Madeline’s Birth Story

I apologize, this is the really lengthy version. Mostly for myself, but I hope you all enjoy.

Our baby girl was estimated to arrive on August 26th, 2013. My last day of work was August 6, which I thought would give me barely enough time to get things in order around the house and in my life before this little girl arrived. That actually gave me PLENTY of time to get things ready! I had in my head that she was going to come before her due date. I think it was hope more than mother’s intuition. I remember weeks before my doctor made a joke about going into labor on labor day. I thought, HA yeah right, I totally have my baby long before then! Boy was I wrong. Nathan and I went in for our prenatal check up on Friday, August 30th, 4 days past her EDD. My doctor said I was still only dilated to 1cm, which was the same as the week before. I was bummed. I was hoping there would have been at least SOME progress. At that point, I just felt like she was never going to come out. I felt like I really was going to be pregnant forever. So because I hadn’t progressed any, and I was past my due date, my doctor said, alright, let’s get you scheduled for an induction, and hopefully she’ll come before then. She was strict about making sure I was induced when I was 41 weeks exactly. I asked her, can I get induced tonight or tomorrow? I desperately wanted her to arrive in August so I wouldn’t have to deal with the state telling me when my daughter was ready to begin to school or not. Not the end of the world… but I was still hoping. She said no way jose, you have to be 41 weeks to the day. She called the hospital to get us scheduled for Tuesday Sept 3, but they didn’t have any openings until Friday Sept 6. So we marked our calendars to go to the hospital the next Friday morning. I figured she wasn’t going to come on her own. On Monday Sept 2 (Labor Day), I again, was really hoping something was going to happen. Nathan and I went on a walk up a big hill with our friend, Ashley, and her kids to take some sunset pictures and to walk this girl out. Of course, it didn’t do a thing. Except make me realize how incredibly out of shape I am.

This is the last picture we took of my belly. Taken on Sept.2 (1 week overdue and 3 days before she arrived)

Sunset picture I took on the hill

Nathan taking pictures on the hill

We got back home and were getting ready for bed when my phone rang. It was about 10:30 at night, and usually I don’t answer my phone when it’s a number I don’t recognize. But I did. And I’m SO glad I did! It was my doctor calling me to tell me that they had an opening for an induction on Wednesday and wanted to put my name down before someone else took it. I said YES PLEASE!! Oh my goodness, I could not sleep after that. It was Christmas Eve times ten. I was going crazy and couldn’t shake the butterflies out of my stomach. I just kept thinking, this is REALLY happening!! We are going to have A BABY!! It was great to have the next day to prepare and get everything together for the hospital.

Wednesday morning, I got up at 7:00 am to call the hospital to make sure they were ready for me. I was worried because they said to call after 7 to see if they are ready, otherwise, they will call you back later that day or even the next day when they are ready for you. And they said yes come on in. AHHHH!! So I jumped in the shower while Nathan ran around the house getting everything together, putting the car seat in the car, etc… It was the weirdest thing to leave our house just the two of us, and know that when we came back to our house, we would have this little person with us and our lives would never ever be the same. CRAZY.

We got to the hospital at 9 am. They checked us in and we got to meet our midwife. She was REALLY nice and was great at explaining all the options thoroughly. We were really happy with all (well, all minus 2) of our nurses and midwives that helped us out. We were there for many different people’s shifts and everyone was really great. The midwife checked to see how dilated I was at first. Still 1 cm. So she went over different options and said she will come back in a few hours to see if I have progressed any on my own. Of course, I hadn’t. She asked if I felt any contractions, and I’m like, um I’m not sure. She was like, okay then you haven’t cause you would know! We decided to go ahead with a pill called Cytotec (Misoprostol), which I had read controversial things about. She was great at explaining everything to me and I felt a lot more comfortable with it. I took half a pill at noon. By that time I was SO HUNGRY and SO THIRSTY. That morning I was too nervous to eat a big breakfast. All I could stomach was a piece of toast with pb&j. But after I took the pill they said I couldn’t eat anything for an hour and a half. That was torture. So I had Nathan run down the street to the Cheesecake Factory and pick up some chicken and biscuits. For some reason, while I was pregnant, that was the only thing that seemed satisfying and delicious from Cheesecake Factory and I got it every time we went. And I was STARVING and that was all I wanted. So wonderful Nathan went out to pick up some treats from TJ’s and my delicious meal. I finally got to eat at 1:30 and scarfed it all down. That was pretty much the last thing I ate until the next afternoon. After I took the pill, I could finally start to feel some contractions, but they were not painful in the least bit. I was so anxious for them to start feeling painful! I wanted to get this show on the road.

The Midwife came in and suggested I take either the other half of the pill, or do this water catheter thing, called a Foley Balloon. She decided the balloon was the best option so we went with that. They inserted a deflated balloon into my uterus then they filled it with saline. That was to help ripen my cervix and get things moving. They did that around 3 in the afternoon. I had that in for a few hours when I finally started to actually feel the contractions. At first, it was like, oh, hey I can actually feel that! Then around 7pm they started to get pretty painful. The nurses kept telling me I could get the epidural at any time. But I wasn’t sure how fast I was progressing so I didn’t want to have my legs numb for hours on end. So I fought through it. During that time, I was just watching tv. I brought my journal, the Ensign, Real Simple magazine, etc to keep me occupied, but I couldn’t focus on anything. I was so uncomfortable. I was hooked up to monitors to check the baby’s heartbeat and my contractions. At first, when I couldn’t really feel the contractions, I would look at the monitor and think, wow, I’m having a lot of contractions. This is nothing, being in labor is nothing… But then when they started to really become painful, I thought, oh my gosh, I can’t even catch my breath and another starts up! We asked the nurses how far apart the lines meant on the screen and she said the lines were every minute. So we discovered I was having contractions every minute to two minutes apart! Right when I would relax and catch my breath from the last one, another would start up. I would just hold on to Nathan’s shoulder and squeeze it until it was over. By midnight, I had tears every time a contraction came and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep up with this. So I decided it was time for the epidural. They came in right away and the nurse thought it was best to give me a narcotic to help me feel better as I got the epidural. And so I would hold still while they gave it to me. She said, “It’s just like you’ve had a glass or two of wine.” I was like, ohhhh. And Nathan says, “Well, she’s never had a glass of wine in her life, so this will be new.” It definitely made me feel woozy. One nurse held my hands and had me rest my head on her chest while I bent my back as much as I could with this big baby in my belly. I just squeezed her hands every time a contraction would come on so that I would hold still while they gave me the shot. The anesthesiologist tried one time and said it wasn’t working, so she had to go in another spot. She said that as she was injecting, it was coming out the other hole… She was like, “Oh, I’ve never seen that happen before.” WOW that’s comforting! But luckily that didn’t create any problems, other than I had two huge holes in my back. Then it was over and it was kicking in. I could feel my legs getting tingly and the painful contractions subsided. Ahhhhh. I could finally breathe. The midwife came in and checked and said I was already to 5cm. So I did it halfway without any anesthesia, I’m pretty proud of that!

Around 12:45 am, Nathan and I finally got a little rest. At least as much as we could on an uncomfortable couch and an uncomfortable hospital bed. Around 3 am the midwife came in to check on me. I was already to 8cm! Woohoo! Making lots of progress! At that point, she broke my water and said I’d be able to push soon. (Ahh this is really happening!) She came back in around 5 am on Thursday September 5, and said, alright, looks like you can start pushing! WHAT?? Seriously? Ahhh! About an hour before I had just upped my epidural because I was starting to feel the contractions again and I thought if I’m pushing soon, I don’t want to feel anything! So my legs were SUPER numb. Before, I could at least move them a little. But when it was time to push, I could not tell my toes to wiggle or my thighs to lift up. It was scary! The nurse was like, okay, let’s do a practice push and see if you’re ready cause you’re really numb. So Nathan had a leg and she had a leg and I pushed and I hear Nathan say, “Ohhhhh my goodness!! Rachel, she has hair! And there’s a lot of it! And it’s dark!” I’m like WHAT?? I want to see!! So they reeled the mirror over for me and got the midwife in and I started pushing at 5:20 am. In between pushes I kept saying, “What the heck?! Is this really happening? I can’t believe this is really happening! Am I really having a baby??” I had the shakes really bad while I was pushing. I could not control them and it was hard to relax and catch my  breath in between pushes because my whole body was shaking. So they gave me an oxygen mask and I would use that in between pushes to help me control my breathing and relax a little bit. That helped a lot. Every time a contraction came I would push for 10 seconds 3 times. I loved having the mirror there so I could watch my progress. At one point, her head came out and then slipped back in a little and all that was hanging out was her hair. Haha, it was so funny. Finally, her head came out and I gave one last push and the rest of her body just slipped out. Nathan said the cord was wrapped around her neck and the midwife had to remove it at one point when they had told me to stop pushing.

I imagined they would place the baby on my chest and we would have this bonding moment, etc… But they placed her on my stomach and I was just in complete shock that I just gave birth and there was a REAL, tiny baby on my belly. They began suctioning everything out of her mouth and nose, but I didn’t hear her crying. They quickly had Nathan cut the cord, which he cut, but didn’t cut all the way so he had to do it again. Then they whisked her away to the other side of the room. Nathan said they pressed a button on the wall that said ‘Code Blue’ (which wikipedia tells me means a patient requiring resuscitation or immediate medical attention). A doctor came in and began resuscitating our little girl. Nathan was by my side as we were both in shock, confused, curious, scared, worried, etc… Nathan was like a deer in headlights, just staring at them, and I said, “Nathan, get over there!!” I wanted to know what was going on. It was only a few minutes, but it seemed like hours. In those few moments, I just kept thinking worst case scenario and was terrified. But then we heard her cry and they FINALLY brought her over to me. Her apgar score was low the first minute, but luckily not low enough to take her away, and then her apgar test at 5 min(or 10?) was better so they didn’t have to do anything else. She was breathing from her chest, but wasn’t getting full breaths. Then she finally started breathing from her tummy. Turns out, she wasn’t breathing when she came out because she pooped as she was coming out and had breathed it in. We were SO relieved that she was okay and they didn’t have to take her out of the room. I finally got to hold our sweet little angel. Watching Nathan hold her and the way he looked at her is something I will never forget. I’ve only seen Nathan get emotional when he talks about his Dad. This is the only other time I’ve seen tears in his eyes. It was such a special moment.

I was SO thirsty afterwards, I drank a full pitcher of water. Then not too long after, I yelled to Nathan to quickly grab something to throw up in… I threw up for days. Nathan had to grab something else for me to throw up in cause it just kept coming. It was disgusting. All the water and all the food from the Cheesecake Factory that I had eaten the day before came up. Sorry, TMI. Actually, this whole post is TMI.

Nathan and I were both a little emotional as we stared at this beautiful little girl. She was ours. A little of him and a little of me. And we were going to take her home with us and keep her forever. It’s still so unreal that we have our very own daughter. We are smitten by her and have so much love for her. She is perfect.

 

We had lots of excited visitors.