Around 2:30 PM Mary put the Demerol into my IV. The unfortunate part was that I could no longer labor out of bed like I had been doing because Mary told me that it would be like drinking ten margaritas in one minute. Taking her only half seriously, I gave her the approving nod to add it and…ZONK! I felt so instantaneously drunk that I could barely keep my eyes open! I continued to have contractions that I could feel 100% like before I had the Demerol, but the only difference was that I was less tense as well as floating in and out of a drug-induced sleep. When I was awake for a contraction, I could feel that they were getting stronger. Rock had gotten Mary to get a heat pad for my back and he was resting beside me pressing it up against my back and providing counter-pressure to my back when I would arch it from the contractions. He was coaching me and telling me how well I was doing which really, really helped me to know that someone was there supporting me, even if I couldn’t tell him at the time.
At one point I woke up with a horrible contraction and moaned my way through it and when it was done, I asked Rock how long it had been since Mary gave me my Demerol. Rock said it had only been 45 minutes and that if I could just hold out for 15 more minutes I’d make it to an hour like I had wanted to and then I could get my epidural. So there I lay, floating in and out of sleep as I continued to contract and finally, after the worst contraction of the day, I told Rock to get Mary because it was time to order the epidural.
There were two things I didn’t know about the situation I just described. The first was that I had actually been laboring for a total of two hours with the Demerol and Rock intentionally mislead me only because he knew that the longer I could labor without the epidural the better. And the second thing was that Mary could see that I would eventually need an epidural so she already had the tray and everything set up for the anesthesiologist and she actually went to the OR where he was prepping a person for surgery and when he was done, she grabbed him so he could help give me some relief.
The new rule is that dads can’t be in the room when they give an epidural for sterility reasons, so Rock was able to get some food (it was now 4:30 PM) for the first time since 7 AM, as I tried to voice my concern to the doctor and Mary about how I didn’t know if I’d be able to stay still well enough for the epidural. And then Mary told me something that would become my mantra as they gave me the epidural: “If you want the pain relief badly enough, you’ll find a way to sit still for it.” So I grabbed a pillow, and then Mary stood in front of me and hugged me to her chest and the anesthesiologist did his job.
The doctor kept describing what he was doing: “You’ll feel a cold liquid on your back and it is just the chemical we use to sterilize you” OR “OK, you’ll feel a slight pinch and that is the local anesthetic.” I didn’t respond to him for three main reasons: 1) I was focusing on not moving, 2) I was actively contracting and 3) I couldn’t care less what the heck he was doing back there, as long as I got relief!!! At one point I heard the doctor whisper to Mary, “Is she OK??” To which Mary whispered back, “Yeah, she just had some Demerol.” This brings me back to my previous point: what EXACTLY does the doctor expect me to do/say to him while I am in the throes of labor and getting a 5 inch needle stuck in my back that would resemble anything close to civil communication?! I guess I’ll just never know!
Once the epidural was in place and he hooked it up to the machine and showed me how to press the button to administer the medication, I could feel the relief right away as what felt like cold water made its way down my spine. The effect of the medicine felt very similar to how your mouth feels when it has lidocaine for dental work…you can still feel that it is there, it’s just numb. And guess what?! For the first time that day, I could feel my uterus contracting but NO PAIN!!! I was immediately transformed into a bubbly conversationalist and thanked the anesthesiologist profusely for jabbing my back! I smiled at Mary and gave her a “THANK YOU SO MUCH” look for getting the doctor to me so quickly and when Rock walked in, he was shocked. I was sitting there with a grin on my face and he looked so relieved to see ME so relieved.
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