Personal Narrative: My Disruption

Its now approximately 5 a.m. and while I was waiting for labor an delivery the E.R. nurses examined me. I was already at 8 cm 's so I 'm there thinking "Oh my God" I 'm not going to make it up there because all I wanted to do was push. Finally what seemed to be the longest 5 minutes of my life they transported me up to my room. The whole way up I just kept saying " I need to push,I need to push"!

I went through a nightmare before I could hold my little angel. At first, the hospital took three days to admit me. I was told by my doctor to go to the hospital when the contractions were 5 minutes apart. Four days before my due date, the contractions started.

Checking into the hospital at 3:08 AM, only to wait another 12 hours on the nose to have this long awaited baby. The family started showing up, the nurses started preparing me, and at 2:40 PM, it was time. Finally, here I was, at 3:08PM on the dot, Alyssa Stongle was the newest mommy at the hospital. Right then and there, I knew why my body was going through changes.

We were admitted immediately and brought to her delivery room, the room was very dark and cold, the air conditioning was so high that my wife could almost ignore her pain because it was so cold in the room. Time drug on, the epidural was given so the pain was kept at bay for a short time, and we all were able to get a little

My first day on the unit I was assigned to the Labor and Delivery Floor and there was the first C-section of the day and I was finally going to have my chance to witness a live child birth. I was anxious and nervous to see what the day would bring. The mother whom I was assigned to was very agreeable to having me there, which made me both at ease and excited.

During that time, I was unable to hold my baby. She was fed through a tube until her stomach could handle formula through a bottle. That was one of the hardest things I have even been through. Thankfully, she recovered swiftly. We were able to finally go home and start our new life together.

Then 9 months later on February 16, 1999, at 3:10 am my precious son came out of my womb and placed on my chest. It was the most amazing experience ever, but also extremely exhausting thing ever! I was in the hospital for about another week till the doctor told me to go home, funny thing is that I got discharged on my birthday February 21, 1999, which I turned 16. At first, it felt like being a mother was easy, but in reality, it wasn 't because I also had to go to school plus he would always wake me up in the middle of the night, and be in an extreme of exhaustion. I started missing school more and more till I finally dropped out.

With tears in my eyes I kept questioning god why this had to be happening to me. The doctors explained to me that my baby got sick from being in my stomach so long after my water broke. I did not want to be away from her, every morning my trips to the NICU were the hardest. Seeing her with tubes, and all the stuff made me upset. But holding her was the most amazing feeling in the world.

Later that morning, we arrived at Gordmans and paced through the store looking for bargains. I tried to shop, but was too distracted. Finding a chair, I sat and hoped my mom was doing okay. Finally my dad called and told Joy that my mom was rushed to the emergency room for a C-section. An overwhelming sense of panic ran through my body.

All I remember is the nurse telling me that I was expecting, I just look at Jimmy ( my significant other/ child 's father ) and I 'm just feeling all kinds of emotions right now. I didn 't know whether to cry to be scared, nervous, all I knew was that we 're excited to be new parents! Even though, Jimmy was new to this whole new parenthood thing, I had experience because I have a big family of none of the kids were mine so of course it was going to be different and us being young, it was real nerve wrecking but we were ready to see what the future had in store for us! The first sonogram we had of our baby was so exciting, it was such a blessing to see our little baby growing! It amazing to see how small you were to how big

I saw my first Cesarean Section. It was mind-blowing. I thought, I was going to faint or not able to handle the sight of blood, however, I was there for my patient from her C-section to transferring her to postpartum. I developed a trusting rapport with the patient, her husband, and the newborn baby that they allowed me to teach them with cord care.

The lady then looked at the paper and realized it was wrong and started to laugh and said “ I am so sorry I wrote the wrong one down.” I knew that if I didn 't notice the papers they would have done surgery on my right knee instead of the left knee. I was moved to another room where other people were surrounded by nurses getting prepared for surgery. The moment I was stationed in my room I was surrounded by different nurses. There was the anesthetic nurse, the head nurse, the assistant nurses and even the nurses that are in training.

I went through 27 and a half hours of labor. The doctors told me I am one of the rare 15 percent of women that my water will rupture before I start contracting. When your water breaks they only give you a 24 hour window to have the baby before they have to give you antibiotics for infection because it can be dangerous for the both of you. I had a very rough time giving birth to him. After I seen his face I just melted like ice on a sunny day.

However, there was one instance that will forever remain in the back of my mind. The PICC line that hurt more than anything. A PICC line is a tube that goes into a vein that can test blood and deliver medication do different parts of a patient’s body. Long story short, I kicked the nurse and the doctor that also happened to be friends of my parents. The experience was horrible because I wasn’t under any anesthesia.

I remember going to Ospital Ng Sampaloc a rural health hospital and having my first assisted delivery. It was something I will never forget. Helping someone bring life into this world was an amazing experience. I gave newborns their first bath, I administered their first injections. I was so fortunate to witness and be involved in the care at hospitals there.