Since I wasn’t having a scheduled C-section or wasn’t being induced, Lydia’s birthday was a surprise for everyone but God (unlike her name which I think everyone got with the last clue.) We had some clues as to when she would be born but the exact timing was definitely a surprise to us. Since Dylan was 10 days early I pretty much had it in my head that Lydia would be early too but as they say “every pregnancy is different.” Plus, after our last doctor’s appointment on New Years Eve (see earlier blog entry from that day) I was starting to expect that Lydia would arrive closer to her due date. Well, she ended up being 1 day closer to her due date than Dylan. But the similarities with her labor and delivery compared to Dylan’s ended there. While labor onset slowly and progressed slowly with Dylan, born in 2006, labor with Lydia, born in 2009, onset rapidly and progressed rapidly. At another doctor’s appointment we were told that second labors are usually about half the time of the first. So we thought we would be looking at about 12 hours this time, which sounded great to me after almost 25 with Dylan.
At 3:15am on Friday, January 2nd, 2009, I awoke with a start, not sure why. The answer became clear seconds later, when I felt something that made me think “I wonder if that’s my water breaking.” I had had feelings like this before that turned out to be nothing so that was the reason for the pause. Still, I said to Martin, “I think my water may have just broken.” Moments later, I felt something akin to a gush of water exiting my body and look down and this time I knew for sure. “Yep, my water definitely just broke,” I exclaimed to Martin and you never saw anyone get out of bed so fast. We had both physically prepared for the event with packing, but this was much more sudden and sooner than either of us anticipated. I hurriedly cleaned myself up while Martin assembled the last-minute of the items on the packing list. I remember thinking “cool, she has 12 hours to be born so we can donate the cord blood!” We made a call to the doctor and in a very sleepy voice he gave me the choice to either wait at home until the contractions started or head for the hospital and just walk around for a while. Knowing that we had to drop off Dylan at a friend’s house, we opted to head out.
Martin packed up the suitcases and other items and got Dylan ready to go as well. Dylan was in a fine, happy mood, despite being awakened at such an early hour. About a mile after we departed, he mentioned that he didn’t have shoes (he was still in his pajamas). Realizing that we hadn’t packed any, we returned home to grab them. On our way to the home of my dear friend, Laura H. where we planned for Dylan to stay until my parents could retrieve him later, we passed about a half dozen trash trucks – the only other vehicles out at 4am. Dylan pointed them all out. We dropped Dylan off, hoping he would give Laura a bit more sleep, but after seeing all the Cars paraphernalia that her boys got for Christmas, we doubted Dylan would be able to sleep. He cried a little when we left probably out of confusion but was soon at ease.
From there we drove to the hospital, and I began to feel the contractions as we traveled. They were brief, but they were very frequent. We made it to the hospital around 4:30, and I had an extra walk, as the main entrance wasn’t open yet and had to walk around to the ER. After we made it through registration, we headed to Labor & Delivery. The contractions became more intense during the hour long process they called triage. By the time I got to my delivery room, I decided to start the process to get an epidural. This time the needle in the back seemed a lot more doable compared to the pain that I knew would come and the pain that I was already experiencing (the pre-pushing contractions seemed more painful to me this time.) I didn’t feel like going through the pain – been there, done that. So, I needed to have an IV full of cold liquid which dropped my body temperature significantly and I started shivering. My blood pressure was also very low (89/37) due to the pain. My blood pressure is usually low (105/60 ish) and my doctor told the nurse “she’s just very healthy,” but the nurse was unsure if the anaesthesiologist would give me an epidural with my blood pressure that low. She even said, “I’ve never had a patient with blood pressure that low.” Nonetheless, the anaesthesiologist was able to get the epidural started, albeit a bit slowly. Shortly after the epidural, I was having contractions but not even feeling them. I felt very calm and had a relaxing talking with the nurses. Dr. Bruchalski arrived around 6:00 and came in to check me. He felt everything was going well and spent time talking to me. We discussed baby names for a while. When Martin mentioned our plan to donate the cord blood, he lamented about private cord banks (where they charge people to store the cord blood) were unnecessary. It was a very relaxed time. I also gave the clues on the baby’s name (from my contest). They spent a while trying to figure it out.
At 7am, there was a shift change so new nurses came in. Also, Dr. B left and Dr. Lorna (Cvetkovich) came in. At 8:06, the nurses called me complete and I soon began to some pressure. Because of the epidural, I wasn’t sure if it was an urge to push. I began to laugh nervously at the prospect that my child would be arriving soon. Then when I pushed, it was only one push and Lydia’s head was out. One small push later (or what the nurses and doctor called a laugh), and she was out. Dr. Lorna delivered her onto my chest at 8:16 and I was overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry.
The neonatal nurse cleaned her up and checked her out as I lay there recovering. She was beautiful, and everyone commented on it. She weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz and was 19.25” and was perfect. Moments after birth, she found her fingers and began to suck. After she was checked out, I began to nurse her. Over the next 1.5 hours, she nursed with a few breaks. Martin, Lydia, and I had a lovely quiet time. We ordered breakfast and watched the sun start to light up the mountains, which we could see from the window. It seemed like forever before I had enough feeling in my legs to get to a wheelchair. We didn’t get to the post-partum room until almost 11am where we started making phone calls and got the cord blood ready for pick up. Lydia was nice enough to arrive before 3pm so we could donate the blood.
I’m glad I had the epidural this time. It was really only running for about two hours and I didn’t feel like I was going to die this time. That said, I’m glad I didn’t have one the first time. I feel like I can sympathize with all those women in our time and in ages past (like my mom, my sister, Mary (see my Christmas post), etc.) that have not have the desire or luxury to have pain medication. And since things were going so slowly the first time I’m glad I didn’t do anything that might make me later think I helped to slow things. I had a lot less fear of having a C-section this time, which obviously wouldn’t be the end of the world but it is something I like to avoid if possible.
At 3:15am on Friday, January 2nd, 2009, I awoke with a start, not sure why. The answer became clear seconds later, when I felt something that made me think “I wonder if that’s my water breaking.” I had had feelings like this before that turned out to be nothing so that was the reason for the pause. Still, I said to Martin, “I think my water may have just broken.” Moments later, I felt something akin to a gush of water exiting my body and look down and this time I knew for sure. “Yep, my water definitely just broke,” I exclaimed to Martin and you never saw anyone get out of bed so fast. We had both physically prepared for the event with packing, but this was much more sudden and sooner than either of us anticipated. I hurriedly cleaned myself up while Martin assembled the last-minute of the items on the packing list. I remember thinking “cool, she has 12 hours to be born so we can donate the cord blood!” We made a call to the doctor and in a very sleepy voice he gave me the choice to either wait at home until the contractions started or head for the hospital and just walk around for a while. Knowing that we had to drop off Dylan at a friend’s house, we opted to head out.
Martin packed up the suitcases and other items and got Dylan ready to go as well. Dylan was in a fine, happy mood, despite being awakened at such an early hour. About a mile after we departed, he mentioned that he didn’t have shoes (he was still in his pajamas). Realizing that we hadn’t packed any, we returned home to grab them. On our way to the home of my dear friend, Laura H. where we planned for Dylan to stay until my parents could retrieve him later, we passed about a half dozen trash trucks – the only other vehicles out at 4am. Dylan pointed them all out. We dropped Dylan off, hoping he would give Laura a bit more sleep, but after seeing all the Cars paraphernalia that her boys got for Christmas, we doubted Dylan would be able to sleep. He cried a little when we left probably out of confusion but was soon at ease.
From there we drove to the hospital, and I began to feel the contractions as we traveled. They were brief, but they were very frequent. We made it to the hospital around 4:30, and I had an extra walk, as the main entrance wasn’t open yet and had to walk around to the ER. After we made it through registration, we headed to Labor & Delivery. The contractions became more intense during the hour long process they called triage. By the time I got to my delivery room, I decided to start the process to get an epidural. This time the needle in the back seemed a lot more doable compared to the pain that I knew would come and the pain that I was already experiencing (the pre-pushing contractions seemed more painful to me this time.) I didn’t feel like going through the pain – been there, done that. So, I needed to have an IV full of cold liquid which dropped my body temperature significantly and I started shivering. My blood pressure was also very low (89/37) due to the pain. My blood pressure is usually low (105/60 ish) and my doctor told the nurse “she’s just very healthy,” but the nurse was unsure if the anaesthesiologist would give me an epidural with my blood pressure that low. She even said, “I’ve never had a patient with blood pressure that low.” Nonetheless, the anaesthesiologist was able to get the epidural started, albeit a bit slowly. Shortly after the epidural, I was having contractions but not even feeling them. I felt very calm and had a relaxing talking with the nurses. Dr. Bruchalski arrived around 6:00 and came in to check me. He felt everything was going well and spent time talking to me. We discussed baby names for a while. When Martin mentioned our plan to donate the cord blood, he lamented about private cord banks (where they charge people to store the cord blood) were unnecessary. It was a very relaxed time. I also gave the clues on the baby’s name (from my contest). They spent a while trying to figure it out.
At 7am, there was a shift change so new nurses came in. Also, Dr. B left and Dr. Lorna (Cvetkovich) came in. At 8:06, the nurses called me complete and I soon began to some pressure. Because of the epidural, I wasn’t sure if it was an urge to push. I began to laugh nervously at the prospect that my child would be arriving soon. Then when I pushed, it was only one push and Lydia’s head was out. One small push later (or what the nurses and doctor called a laugh), and she was out. Dr. Lorna delivered her onto my chest at 8:16 and I was overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry.
The neonatal nurse cleaned her up and checked her out as I lay there recovering. She was beautiful, and everyone commented on it. She weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz and was 19.25” and was perfect. Moments after birth, she found her fingers and began to suck. After she was checked out, I began to nurse her. Over the next 1.5 hours, she nursed with a few breaks. Martin, Lydia, and I had a lovely quiet time. We ordered breakfast and watched the sun start to light up the mountains, which we could see from the window. It seemed like forever before I had enough feeling in my legs to get to a wheelchair. We didn’t get to the post-partum room until almost 11am where we started making phone calls and got the cord blood ready for pick up. Lydia was nice enough to arrive before 3pm so we could donate the blood.
I’m glad I had the epidural this time. It was really only running for about two hours and I didn’t feel like I was going to die this time. That said, I’m glad I didn’t have one the first time. I feel like I can sympathize with all those women in our time and in ages past (like my mom, my sister, Mary (see my Christmas post), etc.) that have not have the desire or luxury to have pain medication. And since things were going so slowly the first time I’m glad I didn’t do anything that might make me later think I helped to slow things. I had a lot less fear of having a C-section this time, which obviously wouldn’t be the end of the world but it is something I like to avoid if possible.
Next posting: my thoughts on the hospital stay this time
