A Nutshell and a Novel

Lucy's birth...

In a nutshell:

My bag of waters broke Saturday evening with a small leak. I checked into the hospital around midnight. I labored for about 13 hours in the hospital, four of which were probably unnecessary as the nightshift midwife didn't realize the bag of waters hadn't broken under Lucy's head. I got by without using any pain medication. At the very end, the midwife used a small dose of pitocin to get me to 10 centimeters, I pushed for about 30 minutes, and Lucy was born at 1:30 in the afternoon. :) And it hurt.

And for those who want the full story...

On Saturday, I was pretty ready to have this baby, so opted to attend Second Harvest (our church's food distribution ministry) in the morning, attend a memorial service in the afternoon, and go to dinner with my family to celebrate my dad's birthday... at Ruby's... a third of a mile out on the Huntington Beach pier. Just before dinner, I had the slightest suspicion that my water might have broken, but decided to wait and see what the next couple hours brought. I'd had contractions on and off all day, but nothing very regular. At dinner, they were still about 10 minutes apart. Nurse Amanda (who I had asked to be my doula for the birth) had fun timing them for me throughout the meal. The contractions were getting slowly stronger throughout the evening, so my parents opted to stay in the area just in case, and hung out at Chris and Amanda's apartment after dinner, while Jacob and I were at home. Jacob and I went on a mile or so walk around the neighborhood, during which the contractions got to be about 3 minutes apart (but only about 20-30 seconds long... not long enough to count as "real" contractions). After our walk, I was getting pretty sure my water had broken, and so called Kaiser's Labor and Delivery, and they said to come on in.

We arrived at Kaiser Irvine Hospital around 12:30am Sunday (10/10/10) and were admitted to triage (where they determine whether to admit you) shortly thereafter. My parents and Chris and Amanda all came to the hospital with us. Incidentally, they had been watching Father of the Bride II, and had had to stop the movie to come to the hospital just when the characters in the movie were going to the hospital to have their babies. :)

Even though Amanda was my doula, she couldn’t come in the triage room because they only allowed one person. The midwife on call that night was Al (yes, a man). The monitors weren’t showing very strong or frequent contractions, so I was afraid I was going to get sent back home. Al also checked me and said I was still at 3 cm and 80% effaced, the same place I was on Friday. However, he did a swab to check for amniotic fluid (to see if my water really had broken), and it came back positive, so I was admitted around 1:15 to Labor and Delivery!

Amanda and my mom joined me in my labor and delivery room as we got all settled, and my dad and Chris helped bring our stuff up from the car. Al suggested starting pitocin since I wasn’t progressing very fast and my water had been broken for so long, but I was hesitant, so he suggested spending a couple hours walking the halls, which we did. Amanda and Jacob walked with me, and I could feel the contractions getting stronger, though not awful. The time walking seemed to be very effective, and the next time I was checked (around 4:30), I had dilated to 6 cm!

Feeling rather confident about things, I spent the next couple of hours on the birthing ball and in the rocking chair in the room, feeling the contractions get noticeably stronger. My dad came in during this time to say hi, and that was nice. My mom was in and out throughout the labor, taking pictures and being supportive, and occasionally giving Amanda a break. However, the next time the midwife, Al, examined me, he said I had only progressed to 7 cm. It was kind of depressing to have spent a few hours laboring for only one centimeter.

I opted to try being vertical again, since that had been effective before. The contractions were too hard to feel like walking the halls, but I stood for a couple hours in the labor room, and used the bed for support during a contraction. Jacob's mom came in during this phase, and helped rub my back during contractions. Amanda held Kayla (my stuffed otter that I used as a focal point) for me and helped me focus and breathe.

The next time I was checked was after a change to the day shift, where I met my new midwife, Nancy. Nancy let me know that I was STILL at 7 cm. However, she also noticed right away that my “forebag” of waters (under the baby’s head) had not broken, and that was preventing the baby’s head from pushing on the cervix and opening it up (she guessed that the bag of waters had ruptured near the top of the uterus up last night, causing the slow leak of amniotic fluid). She immediately remedied that situation, and I felt a distinct change in contractions after that… much sharper and focused more in my lower abdomen.

Nancy agreed to let me try a little longer without pitocin to see if I could make enough progress on my own. I was pretty tired by this point, and spent most of the time on the bed, phasing in and out of pseudo-sleep between contractions.

After a couple more hours, I had still only progressed to 8 cm, and my contractions were getting further apart. I agreed to start a very small dose of pitocin to help move things along, probably around noon or a little after. As soon as the pitocin started, the intensity of the contractions increased immediately, and I started feeling the urge to push. Nancy told me not to push yet since I needed to get to 10 cm first. Apparently, if you push too soon, the cervix can get swollen, making things even tighter for the baby.

Amanda kind of took a backseat role at this point, allowing Jacob to be my focal point and concentrate on breathing. Amanda's job was to remind me, multiple times with each contraction, to relax my abdomen and legs... something I found almost impossible to do. Time is hard to remember, but I think it was only about 30 minutes of these REALLY hard contractions before I was given the okay to push.

After another 30 minutes or so of pushing (I think it was 7 or 8 contractions), and Lucy Amanda Ailes was born! The midwife delivered the head and shoulders, and then let Amanda step in and "catch" Lucy, and place her on my tummy. What a special role to have Amanda play! Jacob got to cut the umbilical cord.

The first few minutes after Lucy was born felt chaotic, as Lucy was being cleaned and wiped off (on my tummy), the nurse was poking around on my abdomen to check my uterus, Nancy was telling me to push the placenta out and then stitching me up (I had a first degree tear), and Lucy got weighed and measured, and then brought back to start nursing for the first time. Whew!

We had kept Lucy's name a secret during the pregnancy, as we especially wanted her middle name to be a surprise. After she was born, we gave my mom two envelopes (one for each family) to take out to the waiting room crew (which included my dad, Chris, Jacob's mom, Jackie, and Joelle). These contained a paper with Lucy's name and the explanation of the significance of her name.

Kaiser gives new families a couple of hours of one on one time with their new baby before allowing visitors or even moving the family to the postpartum room (called "GIFT" time... "Giving Intimate Family Time"). They encourage parents to have the new baby skin-to-skin on mom, and start breastfeeding right away. Our 1 on 1 time with Lucy was sweet, and passed quickly. I held her (and nursed her) for most of the time, but Jacob took about 20 minutes for some skin to skin time with her, too.

The nurses came back after the 2 hours and gave Lucy her vitamin K shot, and Hep B vaccine, bathed her, got me moved from the bed to the bathroom to the wheelchair (NOT an easy, or quick, task), foot-printed Lucy, and then took us down the hall to our postpartum room. On the way, we passed the Braham’s lullaby painting, and I got to press the button announcing another new birth in the hospital.  While we were enjoying our GIFT time, our families went out to a celebratory BJ’s lunch, and brought back pizza for us when they returned.

We had everyone from both families (except Jonathan, who is at school in Berkeley) in our room at the same time when they got back! Lucy duly met each of her new family members, and made not a fuss with all the passing around. My parents went back out and got us some ice cream to go with our pizza before they headed home, and Chris and Amanda left around the same time. The Ailes hung out a little longer, but soon they went home, too. What an amazing, hard, joyful, overwhelming day!