I didn’t have a birth plan. From everything I heard, birth plans should be left at home because nothing goes to plan. My birth plan was to do whatever it took to deliver a healthy baby. I was not opposed to drugs, but I wanted to see how long I could hold out. I knew I wanted to deliver the natural way a baby should come out, but if a c-section was necessary, then so be it.
Wed, Feb 9th I had an appointment with Dr. Jdahli, the Genetic Specialist who does all our ultrasounds. He said that Mary still wasn’t growing and now my amniotic fluid was starting to decrease. He said we should call Dr. Cole to be induced on Monday, Feb 14. I was not thrilled about my baby having to share her birthday with a holiday, but I was also really looking forward to not being pregnant any more. It was then that Brian and I came to the realization that within a week, we would be parents…whoa. That same night was the last class of our Parenting/Childbirth class. I joked that I hope we passed so we could go and have our baby! And I bragged to all the other moms there, many who were due way before me, that I got to be the first to go into labor J
Friday, Feb 11th – I went to see my OB/Gyn Dr. Cole because He wanted to see if I was ready to be induced. Turns out I was already 1cm dilated and he could feel Mary’s head. He stood there with his hands on his hips….”We could do this right now, if you want to.” You mean right now, right now? Brian wasn’t even at the appointment, and I made the call all on my own to be induced – again, I was done being pregnant. Dr. Cole stripped my membranes and told me to come back at 3pm. Now comes the dumbest thing I have ever done….I went to work. Why, why, why – because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time…but I regret not going home to experience labor. Instead I wrapped up as much as I could at work, turned in my computer, key card and raced home. Brian met me there at 2:30 he was racing to shower and get cleaned up, I was pulling dirty laundry out of the hamper to throw in my hasty hospital bag (advice to all moms – pack your bag at the beginning of the 9th month). We went back to Dr. Cole, I was dilated to a 2. He stripped my membranes again and told us to go for a walk “Go put your feet in the ocean, you won’t be able to do that for a while.”
We went and walked around the Harbor. I liked this because it is where Brian and I met, where we got married and now where we walked in labor- we watched one last sunset and it was time to go to the hospital. I started crying at this point because, frankly, I really was afraid of labor. I told Brian he can do it, I’m going home. Once we got to the hospital, they put us in the Triage room – a very dull room with no TV or even pictures on the wall. They hooked me up to all the monitors and a sweet young nurse took my blood pressure 155/122 – “Hmm, that’s high – are you nervous?” – Um..YEAH, dummy!
After a bit, the dumb nurse went home and Erin (AKA: the best nurse on the planet) took us into the Labor and Delivery room. It was huge and sparsely furnished, and the hospital could really stand to put some money into the TVs and sound system of the rooms. Since my blood pressure was so high, I was immediately put on a catheter and uterine monitor – I was bed-bound. All the romantic thoughts of walking the hallway, getting in the hot tub or shower were out the window – Luckily I didn’t make a birth plan, so I wasn’t disappointed.
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| Brian took this picture when I was having a contraction, I was annoyed at the time, but I'm kinda glad to have it now. |
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| This is the monitor that showed the contractions of the other wimp mommies |
Dr. Cole broke my water and that’s when the contractions really began. I now know that the nurses were watching my contractions on the monitor down the hall wondering why I didn’t want an epidural. Honestly, the contractions didn’t hurt as much as they were really, really uncomfortable. Now Brian and I are probably the only couple on the planet that can make childbirth competitive, but we did. In the rooms you can actually see the monitors of all the other moms in labor, their contractions, their heart rates, etc. We compared mine to theirs and I was clearly the tougher mom J
After powering through until 11:30 – they checked my dilation…I was sure it was going to be a 6 and it was only a ….3! Ugh. I was tired, labor was taking so long and I wanted to save my energy for pushing…time for an epidural. It turns out Epidurals are the best invention on the planet and Anesthesiologists my favorite type of Doctor ever. It is instant relief, and I could relax – we turned off the lights, Brian unfolded the Daddy sleeping chair and we attempted to sleep. Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep – I had a BP cuff going off every 15 min, monitors everywhere, and was just anxious about being in labor. Brian left the TV on for me, but kept the remote…so I watched Infomercials all night on mute while Brian snored in his chair. Nice.
At 5:15am, they checked me again…only to 5cm…very discouraging and I resigned myself to being in labor all day
About 6am, Brian woke up and went to get a cup of coffee. While he was gone, I felt a contraction. When he got back I felt another one. I was getting panicky that my epidural was wearing off so I pressed the nurse button. Immediately, 4 nurses were in my room, laying my bed back, moving the monitors and checking the screen and telling me that Dr. Cole is on his way…why? I just felt a contraction, that’s all. Unbeknownst to me at the same time I felt the contraction, Mary’s heart rate dropped to 70 and wasn’t coming back up. They checked me again – in the last 45 min I was completely dilated and Mary was on her way. They were thinking that when she dropped into the birth canal, she pinched the cord with her head like kinking a hose. Dr. Cole cooly sat on the edge of my bed “Do you feel like you have to push?” me: No. Dr Cole “Do you think you can give it a try?” I know understand that at this moment he was trying to decide if he had to pull me in for a c-section but gave me the chance to push. Mary was born about 20 min later at 6:58 am.
Now we all knew that Mary was going to have to go to the NICU to be checked out – but she was born during the shift change so take everyone who was in the room for me and the NICU team for Mary and double it. The room seemed packed from my perspective and that was weird. Once Mary popped out, Dr. Cole put her on my chest – her eyes were wide open and her arms were outstretched, she looked at me as if to say “What the HELL just happened!?” The first thing I noticed about my daughter is that she was so tiny, she had flat little ears and big, big eyes. They took her over to the incubator, wrapped her up, let me say hello/goodbye before taking her to NICU – Brian was to go with her.
Within 10min after she was born I was totally alone in the room – I wondered if I dreamt the whole thing. A new nurse I had met once, brought me some breakfast…very weird.
The new nurse took me up to my room where we would be staying. The nice little tech was trying to be cheery and asked what my new baby’s name was. I immediately burst into tears because I hadn’t named Mary yet – I hadn’t been able to see her to get to know her to give her a name…it also turns out post partum hormones are an E-ticket ride.
Mary finally came to the room about 3-4 hours later. I immediately unswaddled her to get a good look at her. She was so little, only 5lbs 3oz, very fair complexion and she looked a lot like her daddy J.
Our sweet little Mary.
