Tuesday, I went to work as usual, and apparently I was cranky enough for co-workers to notice. :-p My back and hips hurt, and I think I complained a bit too much about the difficulty of walking. On the plus side, there was a bake-off/cook-off and we got to snack on the entries. That helped brighten my mood considerably.
I left at 3:15 to head to my 39 week OB appointment. Wyatt and I had forgotten about my appointment when he scheduled a meeting, so he stayed on campus for that and I took Elizabeth to our friends’ house to play for an hour while I went to my “baby check.”
I weighed in at around 37 lbs above my pre-pregnancy weight, had protein-free urine, and, unfortunately had a high blood pressure reading of 145/90. I knew I’d rushed to get to the appointment, and I didn’t have any other symptoms of pre-eclampsia, but the BP was still a concern. I had a brief ultrasound, because the machine was right there, and there was a student shadowing my OB. The baby looked great, chubby, and was a bit lower in the pelvis than the previous week. There was still a healthy amount of amniotic fluid.
After the ultrasound, I had my BP taken again, and it was still high. My OB said we’d try a manual cuff, and she mentioned that if nothing else, my BP might take me out of work-- previously I’d been planning to work until the baby was born.
Fortunately, the manual cuff showed me to have a BP of 127/70 which is perfectly fine. What a huge relief that was for me, and was maybe the point when my body felt the OK to move more towards labor.
I went back to our friends’ home to get Elizabeth and stayed there chatting with them for a little while as Elizabeth played with their boys. I remember making a comment, jokingly, about how it’d be nice if my back/hip pain was a pre-pre-labor sign. I was already 2 weeks further into pregnancy with this girly than I had been with Elizabeth. (Although, as an aside, there’s a likely possibility, according to fertility signs [temping, etc.] that I was actually a week behind where the ultrasound indicated, so around 38.5 weeks rather than 39.5 weeks.)
Overall, I was feeling very ready to meet our new baby.
Elizabeth and I left our friends and went to pick up Wyatt. We made it home around 5:30, and as I was having a typical-for-me number/frequency of Braxton Hicks contractions, I decided to have a dance party with Elizabeth to encourage my body in the right direction. We danced around, in many a silly manner, while Wyatt finished up some work. I made dinner-- salmon with lemon slices, onion and butter, wrapped in foil. Yum! Elizabeth had some peas and corn, and Wyatt and I had some salad.
After dinner, I was suddenly super super tired, whereas I’d actually had some energy and pep when we’d been having our dance party. My sister and mom had even remarked while we did video chat earlier that I seemed more energetic than usual. But by the time we finished eating I was ready to drop.
I was also still having non-painful Braxton Hicks. I timed them for a little while and they were as they’d occasionally been since about week 35-- every 4-7 minutes, but only for about 40 second each. This does not indicate active labor, but Wyatt did text our doula to confirm that we should call her when I moved into having contractions every 5 min or less, lasting for a minute or longer, for an hour’s duration. That would typically indicate active labor.
I decided to go to bed with Elizabeth, just in case this moved into the real deal. I took a shower, which will sometimes be enough to slow down contractions, and I went to bed.
Elizabeth was having a difficult time going to sleep, crying for Wyatt, squirming around. She’d almost fallen asleep a time or two only to wake up and cry some more. I blame a molar that is working it’s way in. Or, maybe she knew that something was different that night.
At just around 10 pm, while I was laying on my right side, with Elizabeth somewhat draped over my upper belly and chest, I felt a jerking, popping sensation in the womb. I’d been feeling the baby move around previously, so I just assumed for a moment that the baby had shifted in a violent way.
Moments later, I had a gush of fluids, and I yelled out to Wyatt, “Wyatt! My water broke!” There was absolutely no doubt what had happened. It was gushing, even after he ran into the room. Poor Elizabeth, she was absolutely startled by my yelling, Wyatt’s rushing, and my momentary panic. She was crying, and was probably a bit scared. Wyatt helped me out of bed, and I went to the bathroom while he called our doula. She and I spoke for a moment, and were excited about the certainty that I’d be meeting my baby soon. She said we had about 12 hours of laboring at home with my waters broken before we’d want to head into the hospital. We said we’d call her back when I was in the active-labor pattern of contractions.
We called my mom, who lives 5 hours away, and told her to head down our way. Wyatt started stripping the bed, after we got Elizabeth calmed down, and somewhere in the midst of things, I had my first post-waters-breaking contractions.
Hoo boy.
Within several contractions, I was already having to breathe and sigh through each one. Trying to relax and allow my body to do it’s thing, rather than be tense, in more pain, and ultimately prolong things.
I was still feeling pretty calm and aware of what was going on around me, but contractions were quickly getting stronger and closer together. Once I started timing the contractions post-waters, I was already having them every 3-4 minutes, and for around a minute each.
Wyatt called our doula again to ask her to come to our house. She heard me have a contraction, and I think I was already having a difficult time sighing through the pain. I was starting to moan. She asked if we wanted her to come to our house or meet us at the hospital. I said she should come to our place, because I wanted her to check my dilation. I didn’t want to transfer to the hospital too early and be put on a clock of any kind. Keep in mind, my previous labor experience was 21 hours long.
She agreed to meet us at our house. Wyatt got Elizabeth dressed, and started packing bags. He called around for someone to stay with Elizabeth, because I was quickly becoming more and more distracted by the pain and force of labor.
Occasionally, Elizabeth would come near me and make pushing noises. She was helping me push the baby out. Sweet girl.
She tried to bring me something at one point, mid-contraction, and, unfortunately, I pushed her away from me a bit. That was really the only time, aside from the initial excitement of the water’s breaking, that she seemed concerned. I feel badly about that moment.
I was having some back pain with each contraction, and every contraction became more difficult to cope with. I was waddling around between contractions helping pack-- we ended up literally throwing things into a bag. We’d previously packed our clothes, but we had labor foods, icons, candles, tooth brushes, etc., that we’d waited on thinking we’d have more time. We packed a little overnight bag for Elizabeth, too.
I decided that I just wanted to get to the hospital, so Wyatt called our doula back and asked her to meet us there. She lives maybe 15 minutes away from us, and I’m assuming she left quickly once we asked her to come to our place. It’d been maybe 5 minutes since Wyatt had asked her to come to our home.
We were able to get in touch with the same friends who had watched Elizabeth earlier while I was at my OB appointment, and they agreed on us dropping Elizabeth off at their place.
Miraculously, we three, soon to be four, made it out the door, down the stairs, and into the car. I am pretty sure that the drive was torture for me, but, honestly, I was so far gone mentally that I wasn’t aware of much. Wyatt called our friend, Jess, back and asked her to meet us at the hospital because going three blocks out of our way from the hospital to their home seemed like more than I could tolerate.
Our doula and Jess were both in front of the hospital by the time we arrived, and our doula helped me out of the car while Wyatt passed Elizabeth off and took the car to the parking garage across the street. I immediately started walking, slowly, to the hospital lobby, and our doula followed me with some of our luggage. I had a contraction right outside the door to the hospital, and the night time desk attendant/security guard came out to ask if we wanted a wheel chair. Yes, please, and thank you.
I somehow got into the wheelchair while the attendant called the Labor and Delivery ward. There was a standard string of questions, relayed from the nurses through the attendant: name, due date, Dr., are you having contractions? That last one seemed hilarious as I was quite clearly moaning and in pain with each contraction.
A couple nurses came down to meet us as Wyatt came in from having parked the car, and we went up to the L&D ward.
The hospital had just opened a new facility on February 12, and we’d gone on a tour of it on the 14th. I was glad to be somewhat familiar with the place we were going to meet our baby.
We got to the nurses station and there was some discussion about what room to put me in. I was so anxious to get into the room! They decided on room 5, and I was quick to agree that it was the perfect room.
They wheeled me in, asked if I wanted to use the labor tub (yes!), asked me for a urine sample, and gave me a hospital gown to wear. I had a contraction, and I felt some pressure on my bottom, indicating that the baby was on the move and I might be pushing sooner rather than later.
I told our doula, who was sitting on the bed in front of me, that I felt some pressure, which would indicate that the baby was moving down, and she encouraged me to just let my body do what it needed.
Wyatt helped wheel me to the bathroom and got me out of the chair. I took a few steps to the hand rail alongside the toilet so I could have some support as I felt the next contraction come on. Wyatt came to me and helped me put my arms around his neck while he supported me.
And suddenly my body was pushing. Our doula stuck her head in and asked if I was pushing. I said something like “The baby is coming!”
Wyatt hooked his arms under my armpits from behind and had to basically carry me to the bed.
The suddenness of everything threw the nurses into a bit of a panic. I’m not sure the order of things, but I made it onto the bed, still pushing, and the nurses tried to get a belly band on me so that they could put monitors on me and get heart tones from the baby. They also said something like “We’re going to do an internal check real quick. Oh! There’s the head!” A NICU team was called in. The delivery materials were prepped. I kept pushing, because, how could I not!? My body was not fully my own at that point. I couldn’t control anything.
After a few more pushes, the baby’s head was out. At that point, I think the nurses panicked a bit more and tugged a bit to help encourage the baby out faster. Ouch. When I had my next contraction I was able to push the baby out.
Anastasia Rebecca Anne was born at 11:33pm, about an hour and half after my waters broke and I went into active labor.
She was immediately put on my belly. It was a beautiful moment, seeing my daughter for the first time! Unfortunately, it was a brief moment.
The baby’s cord was clamped and my daughter was whisked away to the NICU team. (I noticed then that she was coated in a lovely layer of vernix). They worked for a few minutes to get her cleared out, and there she had her first cry... what a beautiful sound.
I had been worried that something was wrong with the baby because of the panicky feeling of her speedy delivery. Our doula kept assuring me that Anastasia was fine. Apparently, baby’s head was pink during delivery which indicated that she was getting all the good stuff that she needed despite the monitors not having time to pick up her heart tones.
She did have the cord wrapped once around her neck, but it was loose, and not considered any sort of problem.
I was bleeding, as one does after birth, but the nurses were concerned. On our doula’s recommendation, Wyatt started nipple stimulation to help encourage contractions, and immediately that helped stop the bleeding. I was also given a shot of pitocin to help the uterus keep contracting, and I was given some suppositories to help stop the bleeding.
I asked Wyatt to go be with the baby, since she couldn’t be on me. It didn’t feel right for her to be by herself with a bunch of strangers.
I’m not exactly sure when my Doctor got there, sometime between the baby being born and the medications being administered. She was able to assess the damage, so to speak. I had a second degree tear to the perenium, and a partial third degree vaginal tear. Apparently, when the baby was delivered, she had her hand under her chin with her elbow winged out. That’s likely the cause of the tearing, as I supposedly did a good job on my part of opening up, etc.
So, after the initial concern on my part that something was wrong with my baby, and that I was bleeding to death, I was given some numbing injections and my OB began to stitch up the tears. Oh, my. In some ways, that was the most painful part of the entire experience.
As I was wincing away, I asked if the baby could come over to me. She could, and she did. Wyatt brought her over, all bundled up, and we quickly unwrapped her and put on my belly. She immediately started rooting, and I helped her over to my breast. She latched on and nursed for some time.
Again, I don’t know when, but at some point Wyatt called Jess and asked her to bring Elizabeth back to the hospital to meet her sister. He also called our parents to let them know about the baby’s birth. Jess and Elizabeth showed up after I was done being stitched up, and Wyatt, Elizabeth, Baby Tacy, and I were together for the first time as our family of four.
We spent some time with our doula and Jess, took pictures, shared with Jess the key points to the fast labor, and basked in the wonder of new life. Around 1 am, it was decided that our doula would take Elizabeth back to our home and wait for my mom to arrive. Elizabeth fell asleep around 3:30 am, just before my mom got there.
Wyatt, Tacy, and I were taken to the Mother/Infant Care Unit, and went to the nursery where she was checked over. You might be able to imagine our surprise to find out that our little baby was 9 lbs and 12 oz! 21 inches long. Head circumference of 14.5 inches and shoulders 14.25 inches. She was healthy, by all appearances and indications.
I was taken to our room to get settled, have my vitals checked, etc., and Wyatt stayed with the baby for a few more minutes. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur. We had some further checks and tests for me and baby, and Wyatt and I finally slept at around 4:30am. I woke up at 5am, and that was about all the sleep I got that night. Wyatt slept for about two hours.
We saw our pediatrician that morning and got the OK from him to leave later that day. We ate breakfast, and soon Elizabeth and my mom were able to come visit. They got to the hospital between 8 and 9am, and stayed until around noon.
Our day-time nurse ended up being the same nurse we’d had two years earlier when Elizabeth was born. Fun coincidence! It was nice having a somewhat familiar face, and a kind person to care for us.
We were discharged around 4:30 pm and made it home shortly after. Elizabeth and my mom had just started waking up from a 3.5 hours nap. It was a sweet reunion. Such a wonderful feeling to be in our home, the four of us (plus my mom).
From that point on, I’ve spent most of my time resting my body, nursing the baby, and giving Elizabeth all the snuggles I can.
My mom was able to stay with us from the 22nd - March 4, and it was so wonderful having here here. Wyatt worked for the last 6 months to plan an international conference that took place last weekend, so it was nice to have my mom to help with the babies.
At Tacy’s 5 day check up, she was already past her birth weight to an even 10lbs. She was 9lbs 5 oz when we were discharged. That’s some good milk she’s getting, and some good nursing she’s doing!
We’re just loving these sweet newborn days and this snuggly baby. Elizabeth loves her little sister, and gives plenty of hugs and kisses to the baby. Elizabeth says her sister is “Brecious” and she enjoys pointing out the little nose, little mouth, little ears, etc. that the baby has. So dear. I love my family.
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