Here she is!
Genevieve Elizabeth (aka Ginny)
Born November 27th at 3:46pm
Born November 27th at 3:46pm
7 lbs 12 oz, 20"
We made it through Thanksgiving and I got to see Harry Potter in the theater and was feeling pretty good. At our last appointment I hadn't made much progress, only 1+ centimeters dilated and just starting to efface so we were pretty convinced we were going to make it to December. I finished one of my classes and only had one more to go, but again was sure I had at least a week left. Boy were we wrong!
That Morning
Around 4:40am on Saturday, November 27th, I woke up with a contraction that actually hurt a little. Most of the "warm up" contractions I'd been having were uncomfortable but none of them really hurt. This one hurt enough to wake me up, but I went back to sleep pretty quick. Ten minutes later another one woke me up again. But I still didn't think much of it and went back to sleep. Ten minutes after that I felt a bunch of fluid leak out and immediately jumped out of bed, exclaiming "whoa!" This woke Henry up and he asked me what was wrong. As I continued to drip I said "I think my water broke!" and scurried off to the bathroom. Henry followed me in and we both tried to figure out if my water was actually breaking. It wasn't a gush, and I hadn't had another contraction yet so we decided that I should put a pad on and we'd go watch some TV in bed (neither of us were going back to sleep). I dripped more on the way to the bedroom and now it was pretty clear what was going on. But since I still wasn't really contracting we decided to give it two hours, until 7am, before calling the doctor. They had told us to wait until the contractions were 1 minute long, 5 minutes apart, for 1 hour. When I did start contracting they only lasted about 30 seconds so we figured we had some time. But once they started they started coming pretty close together. And they hurt! We did some laundry, ate a nice big breakfast, took a shower and watched TV. We didn't time the contractions because they were so short. But by 7am I was really ready to call the doctor. Unfortunately because it was the weekend we weren't able to have our regular doc, but the answering service paged the on-call doctor. Forty minutes later we hadn't heard back so I called again. A few minutes later a nurse called me back as the on-call doc was in a delivery. I told the nurse that I was 39 weeks pregnant and that I thought my water had broken and I was having contractions. She asked me how close together they were, and I said we hadn't timed but we figured on average they were three minutes apart, but that they were only lasting about 30 seconds. She said it was time for us to head to Labor and Delivery.
Off to the Hospital
We took some time to finish the laundry and pack the reminder of our hospital bag, then we grabbed the car seat and headed out. Contractions kept coming fast and furious during the car ride to the hospital. By the time we got close to the hospital I could no longer talk through the contractions. I started to believe I was officially in labor. We left the car in the loading area, which we were allowed to do while I was getting checked out. I thought I could probably walk from the parking garage, but we decided not to take the chance. We went to Obstetrical Triage where they check you out to make sure you're actually in labor before admitting you. We didn't have to wait too long, but I kept having contractions and found the only way I could really deal with them was to stand up and lean on Henry. Once in the triage room they checked to see if my water had in fact broken by doing a swab. Nothing came back on the swab so they decided to do a slide, which would take longer but be more definitive. At this point I thought we might actually be sent home even though I was sure my water had broken. The nurse checked to see how dilated I was while waiting for the slide. That's when they told us I was 6 centimeters dilated. SIX!!! We were expecting maybe 3 or 4 but I was almost half way there at this point, only about four hours after labor started. We weren't going anywhere except up to Labor and Delivery. Henry went to park the car and I sat in triage trying to breathe through the contractions that were steadily getting more and more painful.
Labor not quite Delivery
Right after Henry got back, the wheelchair arrived to take me upstairs but I asked if I could walk. Everyone was shocked I wanted to walk at 6 centimeters, but it seriously felt better to stand than to sit. They told me I was on my way to being the new poster child for natural childbirth. I really thought I could do this. As we got to our room we met our nurse, Amy, and I got all hooked up to the monitors and IVs. The doctor came by to check me and I was still only 6 centimeters. She said she'd be back in two hours and we were left to labor on. However, the contractions were fast becoming unbearable. Henry got me some ice chips because I was breathing so hard through my mouth and drying it out. After about an hour I couldn't even chew one chip between contractions, they were so close and hard. There was no position that was comfortable, we tried sitting, lying down, the birthing ball, nothing worked except me standing and hanging on Henry. At one point the contractions hurt so bad I might have lightly bitten Henry, but I promise it was totally by accident. Henry maintains there was nothing "light" about it and believes it may have actually been on purpose. He was awesome throughout the whole experience, helping me breathe, giving me support, holding me during the contractions, encouraging me; there is no way I would have made it without him. By the time the anesthesiologist came (I wasn't getting an epidural but they come talk to everyone anyway) I was literally screaming. The anesthesiologist got a bit annoyed waiting to say three words between my contractions and eventually just talked over my screams. Amy thought I might be ready to start pushing so she called the doctor before the two hours were up. The doc came and checked me and I was still only 6! Because the nurse in triage thought my water hadn't broken our doc decided to try and break my water but when she did it was just a lot of blood and membranes. It was determined that my water had broken but it broke high up and when the baby moved down she stopped the flow with her head. But at this point she wasn't moving down anymore and I wasn't progressing possibly because her position was "sunny-side up" meaning she was face up instead of face down. My cervix was actually getting thicker on one side instead of thinning because the baby's head kept bumping it and not moving past. I was in agony, having basically been in transition for four hours at this point. Our doctor asked us if we would agree to get an epidural because she needed to manipulated the baby's position. Since I still had four centimeters to go and I couldn't really handle the contractions much longer, I agreed.
Relief - for a while
The anesthesiologist came back to administer the epidural and Henry had to leave the room. I had to stay very still while they put the needle and catheter in my spine but I had three contractions while they were placing it and it was excruciating to try and keep still, especially without Henry. They finally got it placed and after a bit I started to feel a little relief, but mostly on the left side. I still had some back labor on the right and could definitely still feel when the contractions came, which was great for me since I wanted to feel the urge to push. But taking the edge off the pain at this point was huge. They put a contraction monitor in and I labored for a while, mostly on my hands and knees, with the epidural, but at one point the baby's heart rate plummeted and Amy told me to get on my hands and knees while twenty people stormed the room. It's true what they say, modesty goes completely out the window. There I was on all fours with my butt in the air open to the world with twenty or so persons unknown in the room. But I was so worried about the baby I could have cared less. The heart rate eventually went up and everyone left. The doctor came back soon and checked again, but alas no progress. At this point she told me that with the bleeding I had already had, and the tumors which put me at a high risk for hemorrhage, it was time for a c-section. They couldn't give me pitocin because my contractions were too close together and they were pretty hard so there was nothing they could do to help me progress. I argued but the doctor was adamant that they had already let me go twice as long in transition as they normally do before going to surgery. I argued some more but this was it, the only option. Even waiting another hour was too risky in the doctor's eyes because of the risk of hemorrhage, riskier than the surgery. I asked for a half hour, just to wrap my head around the fact that we were actually going to have the dreaded c-section.
Coming to terms with the C-section
I cried for about ten minutes while Henry tried to comfort me and tell me it was okay. In some ways I felt like a failure but it was probably mostly hormones making me so upset. After about ten minutes I sucked it up and even started pressing the epidural button to give myself more medicine, something I hadn't wanted to do because I wanted it to wear off for pushing. But at this point I figured, they're going to block my whole lower half, so what did it matter at that point? Amy came back too and I lay on my right side to get more of the epidural to the right half, then had to move to the left side because the baby's heart rate dipped again. I lay on my left, chatting with Henry and Amy and still trying not to be scared of the upcoming c-section. While we waited for the doctor to come back and get me into surgery, I started to feel more and more pressure. Stuff was happening down there, but we had no way of knowing what. Amy said she was encouraged that the baby might be on the move because she had to move one of the monitors down. I just tried to relax. When the doctor came back, a little over an hour later (she got "held up") she checked me again and said she was going to try and manipulate the baby's head a little. Henry and I looked at each other anxiously while we waited to find out what was going on. When the doctor stopped, she looked up at me and said "Ok, let's push." We were like "what?!?!" I had gone to ten centimeters in just that hour and the doctor was able to rotate the baby enough to get her to move down, and once she did we were all systems go!
Delivery
There was all kinds of activity then. Henry took up his place holding my left leg while the nurse held my right and once a contraction came I started pushing. I could still kind of feel them, but I had upped my epidural so I wasn't feeling much more than pressure. Pushing did hurt because when I had to curl up to push my tumors got shoved into my ribcage and that hurt a lot but I was so close to the end and we weren't going to surgery so I wasn't thinking about much else besides getting the baby out! I pushed on my back and then on my side which felt so much better than on my back, but once we got towards the end I had to go on my back again so the doctor could get the baby out. At one point I said to Henry, "It feels like there's something between my legs" and he said, "Yeah, it's a baby's head!" He was so great again, encouraging me and telling me what was going on, since I declined the mirror. After about a half hour of pushing, she was out!
Welcome Baby Ginny!
They put her on my chest right away and I tried to hold on this tiny, slippery, squirmy thing while they clamped the cord and Henry cut it. Henry and I both cried a bit when she came out and it was so nice to be able to hold her for a bit. Eventually (Henry says about 20 minutes) they had to take her away to weigh her and clean her up more, but they gave her right back to me and we tried breastfeeding. There was so much activity but I didn't notice most of it. I had a tear so they spent some time stitching me up and I remember shaking pretty bad, probably from tired muscles. But other than that, most of the focus was on this tiny beautiful little girl in my arms. Henry finally got to hold her for a while and then my mom and sister arrived from the airport, then we were moved down to post-partum recovery.
We stayed in the hospital until Monday, getting the hang of feeding and getting to know our baby, then both Ginny and I were given a clean bill of health and discharged. Recovery was not fun, but it got better with each day.
Next post I will talk more about Ginny's first couple weeks of life, but she's starting to wake up now which means it's feeding time!
We got to have a professional photographer in the hospital so I will leave you for now with some pictures of our beautiful girl when she was two days old.
A little late on the update, Tor... :) Hope you are both well!!
ReplyDelete