At 11:00 a.m. on June 16, 1998 (my due date), Michael and I went to the doctor’s office for my 40 week appointment. That day, I was seen by the physician’s assistant in the practice, rather than one of the OBs. When she examined me, she discovered that I was 4 to 5 cms dilated, and 80% effaced. I wasn’t that surprised, since the previous week I was already 3 to 4 cms and 70%. I guess the difference was significant to her, though, because she said she was going to call Dr. Reiter, who was on call for that night. (He was at a different office that day.) After she spoke with Dr. Reiter, she said I should speak with him. When I got on the phone, he asked how I was feeling, and then asked, "So, do you want to get this thing going?" At this point, we were so excited to meet our baby, and I was getting so tired of being as big as I was, I said yes almost immediately. (Come to think of it, I don’t even think I consulted with Michael before answering! Oops!)
A bit of background: with this OB/Gyn practice group, we had a choice between two different hospitals, Sibley Memorial Hospital and Georgetown University Hospital. After going on tours of both hospitals, Michael and I had determined that we wanted to go to Georgetown, because all of its rooms on the maternity floor were big, beautiful Labor/Delivery/Recovery (LDR) rooms, whereas Sibley only had two LDR rooms. The rest were small "Labor and Recovery" rooms which just didn’t seem as nice, and there was the possibility that you’d have to deliver in a separate Delivery Room, which was very stark and surgical looking. (If you’ve ever seen the "Mad About You" episode where Jamie gives birth, you’ll know what I’m talking about – Georgetown has all "Good Rooms," while Sibley only has two, and they’re first-come, first-serve.)
Anyway, Dr. Reiter asked if I was ready to get the show on the road, I said yes, and then he said he would meet me at Sibley. I told him I preferred to go to Georgetown. He asked me why, and I explained the "Good Room" issue. He laughed, and told me that it was, of course, my decision, but the feedback they’d been getting from patients recently was a lot more positive for Sibley. Because Sibley is a smaller hospital, he explained, we’d get more personal attention from the nursing staff. Also, because Georgetown is a teaching hospital, we could expect to have a lot of people in and out of our room throughout the process. Dr. Reiter offered to call Sibley and find out how busy they were. He called back a few minutes later, and said that one of the two "Good Rooms" was available, and that he’d "reserved" it for me. I said, "Great, when should I go there?" He told me I should go right away and he’d meet me. I asked if we could go home first to get our bag, and he reluctantly agreed. (I think he expected the baby to just "pop out" any minute!) He also told me that I could eat something, as long as it was a "clear liquid." When we got home I ate some Ramen Noodle soup – thank goodness, because it ended up being over 24 hours before I could eat anything else!
Michael and I drove home, totally on pins and needles! "We’re going to have the baby today!" we kept saying to each other. We were incredibly nervous, excited, and sort of in shock, all at once! When we got home, I started throwing a few last-minute items into our mostly-packed bag, and Michael started making phone calls! I heard him explain over and over why we were going to Sibley, since we’d told everyone it would be Georgetown.
The ride from home to the hospital was even more scary and exciting than the ride from the doctors’ office. When we got there, Michael asked if I wanted him to drop me off at the front, but I wanted us to stay together, so we parked the car and walked to the entrance together. It was so different than we’d imagined – here we were calmly walking from the parking lot, rather than screeching to a halt in front of the entrance with me in active labor.
I think it was about 2:30 when we checked into the hospital. My Mom arrived while we were still waiting for someone to escort us to the LDR floor. We all went up to the room together. It was so exciting to see my name and information up on the board by the nurses’ station! I changed into a hospital gown and my robe, and then "my" nurse came in to introduce herself. Her name was Margaret, and she was the sweetest woman, with the loveliest Irish accent. She was just coming on shift, and Michael, my Mom and I talked about how fortunate it was that I’d only have one nurse the whole time – we thought the baby would surely be born before Margaret’s shift ended at 11:00 p.m.
Dr. Reiter arrived, and suggested I do some walking to try to "get things going." I put on some slippers, and Michael and I started walking the halls! By this time, lots of excited family members had arrived. We said hello to them each time we passed.
At about 5:00, it became apparent that the walking wasn’t really doing much. I still had periodic, "Braxton-Hicks" contractions (I felt tension, but no pain), but not what I considered "real labor." I went back to my room, and was hooked up to the monitor, which confirmed that I was having some fairly strong and fairly regular contractions. At about 7:00, they started me on a pitocin drip. Still lots of "Braxton-Hicks" contractions, but no pain. Every half hour or so, Margaret would come in and up my dosage of pitocin. Each time, we’d think, "okay, now it’s really going to start," but still no pain. I began to think that maybe something was "wrong" with me, like maybe there were nerve endings that weren’t correctly connected, and I was just lucky enough to have completely pain-free labor!
Dr. Reiter checked in on me periodically. I was making a little bit of progress in terms of dilation, but it was very, very slow. At some point, when it became clear that the baby wasn’t coming "any minute now," all of our visitors except my Mom left. My Mom stayed, because Michael and I had asked her to be there for the baby’s birth.
At about 10:00 p.m., Dr. Reiter decided to "move things along" a little faster by breaking my water. I had so much amniotic fluid, you could actually see my belly get smaller – weird. Unfortunately, that didn’t really make things happen any faster! Our hopes of having the baby during just one nursing shift were going down the drain!
At 11:00 p.m., a new nursing shift started. Although we were sad to say goodbye to Margaret, who’d been wonderful and supportive since we’d arrived, my next nurse, Janet, was fantastic as well. She couldn’t believe I wasn’t feeling any pain, because the monitor showed some pretty powerful contractions!
I kept trying to get some sleep, since things were moving so slowly, but I was just too excited about having the baby to really sleep. Michael and my Mom each dozed a little, but neither of them really slept much either. My Mom was working on a square of an afghan she was knitting for the baby, and she kept making mistakes and having to unravel stitches because she was so tired and excited. Poor Dr. Reiter – I think he’d expected things to move very quickly, and decided to induce labor so that he wouldn’t be called in the middle of the night, but he ended up spending the whole night in the hospital, anyway! At one point, when he examined me and I still hadn’t progressed past about 7 centimeters, Dr. Reiter told me I might need to have a C-Section – my slow progress might be because the baby was just too big to drop down any lower. The nurse even had me sign the consent form for the surgery – she called it "nurse’s voodoo" – sign the form, and your body will cooperate in order to avoid the Section.
My contractions finally started to hurt at about 5:00 a.m., but they still weren’t too bad. I hadn’t planned on trying for an unmedicated birth (I’m usually a sissy about pain), but so far, I just hadn’t needed any medication. At this point, I got to see how much Michael had actually paid attention in our childbirth classes! He was an amazing coach – incredibly loving and patient and focused. The intensity of my contractions continued to increase, but with Michael’s help and my Mom’s support and encouragement, I still felt okay without anesthesia. However, after a few hours of painful contractions (and after being up all night), the contractions began to seem unbearable.
At about 8:30 a.m., Dr. Reiter came to examine me again. (At this point, we were on our third nursing shift. My new nurse, Nahid, was as wonderful and supportive as the first two.) I was starting to feel an overwhelming urge to push, so I was disappointed when Dr. Reiter told me I was at nine centimeters – still one more to go before I could push. Having heard stories about women who missed the "window of opportunity" to have an epidural, I told him that I wished it wasn’t too late to have one. To my surprise, he told me I could still have one if I wanted to! I thought about it for a minute or two – even though I hadn’t planned on an unmedicated birth, now that I’d made it so far, it sort of felt like I’d be "copping out" to have the epidural. On the other hand, I was physically and mentally exhausted, and just didn’t think I could make it much longer. I asked Dr. Reiter what having an epidural would do to my chances of needing a C-Section, and he told me that shouldn’t stop me from having the epidural. If I needed a C-Section, I’d have to have an epidural anyway, and maybe having it would allow me to relax and make the contractions more effective. I told him to call the anesthesiologist.
The anesthesiologist came and inserted the epidural catheter. It took about 10 minutes to kick in. When it did, Nahid kicked Michael and my Mom out of the room, and told me to try to get some sleep. Unbelievably, I was able to take a short nap! At one point, the anesthesiologist came back in to check on me. When I woke up and saw him standing at the foot of my bed, I exclaimed "THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!" What a difference the epidural made! I only slept for about 30 – 45 minutes, but I woke up feeling revitalized. Nahid examined me, and told me it was finally time to push! I’ve heard that having an epidural can interfere with your ability to push, but that wasn’t the case for me. Once I started pushing, things happened very quickly. I began pushing at about 10:00 a.m. Dr. Reiter came in, saw how close the baby’s head was, and got all "gowned up." Nahid prepared the room for the baby’s arrival. Adam Howard Popp was born at 10:27 a.m. on Wednesday, June 17, 1998!
I didn’t get to hold Adam right away, because the umbilical cord had been wrapped around his neck, and he was blue when he was first born. Luckily, I couldn’t really see him – Michael told me later he’d thought the baby was dead. Once Dr. Reiter handed him to Nahid, she brought him over to a warmer, and helped clear his lungs, and he "pinked up" right away. She got him cleaned up, made sure he was breathing well, and then handed him to me. He weighed 9 pounds, 3 ounces, and was 23 ½ inches long.
I felt sort of like a failure for asking for an epidural after "making it so far" without one, but I honestly believe that I would have needed a C-Section if I hadn’t had it. That short little nap I took after the epidural made such a difference! I just don’t think I would have been able to push effectively if I hadn’t had it, I was so exhausted. And because the cord was wrapped around Adam’s neck, and his heartrate plunged with every push, I don’t think they would have allowed me to push for much longer than I did.
I will never forget the moment I held Adam for the first time. After 40 weeks of anticipation, I couldn’t believe I was finally holding my baby! Michael and I looked at each other, and couldn’t believe that we’d made this perfect little person. The love I felt for Adam in that moment far exceeded anything I’d imagined. There are simply no words to describe it. I’m so glad that I was able to share this miraculous experience with Michael and my Mom. Someday, I’ll be able to share it with Adam, too, when I give him this story.