Alice's Birth

I finally have a few minutes to myself... Hopefully I can bust this thing out before I forget some of the details (or get interrupted).

The plan was to be induced on January 28th. Even though the placenta wasn't a previa anymore, it was still low enough that my doctor wanted to keep a close eye on it during labor to make sure it wasn't going to cause any problems. We got a call from the hospital the day before saying that I was first on the induction list and I was supposed to report to the Labor and Delivery ward at 7am. We spent most of the evening getting all the last minute things ready for the hospital, packing a bag for Elsie, finishing up the laundry and dishes, and generally cleaning our apartment.

I didn't sleep very well that night. I think I was too full of nerves to really relax and get a good night's sleep. I was worried about being induced, about the placenta, about maybe having to have a C-section after all. 5am came very early, and we all got up and ready for the day. I was glad to be able to take a shower and at least feel clean and refreshed before going into labor. Alan gave me a blessing to help me feel calm, then we packed Elsie and all our stuff up in the car and headed to the hospital.

Alan's parents met us in the parking lot of the hospital to take Elsie. Despite being confused about why we were going somewhere so early in the morning, she was excited to go with Grandma and Grandpa. After lots of hugs and kisses, we headed up to the Labor and Delivery floor. We got checked in and had an IV with pitocin flowing by 7:45am.

Then we waited. In all my planing and lists for what to take to the hospital and what to pack for Elsie and what to have waiting for us at home, I forgot one crucial thing. I forgot to bring anything for us to do at the hospital while we waited for things to get moving. We were so bored! We played with our phones, watched an episode of The Biggest Loser on Hulu, Alan coded our little moving to Wisconsin widget, I went to the bathroom about 17 times... After all that it was still only about 10am.

My doctor came to check in on me and said he would be back about lunchtime to break my water and see if that would get things moving more. By this time I was up to the full dose of pitocin and contractions were rolling along. I played a little game with myself seeing how long I could go before asking for the epidural. Alan didn't like this game so much. I lasted until 11, figuring I wanted enough time for it to go in and start working before my doctor broke my water.

I got the epidural sometime before 12. It was... awful. The guy couldn't find the right spot and had to keep poking me over and over. I had to keep asking for more of the local anesthesia and finally had to call Alan over to help brace against him. I remember thinking at one point, if the epidural is this bad, maybe I'll just have this baby naturally. But I persevered, and he finally got the needle in the right spot. My fear with this pregnancy was that if I didn't have an epidural and something did happen so I would have to have a C-section, I would have had to be put all the way under and Alan wouldn't have been able to be there at the birth.

With the epidural finally in place and pumping in the magic cocktail, I was able to close my eyes for a little bit and get some rest. My doctor came in about 1pm and broke my water while I settled in for a nice little nap. Sometime around 2:30ish the contractions really started to pick up. My nurse kept adjusting my monitors because she couldn't see them on her screen. She check my cervix and I was dilated to about a 5, but because of the low placenta there was a lot of bright blood she was concerned about. A few minutes later she came back in with another nurse to place an internal contraction monitor. As the 2nd nurse was placing it, my nurse told her that I was just at a 5. "A 5?" said nurse number 2. "She's definitely at about an 8 now".

My contraction were really rocking now. The nurse went to get the anesthesiologist to pump up my epidural and told me to call her if I felt any pressure. About two minutes after she left the "pressure" came. She called my doctor and told me to just hang on. She said she had never delivered a baby on her own and didn't want to start today. Contractions were coming strong and hard... That was one of the longest half hours of my life; trying not to push while we waited for the doctor to get there.

He finally came running in apologizing that he had been stuck with a patient who didn't understand that he had a woman in labor about to give birth any minute. He got suited up as fast as he could, and with the next contraction I was able to push. One push, and out she came at 3:38pm! My doctor then thanked me for not coughing or sneezing before he got there or he might have missed the birth. Alan cut the cord and then they hoisted this slimy little person up onto me. Alan and I said hello for a moment before they took her to clean her up a little. They took her just in time to, because as soon as she was off me she let loose and peed all over everything.

A few stitches for me, a few tests for Alice, and then we were left alone with our new little girl. I was starving at this point having not eaten anything but jello and pudding all day. We had ordered up some food while waiting for the doctor, so it was delivered shortly after her birth. We read somewhere that giving birth burns about 50,000 calories. It felt like it and I attacked that food. I was able to start feeding Alice at the same time, so we were all pretty happy. After a while, they came to take Alice to the nursery for her first bath. Alan went with Alice and I was wheeled down to the Mother/Baby unit.

Whew! I finished! I probably went into way more detail than anyone cares to read, but it's for me and my memories as well so I wanted to be thorough. Alice is 3 weeks old today and doing great. At her two week appointment she was in almost the 70th percentile for weight and about the 96th percentile for height, so she's growing pretty well. Getting her to bed is a little bit of a struggle, but once she's down she's only waking up maybe two times a night to eat and then goes right back to sleep. She's a pretty sweet kid and I'm glad she's with us.