Birth Story

Here is my birth story as I remember it. I typed it about a week after her birth and I had already started to forget pieces of it. It's long, it's somewhat graphic (not horrible) but here it is!

Wednesday, December 19th, 2007

Around 6 am I woke up feeling different. Not bad, not good, just different. I couldn’t quite place it. I was lying on my side when I would feel what felt like fingers drumming on the side of my stomach, and then it would turn into a pressure that would stretch across my stomach and into my back. I wondered if that was a contraction. Loran’s alarm went off at 6:30, coincidently, I felt one of those strange feelings when the alarm went off. He hit snooze and I just lay there. Nine minutes later, the alarm goes off and I feel it again. Loran hits snooze…nine minutes later, alarm, strange feeling…something is not right.

Loran rolled out of bed around 7 and I got up to use the bathroom. As I sat up, I felt a gush of fluid. Having felt that before, I was sure I’d wet myself. L I hurried down to the bathroom only to see a lot of blood. Having never bled a drop during the entire pregnancy, I knew something wasn’t right.

I found Loran in the kitchen preparing his morning coffee. He was fully expecting me to come in for my morning hug before he left wherein he’d tell me to call him if we were having a baby. This time, I looked at him with worry in my eye and asked him if there was anything he had to do at work today. He said no, and asked what was wrong. I told him I thought something was happening and explained what was happening. Meanwhile, I started to feel some cramping. We decided to call labor and delivery at St. John’s. They told us to wait an hour and see if it improved or got worse. I called my mom and left a message on the machine that something might be happening. I then called Chelsey who answered and told her the same. We decided to shower up, eat breakfast and call Partners when they opened at 8. I called the triage line, explained my symptoms and waited for their call back. When they returned my call, we were eating a huge breakfast prepared by Loran of pancakes, toast, yogurt, juice and sausage. We wanted to have a lot to eat, just in case it was my last meal for awhile. Triage wanted me to go into L&D just to get checked to see if my water had broken. I called L&D and they told us to come in at our leisure, but to eat first and get anything together we needed. As we tidied up the house, put light timers on, fed Stollen the super bowl of cat food and gathered the last minute supplies for the hospital, I paced around, walking circles in the house as Stollen followed me throughout. I wonder if he could sense something. I kept having cramping every 8 minutes or so and eventually, we were ready to go. It was very emotional as we left the house. I started crying at the thought that the next time we return, we might have our baby.

The drive to the hospital was pretty ho-hum. Nothing dramatic, but somewhat surreal to think about.

We arrived around 9:30 and had a hard time finding a parking spot. Loran wanted to drop me off at the door, but I wanted to walk in. As we got out of our car though, the hospital shuttle pulled up and asked us if we wanted a ride, which we gratefully accepted.

When we checked into the maternity ward, they brought us to a triage room for monitoring. I changed into the hospital gown and was hooked up to the fetal monitor to hear Ella’s heartbeat. We hung out awhile and the nurse and a resident came in to check if my water had broken. They were unable to get a good sample of the fluid and upon checking me said I was dilated to a 3. They phone Dr. Goralski and after sitting in the room with contractions and monitoring, they decided to admit us. It was never determined if my water had broken higher up and I had a small leak or what was going on.

We were assigned a room at noon. The nurses called it the “suite” as it was the largest room in the ward. It was a room they all saved for their friends. When we walked to it, it didn’t even have a bed yet, but they quickly found one for me. I got into bed and back on the monitors, this time monitoring her heartbeat and the contractions. I had routine things done like blood pressure check and temperature taken then my nurse, Mary, started my IV, she’d wanted to put it in my arm, but had to use my hand since I have “crooked veins.” It hurt, but wasn’t bad. She came back a bit later to start the penicillin IV for the Group B Strep. I had to stay in bed for an hour or so for the monitoring and during the first round of penicillin. We called family and told them things were happening. Loran went to get our labor bag. Towards the end of the penicillin, the nurse turned the IV up a bit to hurry the drip and then it really started to burn my arm at the IV site. It was pretty painful and I had to call the nurse to come add more saline to the mix to help the burn. Once the penicillin was done, I was able to get out of bed and walk, which was refreshing. I still had the IV but I was happy to move around, it felt much better. Loran and I did several laps around the unit and saw a few babies in the nursery. There was another couple who was also walking, but they were going at a much faster pace than I was. It annoyed me! Every time I had to stop for a contraction, Loran would hold on to me and help me focus and breath. I eventually had to get back into bed for some more monitoring.

Labor continued to progress and I was examined a few times which HURT so much, worse than contractions. My parents came and that was a nice diversion. I wasn’t having much luck focusing enough to read my magazine. Eventually, Loran went to get some dinner and I walked the halls with my parents. The contractions were getting a lot stronger and during the first one I had in the hall, I just leaned on Mom and cried. I was walking a little faster than before, partially because Dad was in charge of pushing my IV stand and I felt a little like a puppy being persuaded on a walk, if I slowed down, my tubes got tugged! The walking was good though. Once we returned to the room after a few laps, I decided to sit in the rocker for a bit. I was fine between contractions but when they hit, I got very serious and would stare objects down and direct hate looks at them such as a mole on Loran’s arm. Dad took a few pictures of this happening. When Loran got back, I was definitely getting sad about the pain. It was probably around 7pm and I just burst into tears and did not want to keep going. The pain was getting quite intense. I wad dilated to about 7. I announced that I didn’t want to do this anymore and I wanted to go home. I just wanted to pack up and leave. It was epidural time.

When the anesthesiologist showed up, I was nervous for the epidural and the unknowns surrounding that, but I was in so much pain from contractions that I was just praying it would work! Loran got to stay with me and was very good at talking me through it. The epidural wasn’t painful, but the sensations were very odd as the medication was administered. It was as if lightning was shooting down my legs then back up. It was very quick, but very odd. It started to take effect within a few contractions and was heavenly! Eventually, I did start feeling pain in regions of my abdomen during the contractions so I was able to get a bolster which I could administer myself by pushing a button every 20 minutes. That eventually started helping. I rested and was in a much better mood. After I’d received the epidural, pitocin was started to help the labor progress and my water was broken. With a gush, out came a lot of fluid and it just kept coming! Jill had to keep changing my sheets and was joking that I’d met my laundry quota! She couldn’t believe how much fluid I had coming out, neither could I!

At midnight, I was dilated to 10 but the nurse, Jill, wanted me to labor down, basically, since I had the epidural and was feeling okay, they could let my current strong contractions push the baby down further which would eliminate some of the pushing I would have to do. I was left to rest while my contractions pushed the baby down, I could feel the contractions, but didn’t have the strong urge to push and wasn’t in any pain. It was very surreal to be napping while dilated to a ten! Eventually, Mom came back in the room and Jill started to set up the instruments and infant warmer. It was interesting to watch it all come together and a little scary to know that the end was near and I was soon going to be seeing my baby. I was a little nervous about pushing and was very shaky the last couple of hours. At 1 am Jill had me start pushing. I was a champ! She’d told me it could take upwards of 3.5 hours to push since I was a first time mom. After about a half hour of pushing, I had to stop while she called the doctor. They were able to see the baby’s head right away and I was an effective pusher. I ended up having to wait for the doctor and just breathe through contractions because once the head was low, I definitely had the urge to push. I could feel the baby really low and knew it was close. Mom and Loran would hold my sandbag legs during each contraction and it was so nice to have them there. During each set of pushes, I was to take a deep breath and push for 10 seconds and do that three times for each contraction. I was very focused and would close my eyes tight and listen to Loran, Mom and Jill cheer me on. Eventually, Doctor Syal arrived and I was able to start pushing again. After about a half hour of pushing, at 2:32a Ella was born! I started crying right before she came out, a bit overwhelmed with the knowledge that she was about to be born. They put her on my chest but the only thing I could see was her slimy leg! They confirmed that she was a girl and both Loran and I were crying. Mom cut the umbilical cord and I just held her and cried. The placenta was ready to come out quickly after her birth and I was easily able to push it out with one push. Loran said it was a purple and brown color and different than what he’d expected to see. He said it was gross.

Ell was taken to the warmer, cleaned off, weighed and measured. She scored 8 on her APGAR, losing points for color. She was 7 pounds, 5 ounces and 20 inches long. We all took turns holding her.

It took about an hour for me to get fixed up. I did not tear externally, but did internally. As I was being stitched up, I was bleeding a lot. While Loran and I were busy focusing our attention on Ella, Mom was monitoring me to make sure I wasn’t losing too much blood. It was nice to have someone on the lookout for me. Eventually, the bleeding was under control, but not without the help of several nurses and gauze packs.

After I was situated, icepacks applied and put back together, the family who’d been waiting/sleeping out in the waiting room was invited in to meet Ella. Both of our sets of parents and Chelsey came in to see her. We took pictures and around 3:30a, they left.

We still weren’t able to sleep though. I’d asked for some food and a box lunch was brought to me. I had to get up and bathe around 4a with Jill’s help. Getting up the first time was kind of gross. There was a lot of blood and fluid that came out and my legs weren’t quite back to normal from the epidural. The bath felt nice though and once I was dressed and helped back to bed, I was able to eat a little. I was anxious to start breastfeeding, so rather than wait for Jill to come back and help me; I decided to try it myself. When she did come in, she was really impressed with how well I was doing and that I’d gotten Ella latched on myself. I didn’t have any problems feeding her and continued to get praise from the nurses throughout the stay. Finally, around 5a, Loran and I were able to get some rest, the THREE of us in one room, it was divine. It wasn’t the best sleep I’d ever received, because every hour the nurses would come in and monitor me or Ella, but it was so nice to know I was done, she was here and healthy and were a little family!