OK comfortably numb

From noon until 2 Jeff and I passed time by talking to our nurse, visiting with my sister, getting checked by my doctor and listening to music. Around ten minutes of two, my mom and Maria called from the waiting room to say they were getting lunch. I encouraged Jeff to go with them to get a bite to eat. Everyone kept telling me it would be a long wait, so I figured one of us should be well nourished. Off Jeff went to Au Bon Pain to get lunch. I sat quietly reading my book. I wasn't nervous, scared or anxious, until...

I felt a pounding down below that no one prepared me for. I rang for my nurse, but I had to wait for her. Waiting wasn't an option. I rang again as the pressure increased. i have to admit, now my concern level was increasing. Once Vicki, my nurse, came in everything happened so quickly it's actually hard to recall.

Vicki examined me and said, "This is it. You are ten centimeters." She wanted me to start pushing, but I had to get Jeff. I called his cell and told him to come quickly and to bring my mom. I hadn't said hello to her yet that day and I didn't want to go into labor without seeing her.

While I was waiting for them, Vicki ordered the tray for delivery, and started to prepare the room. My mom and jeff came running in with their food. I have to say, it did make me hungry. We said a prayer and before I knew it, Vicki said I should start pushing. It was at that very moment, and only that one moment, that I got freaked out.

I never, through the entire pregnancy or the morning of induction, felt scared or nervous. When she said, "Push!" I got really frightened. I couldn't conceive how I was going to push a human out of my body.

Yet, before I knew it, it was happening. I went within to a place where I didn't even know where I was, and I just pushed with a force I hoped I would have. The only thing I said to Vicki was, "Let's top off my epidural."

To be continued...