Terry James: Birth Story

This journey has been long and emotional.  But his entrance into the world has brought so much joy to our family.

Given our loss with Alex, it was hard to imagine entering the emergency room of the hospital to head up to the labor & delivery room.  There was a great fear of the unknown.  As much as I would have loved to start labor naturally, I also knew the anxiety of waiting, wondering, and worrying would be especially difficult at the end of this journey.  After our 39 week appointment with our physicians, we choose an induction date.

The final days before we entered the hospital were very peaceful.  It was nice to have a plan.  I was already dilated, had lost my mucous plug and unknowing to me having regular contractions.

The morning on July 14th, Tony and I woke up to head to the hospital.  We walked through the front doors of the hospital and up to the 4th floor.  The nursing staff greeted us and took us to our birthing suite.  This was the view from our room at 630 am.  It was beautiful.  We both knew the day was going to be emotional, the last time we were at the hospital we left without our child.  But there was great beauty in our day and we were surrounded by love.

Within minutes we were unpacked and settled in, monitors on and starting our first dosage of pitocin. Since I was already having contractions, the plan was to do a little bit of pitocin until my contractions were stronger and more regular on their own, then be taken off the medication.  At that time I could continue with a water birth if I desired.  Just after 8am our birthing support team arrived, my mom, sister, and adopted dad Jim and our Doula Jennie.

We spent the morning hours sitting and relaxing.  I had my "labor hair" done by our Doula Jennie and we all watched the monitors as the contractions strengthened but I was still able to converse through them. Just before noon, our physicians came up from clinic to check in.  Since I still had some laboring to do, they headed down to lunch.  At this time since we didn't know how much longer labor would be and contractions were not painful yet, so our support team headed down for lunch as well.  This gave Tony and I some time just the two of us to have a light snack. But rather enjoy the quietness of our birthing suite, contractions all of a sudden strengthened at 12:15 and became closer together. We kept looking at the monitor thinking the contraction should be off the chart but it reached half of the height as the previous contractions in the morning. I kept thinking that the monitor was not accurately reflecting my actual pain!

Just around 1pm Dr. Boyle & Dr. Sanders came up, I was dilated 7-8cm and my waters were ready to break. At this time I moved into the bathtub while they filled the birthing tub.  Contractions were strong and getting unbearable.  While I didn't really have a specific birthing plan, I knew that I would ask for an epidural if I felt that I needed one knowing I wouldn't be able to labor in the water or move to the birthing tub. The bathtub was too small to labor in and laying on my back/SI seemed to increase pain.  I remember thinking to myself that there was no way I could get through the contractions, wanting to scream that I couldn't do it anymore.  I didn't want to do it anymore.  But my support team and Doula were right there, telling me how close I was.  I told myself I could do anything for 10 seconds. (Don't judge, but a couple of years ago I watched some of the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmie and her quote was one of the only things that got me through some of the pain.  Counting to ten.  And then starting over again.

“A person can stand just about anything for 10 seconds, then you just start on a new 10 seconds. All you’ve got to do is take it 10 seconds at a time."

Once the bathtub was too uncomfortable to labor in, I had to get out.  Unfortunately, my labor progressed so quickly that the birthing tub wasn't even ready.  Dr. Boyle & Dr. Sanders checked my cervix and I was ready to begin pushing. It was only 2:00pm.  I moved onto the bed but couldn't even lay on my back due to the pain so I began pushing on my hands and knees. 

Twenty minutes later at 2:20pm Terry James Adam Fisher finally arrived.

Because he was having a hard time breathing following the birth he spent the first 15 minutes on oxygen surrounded by a team of pediatricians.  Even though he wasn't in my arms, I could see him breath, I could hear him cry and I knew he was going to be just fine. And before we knew it, he was back in our arms again.  I can't begin to tell you how much joy his arrival brought to our family.  The camera seems to have captured some of the emotions for us.

At the end of the day, Tony and I reflected on what ended up being a perfect day bringing our son into the world.  What a great experience this birth had been.  I honestly couldn't believe that I was able to give birth without pain relief.  And I was amazed at how good my body felt, given the pain I had been in just a few hours earlier.  We spent a quiet evening just Tony & I welcoming our newest addition.  Still in awe that we woke up in the morning and here we were holding our beautiful 8lb baby boy.