Mr. & Mrs. Bell: Matix Zane Bell

Leaving for the hospital

By the time Doug arrrived home from work, after waiting for the call from the hospital, we got to the hospital about 12:30ish. We waited to be admitted and I was in my room, dressed, and hooked up to the Pitocin by 1:15pm. Every hour they would turn up the Pitocin by 4. At 2:30 the doctor came in with the nurse to say hello and break my water. That was fun. It was just a warm gush of water. The doctor told me I should start to feel my contractions within the next hour. I was having contractions but I couldn’t feel them at this point. I was dilated to a 3. Just as the doctor said I started to feel contractions about an hour later. I was able to deal with them for about an hour or so. Then they became too much to handle. I tried laboring in bed (which I do not recommend), I tried “slow dancing” with Doug, leaning over the bed to let my belly hang, bouncing on the birthing ball, and just moving my hips on the ball. Nothing was going to help. Finally in tears I told Doug I wanted an epidural…and NOW. Within 5 min the nurse and anesthesiologist were in the room and while in the fetal position feeling contractions I got the epidural. Just a few minutes later my legs and whole lower half started to tingle. I was happy again. After a while I started to regain feeling on my left side. So I turned up the epidural once and twice. Nothing. I could feel the contractions on the left side, but it was nothing compared to a full contraction felt all over.

(About an hour before pushing)

Still feeling contractions on my left side, I started dilating about 1cm an hour or so. When the nurse came back to check me at 7:45pm I was at a 9+. I jumped from a 6 to a 9 in an hour and half. Luckily the nurse would come back in an hour so I would have time to watch Modern Family. Even with an epidural, Modern Family just isn’t as funny when you are in labor. By the next time I was checked (around 8:50), Jessica had arrived (Jessica, my good friend from back home, wants to be an OBGYN and so I invited her to watch the birth). It was nice to chat with her for a bit before all the hard work began. When the nurse checked me I was at a 10 and fully effaced. Because the baby wasn’t low enough the doctor decided to let him try to descend on his own for about 30 min. At 9:30 we started pushing with the nurse to see what I could do. I had Doug holding one leg and Jessica and my mom would trade off holding the other. Since I couldn’t feel myself pushing, it was hard to know how hard I was pushing. The doctor came in to see how I was doing. He checked me and told me he was positioned posterior. This means he was facing upward instead of down. This makes it harder for him to get through the birth canal. We opted to let the doctor try to turn him with his hand. Hoping this would speed things up and it sure did. I still pushed for an hour and half with the nurse, but it would have taken a lot longer if the doctor hadn’t turned him.

11pm the room got prepared for the delivery and the doctor came in. As soon as the doctor could see his head crowning he told me how much hair he had. He kept telling me there was about 1nch of hair. So between pushing the doctor would play with his hair and make jokes about cutting it. Once all the joking was over, the real pushing came and Matix Zane Bell was born at 11:27pm!

All 9lbs 7oz of him!!!