the day our little girl was born...5 years ago today!

3.27.08

I woke up at 12:00am and had to go to the bathroom - that’s when I realized that my water broke!  I called to your dad from the bathroom and told him it was time to go to the hospital.  He answered “Really?” from bed and although he was still half asleep I could tell he was excited!  Then all of the sudden he started to panic about getting things packed for the hospital.  I was the calm one.  “Honey” I said “I already packed our bags - we just need to put them in the car.”  We called the hospital, told Max good-bye and we were on our way. 

The first thing we did on the way was call Aunt Mel and our friend Christina.  They were going to be in the room with us when you were born because Aunt Mel needed to be part of a delivery for nursing school class credit, and we needed another person to help in case your dad wasn’t able to make it through the delivery.  Christina would be there if your dad passed out!  We told them not to get up and come to the hospital yet but to go back to sleep since it would be a long day.

one

When we got to the hospital they checked us into triage, an area where they monitor your contractions and make sure that your water actually did break.  I’m not sure who lies about that sort of thing, or isn’t absolutely sure when it happens?  After a couple hours had passed the nurse came back and told us that indeed labor had begun and we would be getting checked into a room.  She walked us down to the corner room at the end of the hallway and we started to get settled.  The room was called a “delivery suite” because you would be born in the room and then they would clean up everything and we would stay in the same room for a couple days recovering.

We weren’t in the room long when the door opened and in walked Aunt Mel.  We were surprised to see her show up so soon – she told us that after we talked to her there was no way she could go back to sleep…she was too excited!  Aunt Mel had thought of everything; snacks, juice, toys and books, everything we needed to get us through the day!  It was so nice to have her there to help us relax.  As a mom and an experienced nurse she knew what to do - I felt like I had my own personal labor attendant!

 

two

The nurse told us that they would continue to monitor my progression and in the meantime walking around would be a good idea if I felt up to it.  I did, so we walked up and down the hallways stopping at the nursery each time to peek at all of the tiny newborn babies.  I couldn’t believe that we were about to have one of our own.  We decided that the bright neon pink hat would be our choice if we had a girl!  After awhile my contractions seemed to be getting stronger so we went back to the room.  I thought I might try to tough it out, but the more I had, the more I was pretty sure that I would need to get the epidural.  That was confirmed when the first doctor on duty came in and looked at the tape printing on the machine monitoring how strong and frequent my contractions were and said “Not much going on here, huh?”  “Um, WHAT?!  That just felt like someone twisted my insides like a wet washcloth!!” I thought.  Luckily her shift was almost over because I thought that was a pretty insensitive comment for a doctor to make to a pregnant patient in labor!  I knew then if what I had been feeling were only mild contractions that I wouldn’t be able to handle the strong ones without the epidural.

After checking me and monitoring my progress for awhile, the doctor determined that my water had not completely broken.  At this time they decided to put an internal monitor and break my water again.  Ouch!  After that, I was ready for the epidural.  I was scared, but anxious not to feel the pain of the contractions.  Once the medicine started to work, I couldn’t feel anything below my waist – no more contractions!  It was heavenly!  At this time they also started giving me Pitosin to also help things progress.

 

three

When the shifts changed around 7:00am the next doctor and delivery nurse came in to introduce themselves.  This was just shortly after I had the epidural.  The doctor’s name was Dr. Bedia; he would be the one to deliver you.  He said that things were starting to progress and that I would probably deliver you around 3:00pm.  I found it ironic after all of those prenatal doctor visits that I would have a doctor that I hadn’t seen before, but it didn’t matter to me because I immediately liked him and his personality.  He told us that he was going to go do some reading on how to deliver a baby and said that he would see us later on.  Ha ha!  He was very funny.  I was relieved that our new doctor and nurse were very good and both were going to be great help during the delivery.  We called our family to give them the update and told them that we would keep them posted but it would still be awhile before you were born.

four

Next thing we knew it was time for the 8:00am check and the nurse said that I was fully dilated and we would start pushing soon.  “What?”  Your dad and I both looked at each other and had the same look on our faces “It’s happening now?!”  We were both surprised because we thought that we still had a half a day or longer of sitting around waiting.  So then your dad had to call everyone back and say “Never mind, it’s happening now!”  Our nurse then paged the doctor and began getting everything ready for the baby.

Soon Dr. Bedia came back in the room with a surprised look on his face and said “But I only got through Chapter 1 of my book!”  That made us laugh!  Then almost immediately the room started filling up with all kinds of bright lights, equipment, and nurses.  Just as we were about to start doing the big pushes, Christina burst through the door.  I was so glad that she made it in time!  Aunt Mel and Christina stood on both sides of me to help me push and your dad sat right up by my face so that he wouldn’t get queasy. 

I wondered how in the world this would work since I didn’t feel like I had much energy from lack of sleep and then also because my legs and entire lower body were numb.  But everyone helped me because they could tell when I was having a contraction by looking at the monitor and would tell me when it was time to push and when to just relax.  I pushed hard again and again using the breathing techniques that they taught me in our Lamaze classes.  It wasn’t too long and Dr. Bedia said to stop pushing for a minute because you were ready to come out.

five!

Dr. Bedia cut the umbilical cord free because it had started to wrap around your neck a little and with one last push you came out.  We could hear crying and then all of the sudden Dr. Bedia announced “It’s a girl!” and he layed you on my chest.  Mommy and daddy started crying because we were so happy to see you in person and know that you were ok.  Mommy was especially proud of your dad - he made it through the whole thing without fainting and even had the courage to watch you come out!  You were such a beautiful baby!  Everyone in the room just stood in awe of you, all witnesses to our little miracle – our precious baby girl.