38 Weeks

After reading this post, Zac informed me that this isn't the kind of thing guys want to read about. "Kira, dudes don't want to read about cervixes and gushing and stretching and tearing." So, let me warn the "dudes", this post has some "cervixes" and some gushing, stretching, and tearing. If you can handle that, read on.

March 2, 2010: 5:00 AM

On the morning of March 2nd, I woke up to a small gush. It felt like when you laugh a little too hard and a little bit of pee comes out. I thought it was weird that this would wake me up, but I didn't have to get up for another hour so I decided to ignore it. 6:00 rolled around and I got up to get ready, and another small gush came. Hum... weird, but at 38 weeks of pregnancy, when it seemed like some new weird thing was happening to my body all the time, I ignored it. I took a shower and got dressed, and as I was getting ready, another small gush came. Now I was just plain annoyed. How was I supposed to go through the whole day like this? I started wondering if my water bag might be leaking (I learned about it in my birth prep class). But I still had two weeks till my due date so there was no way that my water had broken. I put on a pad and decide to ignore it. I went down and made myself some breakfast. Just as I was about to sit down... big gush... hum... harder to ignore. So I went into the bathroom and sat on the toilet trying to deny that my water really broke. Zac walked down the stairs and saw me sitting there and asked if I was okay. I said, "well I don't know, I think my water may have broke." And he said, "are you serious?!" I began to relate the events of the morning to him. After some discussion we decided it would be best if I called the hospital and asked them. So I did, and of course they suggested I come in and get it checked out. I finished my oatmeal (which was a good thing, because it was the last food I got for over 24 hours!) and headed to the hospital.

On the way there we were both still denying that I was going into labor. After all I hadn't felt a single contraction! I hadn't yet wrapped my head around the whole "labor" thing, I was putting off thinking about it. We hadn't packed for the hospital, we didn't have a name picked yet, I wasn't done teaching my classes, I had done a ton of work and planning, and I wasn't done yet! I was getting really stressed, and in complete denial because I NEEDED two more weeks, I wasn't ready yet. Of course I was sick and tired of being huge and uncomfortable, and ironically the night before I yelled in desperation, "I just want this baby out!" but in all honesty I really meant I wanted her to come on her due date and not late. When my mom was pregnant I was 2 days late and my sister was almost 2 weeks late, so I basically had it solidified in my mind that our baby was going to be late, and I didn't want to be pregnant any longer than I had to be....but I also didn't want to be early. In hindsight I suppose that was rather unreasonable of me to assume that she would be so accommodating.

We got to the hospital at about 8:30 and the nurse did all the preliminary checks (ironically all this stuff- checking my weight, blood pressure, etc.- had been done the day before because I had a pre-natal check up, and everything was fine, with absolutely no indications that I would go into labor 2 weeks early). Then the midwife came in and did the examination. Yes my water had in fact broken, but I was only dilated to a about a 1. They were going to have to admit me now. Wait... what? We hadn't packed yet, we thought we could go home, and come back. Contractions hadn't even started yet. At the class they made such a big deal about don't come in until your contractions are 60 seconds long and 5 minutes apart. However, once your water breaks they have to admit you for fear of infection to the baby. So I had to send Zac home with a very detailed list of things to get and where to find them.

Since my labor hadn't really started yet the midwife asked if I would like some medicine to help loosen my cervix and help start the labor. Well I didn't want to be at the hospital forever so I agreed. I had to keep this little string with medicine in my cervix for an hour, but after about 40 minutes the nurse came in and said they were going to have to take it out now. Contractions had started, but they were now coming back to back. I couldn't tell when one stopped and another started. The midwife was very surprised at how quickly my body was reacting to the medicine, and since my contractions were out of control, they were now going to have to give me some medicine to counteract the first medicine and slow the contractions down.

Well the contractions didn't really slow down, but somehow this didn't help me dilate. It was about 11:00 when Zac brought me the stuff from home, but I was still only dilated to about a 3, so he decided to go back to work. I spent the rest of the day with back to back contractions and only dilated to a 3. It was very frustrating! Sometime that afternoon, the midwife came in and asked if I would like anything for the pain, and I decided to get a shot of the narcotic to help take the edge off. It was really weird and it made me super dizzy. It helped for about an hour, and I waited another hour, and then decided to get another shot. That lasted another hour, and after that wore off, the midwife asked if I wanted the epidural. Originally I had wanted to wait until I had dilated to a 5 so I wouldn't slow down the labor, but I had spent the whole day with back to back contractions and I was in a lot pain. I still hadn't dilated past a 3, but I figured it was already going slow, I might as well be more comfortable. I decided I would take the epidural but I wanted to wait until Zac got there. Once Zac got there at 6:30 they gave me the epidural, and once it kicked in I felt a lot better. But I continued to stay dilated to only a 3 until like 12:00 that night!

At about midnight the nurse came rushing in and hooked up another bag of fluid to my IV and they said they needed put an oxygen mask on me to help the baby because her heart rate was way down. Then the midwife had to come in and put the internal monitors on the baby because they weren't getting good enough readings from the external monitors. After she placed the monitors she said I had dilated all the way to an 8! She had checked me two hours earlier and I was only at a "loose 3".
So in about 2 hours I had gone from a 3 to an 8, apparently this put some stress on the baby, imagine that. Because my water had broken so long ago the baby no longer had her watery cushion so it was putting too much pressure on her umbilical cord and she wasn't getting enough oxygen. So this is why they hooked up the extra fluid, to give the baby more of a cushion and try and lower the stress on her. They had to keep monitoring me, and had me try different positions that would help bring her heart rate back up. It was pretty scary, and so my blood pressure started going up, and I had to work really hard to control my breathing and calm down to keep my blood pressure under control. But the nurses kept a really close eye on the baby so everything was well taken care of. After that it took another 2 hours or so and I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. It took me about 30- 45 minutes of pushing just to figure out how to do it right since I had the epidural it was hard to tell what I was doing. I ended up pushing for about 3 hours and 40 minutes (they said it usually takes 1 to 2 hours). I was so tired! That was what I remember the most, just being completely exhausted! I hadn't eaten for like 20 hours and hadn't slept in as long, and pushing is hard work! Also the epidural made me nauseous and I threw up about 20 times (which was particularly unpleasant since it was mostly stomach bile, since I hadn't eaten all day). And because of the nausea I couldn't have any water either because that would make it worse. So Zac and the nurse who was helping me push kept motivating me to push by telling me if I pushed really hard they would let me have some ice chips, and when I did really well I got one or two small sips of apple juice! The nurse had me try a couple different positions to help me push better, but all the other positions besides just being on my back kept slowing down the baby's heart rate, so I had to mostly just lie on my back and push.

The epidural was a life saver! I don't know how I would have done it without it! Just the pressure alone was terrible! Plus at the end right before her head came out, it was so painful to be stretched out so much! Even with the epidural I could feel that pain! Finally after 3 hours and 40 minutes of pushing she finally came out!

She was healthy and strong and beautiful! The first thing I said was, "oh she is so cute!" They immediately put her on my chest for skin to skin contact. I held her, then I practically fell asleep from exhaustion!

She came out with a full head of dark hair, and dark blue grey eyes. She weighed 5 lbs and 8oz and was 18 inches long. I'm sure the nurses all got a good laugh that it took me so long to push her out! They said it usually only took an hour or two, it took me twice that long and she was tiny! I sure hope all my babies are this small because that was freaking hard, and I still tore even with a tiny little baby!

My nurse and midwife were awesome! Thei (on the left) was my nurse and she took really good care of me, and she was really good at motivating me and helping me push. Melanie (in the middle) was my midwife, and she was very nice, and helpful, and she delivered my baby very smoothly. Zac quickly learned from Thei what to do and how to help hold my legs to help me push better. Zac did awesome! He was actually really intrigued by the whole process, he didn't have any problem looking "down there" and watching the baby come out. He jokingly asked me if I wanted a mirror so I could see, and I said, "heck no! That's gross! Why would I want to see that?" He wasn't squeamish or anything, he was actually really excited, he thought it was cool. I am glad Zac was there and he actually said just the right things at the right time! When it comes to pushing, I'm not a screamer or anything, and I don't get mad, or mean, so Zac was pretty lucky there. I just cried. It hurt really bad, and I was so tired! I was just so frustrated that I was pushing so hard and for so long and it felt like I wasn't making any progress, I just wanted to give up! I am sure I was more pitiful than anything, since I just cried a lot. Zac told me I was doing great, and I was making progress, and it would be over soon. I really needed that or may have just given up, and let the baby come out on her own, or just let her stay in there if she really wanted to stay in that badly!

I was holding her as they had me birth the placenta, and then stitch me up. I asked Zac if he wanted to hold her, but he said he would wait until after they cleaned her up. He was just scared to hold her. After they finished with me they took her to give her a little bath, and I immediately fell asleep. I was so tired!

The nurses weighed and measured her, and then gave her her first bath, which of course she did not enjoy. Everyone was amazed by how nice she came out looking. She scored a 9 on her APGAR test, and everyone was impressed by how cute she was because she wasn't squished or bruised or weird looking or anything. Little did they know that I had been praying for 9 months that she would come out cute! Okay so I prayed that she would be healthy and strong without any problems, but I also secretly hoped that she would be cute, because lets face it, not all babies are cute, and I really wanted a cute one! Obviously I am biased, but I think she is super cute!

After they cleaned her up, Zac was finally ready to try holding her. He was pretty excited, but also pretty scared. It is scary holding something so small! She seemed so fragile! He is such a cute daddy. He is much more confident now, and thinks it is funny how scared he was at first.

After all that, they helped clean me up and move me to my postpartum room. I had breakfast, which was much needed since I hadn't eaten in forever! And the food was actually surprisingly good! I mostly slept all day, while Zac spent most of the day looking back over the name books, since we still hadn't picked a name for our little one. Before coming to the hospital we had narrowed it down to Avery or Kennedy, but I wasn't particularly thrilled with either name, and I was hoping some really great name would hit me once we saw her. Once we saw her we threw out Avery since we didn't think she looked like an Avery, and we tried out Kennedy, but it didn't seem to fit either. After hours of looking over the book and texting everyone we knew for their opinion Zac found the name Gabriella. I mentioned this name to him before, at least twice, but he immediately threw it out without thinking about it because he thought it sounded too exotic, but when he found the name himself he liked it a lot better. And when we looked at her she looked like a Gabriella, plus the name wasn't super popular, and it had really cute nick names. So at the last minute, basically right before the lady made us give a name for the birth certificate we finally decided on Gabriella Mae. This surprised pretty much everyone since it was out of left field. It had never been on a list, and we had been texting people all morning about other names, and then suddenly we decided on a name we had never even mentioned! But we love it, and we think it is absolutely perfect for her!

After that we spent the rest of the day sleeping and trying to wake Gabriella up to get her to eat. Breastfeeding turned out to be much harder and more painful than I had anticipated!

That night the staff brought us our complimentary celebratory dinner, which was actually really good! There was steak, potatoes, green beans, fruit, pie, and little bottles of sparkling cider. It was so nice!

We spent the night at the hospital and the nurses came in and woke me up to give me my pain medicine and help me feed Gabriella.

It was a very long, very unexpected day. When I look back on it now, it really wasn't that bad. I usually only remember the good things when I think back to past experiences, and I tend to quickly forget bad things. At the time I remember thinking it was going to be a long time before I gave birth again, but now I realize it really wasn't that bad, and I could definitely do it again in a couple of years. The hospital and all the staff were awesome and sure hope that all my birth experiences go so well with such nice people and such nice accommodations.