Well, an hour or two passed before we finally arrived at the hospital. The car ride was tough but not as hard as I thought it would be. My contractions did not hurt TOO much. When we finally got to the labor floor and I laid down in bed, the nurses checked my dilation and exclaimed, "You are at 10 cm!!!" I could not believe it! All along I was scared of "transition" where the contractions leading up to complete dilation supposedly hurt like hell. I did not get an epidural but asked for nitrous oxide gas which took the edge off. It made me not care so much about the pain. Ethan was pacing the room back and forth and made a hundred trips to the bathroom. It was so funny.
The nurses kept scrambling around trying to get ahold of the doctor but he was at another hospital. He didn't end up making it before his shift was over and another doctor had to step in. The room was suddenly full of tons of people. They had to call in NICU because my bag of water still did not break yet. The doctor decided to break my water and I felt a warm gush of fluid coming out. People thought the baby would be out any second but....nothing happened. They kept asking me, "Are you sure you don't feel the urge to push? It's like making a bowel movement!" And I said, "No..I don't feel like it." The nurses told me to try anyway, so I pushed and pushed. No change. People filed out of the room and the doctor ordered a small dose of Pitocin to make my contractions closer together. They went from 5-6 minutes apart to 2-3 minutes apart but did not hurt any more than it did before. I pushed about 4 times whenever a contraction came but I was getting disappointed because there was no progress. My mom told me she thought I would give up because I looked so tired.
I was in such a fog and I just remember thinking I need to get this baby out of me. After 1.5 hours passed, the nurses told me they could see his head. Ethan was so excited and it was his enthusiasm that kept me going. They told me he has hair and I reached down to touch his soft head. It was so soft and wet that it didn't feel like a human head at all! The ring of fire wasn't so bad I thought. Maybe it was the nitrous oxide making me brave but every time it hurt, I pushed with strength I didn't know I had. After his head came out, I pushed the rest of his body out and it was so cool. He slipped out so quickly and it didn't hurt at all. It was such a relief!
The nurses wiped him up, laid him down on my chest, and I stared at him speechlessly. My little son was here after 40 weeks and 3 days of us praying for him. Born October 22, 2016 at 8:59 a.m. Logan James Lai, 20 inches, and 7 lbs 6 oz. My perfect baby boy.
