At the Hospital

Mom and Dad got to the hospital around 10:15 pm. Dad rushed through the emergency room entrance and headed to the Nurse's station with Mom. Dad thought he understood the instructions he got on the phone, but the two receptionists in the ER were not convinced. They almost tackled Dad back to registration! And Dad thought a pregnant lady having contractions was a ticket anywhere!

After a short snafu, Mom and Dad were whisked back to the delivery room and met their nurses Jennifer and Laura. Mom's doctor, Dr. Robinson, also came in to see how things were going. Dr. Robinson checked Mom and found she was dilated to 5 cm. The Doc predicted my baby sister would be delivered somewhere around 4 am. Mom was fitted with several monitors and an IV. Laura was in charge of IV installation. Mom's skin was pretty tough, and she was started to get a long needle track before the IV found a suitable home.

Mom was not excited about the pain of labor and asked for an epidural like she had with me. The doctor obliged, but the anesthesiologist, Trent, lived 45 minutes from the hospital - who let that guy live so far away??? When Trent arrived at 12:30 am, Mom was in some serious pain. Laura and Jennifer re-checked Mom and she was dilated to 8 cm.

Laura called Dr. Robinson and she said things were too far along for an epidural. However, Trent convinced her that he could do a intrathecal injection to help Mom out. Thanks Trent! Nobody hurts my Mom, not even my baby sister!

After the intrathecal, Mom's pain went away almost instantly. Things were going really well. After about a 1/2 hour, Mom started getting really itchy. Trent, who was still finishing paperwork, said "oh, did I forget to mention the side effects of the injection". Guess Mom should have read the fine print!

Mom was still happy with no labor pains for the trade-off of itching like a gorilla in a poison-ivy patch!

About an hour after the intrathecal injection, things were starting to happen fast. Mom's contractions were close together and Laura re-checked Mom and couldn't find the dilation measurement. Mom was ready to push. Luckily, Dr. Robinson hadn't gone far - she was sleeping in the employee bunks. Employee bunks?? I need to get a job at a hospital - sleeping on the job - my style!!