She's Here!

Baby Willow was right on time - October 13, just as predicted. Momma, however, has taken until now to get the blog updated. Oh well. Here's the whole story:

12:20 am - Water breaks, easy contractions begin. Call on-call doctor, who says to try to get some sleep. Yeah right.

12:25 am - Don throws up.

6:00 am - I call my sister Mel and tell her not to go in to work.

7:30 am - Call doctor back because contractions (though not any stronger) are coming sometimes only 2 minutes apart. He advises going to the hospital.

8:00 am - Arrive at hospital, get checked in, surrender my underwear even though there's a lot of "stuff" leaking out of me. Mel starts looking for something to watch on TV, Don tries to sleep on the cot. Contractions slow to pretty much nothing.

9:00 -10 am - Mel finds "Tori and Dean Home Sweet Hollywood" marathon on Oxygen, which we proceed to watch ALL DAY LONG. It's pretty funny, actually. I didn't pay attention to the last few episodes because that's when I was in serious labor, but apparently Tori had her baby girl just prior to me having mine. But we're jumping ahead.

1:00 pm - On-call doctor recommends starting pitocin to get labor going again. I cry, scared because I heard it can really make things ramp up quickly, but the nurses assure me they will make it very gradual and back it off if I need to. Within a half hour, the easy contractions are back.

2:30 pm - Contractions kick in FOR REAL. I move off the bed and on to the yoga ball for a while, now needing to squeeze Don's hand to get through each one. Mel gets a little nauseated with how sweet and supportive we are being to each other. ;)


4:30 pm - I'm starting to think I need some drugs. A new nurse, Amy, arrives. She's the mother of 2 with another on the way, 25 weeks along, and she's one of those skinny women with the tiny basketball belly. So incredibly cute. She never speaks above a whisper the rest of the time she's with us. Instead of drugs, she says, "maybe we should try getting you into the tub." I had completely forgotten that possibility because I thought I couldn't do that with monitors and the IV, so I was willing to try. It definitely helped me get through a few contractions, until I started to get a little cold and wanted to get back out.

5:30 pm - Once again thinking I need some drugs. Amy suggests that we see how far my cervix has dilated (when I got to the hospital it was only a fingertip width dilated, and they hadn't checked again since then). I'm scared of this, thinking I've been in labor this long and what if I'm only at like 3 centimeters? Thankfully, I was between 6 and 7. Amy says she's pretty sure I can get through this without the epidural. I'm tired out and game for whatever. I get back on the bed, turn to the side and practically chew the side rail through the next few contractions. Amy calls my doctor.

6:00 pm - My doc arrives, someone turns Tori and Dean down so I can't hear them anymore, and my sister is running back and forth between the sink and the bed, keeping cold washcloths on my head and neck as well as Don's neck. Even though she's moving as fast as possible, I remember wishing she could keep them colder. Luckily I don't say this aloud. :) The doc and nurse talk to me about what position I want to be in to deliver. I try squatting on the bed and pulling on a bar that they attach to the end of the bed. This works for a while, but I don't have the leg strength for squatting, so I'm kneeling until my legs fall completely asleep. Mel notices as I get out of this position that my legs are totally blue. Yikes. I get into the traditional "Western Medicine" position, lying on the bed with my knees moving back toward my head, feet sitting in stirrup-like things. The pushing begins, and I am making noises that I couldn't replicate now if I tried. I was hoarse for two days afterward, if that helps explain how vocal I was. No Katie-Holmes-Scientology-Quiet Birth for this girl! The pushing seems go to on forever, and after 17 minutes I hear someone say that they don't want to make me push longer than a half hour, but I can't remember why. I guess they want me to get serious - I thought I already was!

6:31 pm - A big push gets the head out, which I thought was the end. Don't they tell us that the head is the biggest part, get that out and you are home free? Well, then they say, "One more push for the shoulders!" and I'm thinking, "What? I thought I was done! Rip off!" but I push once more and...

6:32 pm - TOTAL AND COMPLETE RELIEF as she comes sliding out, they plop her on my stomach and she immediately poops all over the place. I have the entire grotesqueness of humanity on my stomach, and I couldn't be happier. It was probably good that I didn't have my glasses on to see it though. They cut the cord, take her to the heat light, and then things get scary for a bit because she's not breathing right. Turns out the cord was wrapped around her neck twice, though her heart rate was good all day long so it probably just happened toward the very end. The NICU nurses come in and rub her down and do whatever, and soon she's okay. Her first Apgar score was 6, then 5 minutes later it was 8, so she was doing just fine. They wipe her off and give her to me, and I am shaking and shaking and getting sewn up by my doc, but I am so very very happy. I didn't even cry, I was just so happy to be done and to see her and to start trying to figure out where all that dark hair came from and how she got to be so incredibly beautiful. Don was completely overcome by emotion he wasn't expecting. That was so adorable!

And that's the delivery story. 18.5 hours, no pain meds, and a beautiful 7 lb. 4 oz. baby girl thanks to Amy, Mel, Don, Tori and Dean. :)