Friday, August 25, 2006

Birth story
Current mood: calm
So here it is...the birth story.
I was going to have to be induced on the 22nd, so my dear acupucturist, Carol Umstead, offered me complimentary sessions to try to avoid the induction. I got treated Friday night and twice on Saturday. It worked! I woke up early (2am) on Sunday with wetness. I called Vinny, who was working at Trilogy, and said, "I'm not sure, but I think my water broke." He got all excited and told everyone at work. I could hear them cheering in the background. I got up to pee and realized that the bed wasn't wet at all, so I thought it was a false alarm. I called Vinny back to tell him that I probably wasn't my water breaking after all. I tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. I was restless and agitated. I took Buddy for a walk and waited for Vinny to get home. He got home around 3am. I still couldn't sleep so I got up and munched on some food and Vinny played video games. Then at around 4:30am I stood up from the couch and there was water dripping down my leg. I thought, "hmm, this could be it!" So i went pee and the dripping down my leg happened a few more times. Vinny and I tried to lay down to get some rest, but the contractions started coming. We timed them and they were about 4-5 minutes apart. I had a hard time telling when one started and when one ended. I realized I wouldn't be able to sleep because laying down was uncomfortable when a contraction came. I decided I wanted to go to the hospital. We were both SO excited! Finally it was happening!
We arrived at the hospital at 6:15am. The contractions were getting stronger every minute and I had to concentrate during each one. This made checking in difficult. They wanted me to sign papers and stuff....I was like, "UUUUGGGGGGAAAHHHHHHOOOOO" during the contractions and then I could talk a little bit in between. Carol, arrived around 7 am. It was great to have her there! The contractions were very strong now and pretty close together. The nurse-midwife checked me and I was only 3 cm dialated. I tried not to be discouraged. For the next few hours I did everything I could to try to get through each one and rest in between. I was up and down and all over the room, the bath tub, the bed, the floor, the toilet. Nothing seemed to be working. I puked a bunch of times and couldn't even keep down water, so I felt like I was getting dehydrated pretty fast. Vinny was right there with me the whole time. I could tell a big difference in my pain tolerence when he wasn't right next to me. I remember I made the same noise through each contraction..."eeeuuuaaaaggghhhh." It wasn't very low pitched, but it helped. Sometimes I would yell out "OH GOD!, or "VINNY!" The nurse and nurse-midwife had to remind me to relax my shoulders and to try to keep my breathing low and slow.
It got really, really difficult by 10:30am. My contractions were one on top of the other and I couldn't get a good rest in between. I asked the nurse midwife to check my dialation and I was only 3 1/2 cm dialated. I decided right then that I wanted an epidural. No questions. That was the longest hour of my life. I had to wait for the anesthetisiologist to arrive and finish with a patient before me. It was so hard waiting for something that I had decided I needed NOW. They worked on getting my IV in and blew out veins in both arms. At that point it was a nice distraction from the contractions. Finally the epidural came at 11:30, and started to kick in 15-20 minutes after. It was WONDERFUL! I remember being able to open my eyes again and see Vinny and feel so grateful to be connected with him once again. I felt like I was out at sea before, a little lost, but when I was finally able to relax and rest, I was back to shore and safe with Vinny. The contractions kept coming and I would still feel a very sharp pain in the left side of my pelvic area during them. The nurse-midwife said it was probably the position of the baby's head hitting a nerve or something. Things settled down and it was a much needed rest for everyone in the room. Vinny and I both slept for a few hours, and Carol was right there in case we needed anything. The nurse-midwife said that eventually I would feel increased pressure really low down and thats when I would know it was time to push. Around 3:30 I felt that pressure 3 times in a row. The nurse checked my dialation and I was fully dialated. We wanted to wait a little bit for Carol to get back (she had to go do a treatment and would return around 4pm). But the nurse said to go ahead and try pushing a couple times. It was amazing. I could feel her head moving down and they said they saw her hair after the first push. I reached down to touch her head for the first time! SO AMAZING! I think I pushed about 10-15 times, each time making a little bit of progress. Vinny was there to catch her and she arrived at 4:01pm on August 20, 2006. The cord was wrapped around her neck twice, just like when I was born. But the moment I saw her she looked so beautiful and amazing. Vinny put her on my chest and the nurses started rubbing her because she hadn't cried yet. When she started, I thought it was the sweetest cry I had ever heard. It wasn't piercing, just low and sweet. She stopped crying very quickly and just rested on my chest. She started rooting for my breast very soon after. She had no problems latching on. That was amazing to me too! Later Vinny and the nurses took her to be weighed and washed. I thought for sure she would cry through the whole thing, but she didn't seem to mind at all, and Vinny said she liked the water on her. She weighed 8 lbs. 13 oz.! A big healthy baby! I had a little bit of tearing that they sewed up, and the placenta and blood clots came out just fine. Actually they pushed on my tummy to get the clots to come out and they shot out and almost hit Carol. We were both very surprised and got a good laugh out of it. The rest is a blur of nurse visits, moment of bliss and love with our little babe, and trying to catch winks of sleep in between it all. I'll tell you, it truely was the most exquisite experience of my life, and I feel like Vinny and I have truely been blessed with an amazing child. She is so present and happy. My heart melts every time I look at her.
My body is slowly getting itself back together, which is another wonder of nature. I look at my tummy, which has shrunk so much in the past few days, and wonder, how the hell did she fit in there? I'm amazed at what my body can do.
I'm so happy to have Vinny as the father of my child. He has been hoping around the house like I've never seen before. He's taking care of us so well and has really stepped into the father role gracefully. I'm very proud of him.
Thats it for now. I'm gonna try to post more pics of the birth and of new little Tiger Lily.