It was a Friday, half day at school, which means we have
kids half the day and the other half is spent in professional development
meetings. My principle had scheduled my maternity sub to come in and help me
out in the morning and for me to meet with her to organize things (my morning
was club photos for yearbook so the extra sub help was great). We had tried to meet up the day before as
well, but it was the umpteenth snow day of the semester, so needless to say I
was very far behind in my planning for the semester.
I was running around all morning getting group pictures in
and making sure my sub had things handled. Finally I had a break and was able
to sit down with her and talk to her about the semester. I felt very rushed, almost
like I needed to get everything in one day, like I knew something was up…
About 11:30 I noticed a wetness that didn’t seem normal, but
it also wasn’t your typical “water breaking gush” you hear about. So in between
meeting with my sub and beginning the afternoon meetings I called my doctor to
ask about it. They wanted me to come in. Now you see I have a track record of
being a little over cautious, so I didn’t want to jump into a hospital bed two weeks early because of a little wetness.
I called my mom to tell her what was up, she said it was
good timing to be a Friday and that she would head up either way. She also told
me to go to the hospital because at this time, its better safe than sorry, thankfully we now had a plan for Stella at least. During my webinar meeting I tried 20 some odd times to
get a hold of Michael and finally got him. He also told me I should go, so we
made a plan that I would finish out my day at school, 2:30pm, then we would meet
at home.
At 2:30 we met at the house, thankfully my bag was packed,
so I grabbed some bathroom essentials, just in case and Michael packed his bag.
We showed up to the hospital and they got me checked in. The nurses took my
vitals and checked me for amniotic fluid. They didn’t see anything, but the
doctor came in and took a sample and explained to me if we see ferning on the
screen then this is amniotic fluid, and if they didn’t they would do an ultra
sounds to see what was going on.
The doctor walked back in about 10mins later and said “guess
what I saw?” Honestly, I thought she was going to say nothing, but she said “ferning!”
I even told her “I didn’t think you were
going to say that” she then replied “I didn’t either.” So they got me started
on a pit drip because I wasn’t having contractions and having fluid leak for
too long can lead to infection.
It was about 9:00pm I started getting regular contractions,
my pit was up to about 18 (20 is the highest it goes) I was getting really excited
and had to pee about every hour as well. Went to the bathroom and my
contractions stopped… nothing. So my nurse upped the pit to 20 and I fell
asleep. About 1:00am I woke up with contractions and Michael helped me breath
through them for an hour or so when I asked the nurse to check me. I had been
a “stretchy two” for the last month and I told her “I hope I’m not still a stretchy
two” she checked me and told me what I didn’t want to hear “stretchy two”.
Another good hour of contractions went by and they were getting more and more intense, I asked to be checked again, this time I was at a 3-4 and she asked me if I
wanted an epidural, I asked if it was too early and she told me no, not if I
felt like I needed it.
About 3:30am the anesthesiologist
came in and gave me my epidural. Now I don’t divulge this information to many
people because it makes me seem like such a sissy, but I’m a fainter. IV’s make
me faint, getting my blood drawn by a tech who doesn’t know how to find a vein
makes me faint, and I think it goes without saying a large needle in my spine
will make me faint. So I set up on the side of the bed, held the pillow and the
nurse while I breathed in between contractions and the needle. I fainted just
after he gave it to me and they laid me down on my right side, doing this must
have turned the medical tubing because I could still feel everything on my left
side and numb on the right side. PAINFUL!
The nurse turned off my pit
because I was in a regular pattern now. I was in so much pain, vomiting, the
other stuff, trying to breath, I could feel the pit contractions on my left
side and it was crazy. About 4:45am the nurse checked me again and I was a 6. Thankfully
the doctor came in and tried to adjust the tubing, but it didn’t work. About
45mins more of left-side only contractions and finally I rang the nurse and
told her I needed to go. She checked me and I was complete. It was one of those
scenes, “get the doctor! She’s complete! Get the doctor!” almost like they
weren’t expecting me to go from a 6-10 in an hour or two.
Finally the anesthesiologist came back in and said this is
the last thing I can do for you, it will make you feel really heavy. I was prepped
and ready to go, feeling loopy, and we were just waiting on the doctor. They asked me to do a
couple practice pushes and said I looked great. The doctor showed up a little
after 6:00am and we started pushing. I remember the doctor stepped out to check
on another patient and returned and put on her gown and mask. I pushed a few
more times and on the last push I saw my doctor watching the monitor very
closely. She asked the nurse if it was “low” I didn’t know what she meant at
the time, but later she told me the baby's heart rate dropped with the last contraction, which meant the cord
was around babies neck. There was a quick snip, because baby needed to come out
on this push. Once the head was out the doctor clamped the cord and cut it from
around baby’s neck… and won’t you believe it, Michael got hit in the face AGAIN
with cord blood (exact same thing with Stella). One more push, “it’s a girl!”
She was a little blue at first because of the cord, but
nothing to serious and nothing a few good pats on the back couldn’t take care
of! Apgar at 1 min was 8! Go baby girl! I remember getting teary eyed calling
her my baby girl, thinking I don’t have just a Stella anymore. A lot of my
concern was and still is with Stella, however big sister is handling the
situation with grace, poise, and the most caring and loving hands; falling in
love with both of my babies over and over again.
Welcome to the world Lucy Ramona!
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