Come Thursday morning we headed to the hospital for the big event. There is something quite reassuring about knowing I was going to have our daughter in the same hospital in which my husband was born. Within an hour of checking in I was wearing a glamorous hospital gown, my water had been broken and I was enjoying an IV full of Pitocin. I was not a big fan of the doctor there that day (she is former military and had NO bedside manner), but she did let me have an epidural as soon as I was induced. I give her great thanks for that. I actually never felt a contraction. Go ahead, call me ugly names.
Hooked up to all sorts of monitors and such, we all sat back to wait. 'We' included Chase (of course), my mother, and my sister, Ashley. She and Chase kept me - and the nurses - fairly entertained. We only had to wait about five hours before it got down to the real deal. I could tell it was getting closer so I backed off the epidural so I could feel enough pressure to push. And Lord did I push! It was 10 seconds of pushing every 30 seconds for 2 hours. I think maybe twice I rested instead of pushing. So maybe I pushed 238 times instead of 240. All the books and movies that have the wife cussing the husband are full of it; I didn't have the breath to cuss anyone. Actually, I didn't have much breath at all. They had to put an oxygen mask on me at some point (which, ironically, made me feel I couldn't breath).
The doctor came in after a couple of hours and told me I had a choice. Apparently Jordan's head was cocked a certain way and I'd made absolutely no progress the second hour. I could continue to push or they could vacuum her out. I voted for the vacuum. In no time at all my daughter came into the world. And they immediately took her away. There was no lovely moment of bonding for us...
In my birth plan I had stated that as soon as they weighed her and such I wanted her back so I could attempt breast feeding (and damn it, I grew her inside me; I deserved to see her immediately). Unfortunately for us, right after she came out the umbilical cord tore. This was unusual enough that they let me see her and kiss her and then they swept her off to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Meanwhile the doctor was trying to stop my bleeding which involved a shot that had nasty side effects (picture bowel issues with a numb lower half). It was another couple of hours before I was ready to leave the delivery room. By then the doctor had come to inform us that there had been an apneic episode and they wanted to keep her in NICU for a couple of hours for observation before they sent her to the regular nursery. They assumed that she had stopped breathing because of something to do with the umbilical cord issue.
Our first real meeting. After seeing your child hooked up to all this, watching her be fitted with tiny IV tubes, seeing the prick marks on her tiny feet, vaccinations are no big deal.
She was roughly 3 hours old before I really got to see her. My husband had gone to visit her in NICU but, God bless him, had not held her. He felt like I should be the first of us to do that. I cuddled and cooed as much as possible considering I was still feeling a little foggy from the drugs and exhaustion. They finally took me to a room and I got situated, waiting for NICU to pass her off to the nursery and the nurses to bring her to me. Instead, we got another doctor.
My full term, 8 lb 8 oz, 21 inch baby girl had quit breathing again. They were concerned because there was no visible reason for this. The doctor sat there, at 11 at night, and explained to us that they were going to keep her in NICU and they planned to do a spinal tap on her the next morning to make sure she didn't have spinal meningitis. It was a bit surreal. I didn't really have any emotional reserves left so I simply said okay. I didn't have any idea how else to respond.
Fortunately for everyone involved the results were negative. To this day we don't know why she had those two apneic episodes. Still, once they did the spinal tap they had to keep her at the hospital and on antibiotics for 7 days. This involved lots of tubes and wires and loud machines several times a day. I was incredibly fortunate because they had an empty bed and I was able to stay at the hospital with her. The nurses in NICU would call me when she awoke, and I would go feed her. After a few days of that they decided she could move into the pediatric ward and those nurses could take over her antibiotic treatment. This meant that, at 5 days old, my daughter and I actually got to be together. It was both lovely and strange. I mean, she was 5 days old before I ever changed her diaper! Again, the whole situation was surreal.
Here she is at one week old. Already a happy baby!
On day 9 we finally got to take her home. I cannot quite express how strange it was to be able to hold her without being attached to tubes and wires. I mean, we could actually move more than 3 feet away from the bassinet. It was very exciting!
So that, folks, is the story of my first foray into childbirth. Other than the NICU deal, the actual delivery was smooth sailing. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if this upcoming delivery were to be as easy. Although I suppose it's a bit much to ask to have 2 children without ever feeling the first contraction...
Peanut is not due for another 5 weeks. I suppose I could go early, but I don't feel like that's going to happen (even though I look like I'm about ready to go into labor now). For those of you who have had children there's a sense of communication between mother and baby. Right now he's just not ready to come out. Nor am I ready for him. So we will stay where we are and grow slowly rounder while we prepare for the big day (and try to figure out what we are going to name him).
2 comments:
What a great story. I am so glad that whatever it was that caused her early problems went away. My two children and the birth experience was totally different from each other, so I will be very interested in how it happens for you. Thanks for taking the time to write all this down!
You had much the same delivery that I had with my second - she was merconium-stained (inhaled her first bowl movement) and was in ICU hooked up to monitors. I know how you felt not being able to hold your baby for five days. How wonderful that is a happy, healthy little girl.
You already had the hard birth - this one will be a piece of cake!
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