.
There were about 7 nurses in the room: 5 hovering over me and 2 waiting by the incubator.
Adam heard two of the nurses arguing over some protocol and if it was a sterile procedure or not while two others were firing questions about my health and previous delivery at me.
Did I have normal vaginal delivery?
Was it traumatic?
Did I bleed a lot?
Any complications?
Am I allergic to anything?
What medications am I taking?
Any health issues?

Yes.
No.
No.
No.
*hard breathing. ughhhhh-ing.*
No.
The usual.
No.
*strained groans & hard breathing.*
I just want to push!!

[trying to relax...]

"Don't push!" they all yelled at me.
"We're trying to get a hold of the on-call doctor."

Oh, okay, so no doctor is there.
I feel better.

The next logical thing to do was start screaming.

{{Part 3 here}}