The body (the road to meeting Mirabella)

This post contains graphic pictures

Read the introduction, the previous post, first...
Now at the hospital at 8:30 am on Saturday (Saturday, February 28th), we made our way to the sixth floor and to the maternal assessment center at Abbott. I got in a hospital gown and was hooked up to a machine that measured my contractions and the baby's heartbeat. Just seeing the screen flash with that heartbeat was worth going in. I needed that reassurance. It came time to do a test to see if my water had broken, which required just swabbing me with a long Q-tip like thingy. I was warned that because of the blood, the chances of a false positive were likely. That's exactly what we got. So, it was time for the triage nurse to do a pelvic exam to check and see if my cervix was dilated and to what extent. I swear, she had her arm elbow deep inside of me and it was terrible! After all that, she couldn't reach my cervix so it was time to call my doc away from what he was doing and have him try.

Instantly I was calmed as I saw Dr. Chow enter the room. I love my doctor. As he edged his hand inside, the discomfort was almost intolerable and as I felt like I couldn't take it anymore, the pain subsided and he removed his hand. He explained that there was a block and once he broke through it, I was completely effaced. He asked if I wanted an epidural and I said, "Yes, eventually I think." He said, "No, do you want an epidural, because if you do, now is the time." I was scared and shocked and elated! He continued with, "You did a lot of work at home. You're dilated to almost a five (I was fully closed just a few short days before). Let's get you admitted, you're going to have a baby today!" Wow. We were relieved to be staying. We called our parents and both sets arrived shortly thereafter.




The plan would be for me to get situated in a room (the room I would deliver in), my water bag would be broken and I'd get my epidural. They may administer some Pitocin to speed up my contractions too. I was told that once my water bag was broken and the Pitocin was given, the contractions were going to get really intense. I wasn't totally prepared for the intensity and I was miserable for a while. A long while. My epidural would come late.

My doctor and the nurse made a mess of my bed by breaking my water bag (I was nervous about it hurting, but it didn't; it just felt like a pool of hot water coming out of me) soon after I got settled there. Thinking the epidural was within minutes, Pitocin was given. I waited anxiously for the epidural. And waited. And waited. The contractions were almost unbearable. The pain in my rectum was something no one told me about and with each contraction, I felt like a baby may come out of my rear! The baby was putting a ton of pressure on me there. That was the worst part. My nurse would apologize that it was taking so long for the epidural, ensuring that this was not common...as if I cared what was common or uncommon at that point, I just needed some drugs! It was so busy that day. My doctor was already set to deliver six babies that day alone and we'd be the seventh. My nurse, Barb, who was wonderful, suggested that maybe I'd want some other type of drug through my IV to relieve some pain, Nubain, until the anesthesiologist could get there. I didn't want it, but I really wanted it too. I succumbed and she came with the needle and I chickened out...I braved it out (pat, pat on the back :)) and decided if the anesthesiologist was going to be there sooner rather than later, I could wait. I was proud of myself, and confirmed my stupidity when the next contraction came.

After way too long, the anesthesiologist came and I was more than ready. It was a lot less scary than I thought. The hardest part was staying still while I contracted with him having a needle in my back. It was about 1:30 pm when it was in place. I was told within 10-15 minutes it would start working. At fifteen I could tell my contractions were getting less intense and in a half hour, I was smiling again. Our parents returned to the room and I felt better because I could speak again. Ahh...epidural. Could this also be the miracle of birth?

A new nurse, Rochelle, replaced Barb and she was just as wonderful, if not even more so. Now it was time to wait for my cervix to dilate. I was at a five now and needed to be at a ten to start pushing. I waited. Jeff waited. Our parents waited. It was slow. The Pitocin was turned up. Several hours passed. I was dilated to a six when my doctor thought I should have been further, so he said we'd wait another couple hours after turning up the Pitocin again and we'd hope for me to dilated to an eight. When he returned, I was! When he left the room, he said we'd hope for me to be dilated to a ten, a couple hours later, by 10:00 pm and it would be time for me to start pushing. Whoa...crazy! When he returned, low and behold, I was dilated to a ten and it was time! Finally, it was time.

At 10:30 on Saturday night (Saturday, February 28th), I began trying to push my baby out. I was given the instructions to take a deep breath in when I felt a contraction, Jeff would hold one leg up and the nurse would hold the other. I would push for ten seconds, breathe, push for ten seconds, breath, push for ten seconds and relax. Sounded simple enough to me. Within two rounds, I distinctly felt the baby's head way down in my birth canal. The doctor pulled Jeff around to look and he could see part of the baby's head and we found out our baby had hair. I felt like this was going to go quickly if the baby was already there. I was wrong. The baby was sunny side up (head down, face up) when he or she should have been head down, face down. An hour into it, Rochelle's shift would end and I really started to lose steam. At this point, I was 41 1/2 hours without sleep; my energy level was lacking. My doctor had managed to turn the baby to the correct position at this halfway point, but still, there was no further movement. I stared at the clock on the wall directly in front of me and I watched the last day in February turn to the first day in March. I pushed...and pushed...and pushed.

At 12:30 am on Sunday (Sunday, March 1st, 2009---what would come to be known as our baby's birth date), I had approached the two hour mark for pushing. At that time, my doctor decided we needed to explore other options. There were some guidelines and after two hours of pushing with an epidural, it was time to make some decisions. There were four options: continue pushing, but for only a short time, use the vacuum and still deliver vaginally, use the forceps and still deliver vaginally or c-section. Right away my doctor took the vacuum option off the table and with my lack of sleep, gently swayed me not to continue pushing any longer, although he would have let me had I really wanted to. I was exhausted. No more pushing, unless the forceps was going to be used. We talked with him for a while about the forceps and c-section options and then he left the room so Jeff and I could weigh the two. We went back and forth, back and forth. We had almost decided on using the forceps and just before the doctor came in, changed to the c-section option. Our baby was stuck in my birth canal; he or she had been through enough and it was time to do what we thought was the best thing for him or her. I second-guessed every part of our decision, but I would have done that no matter what we had decided. At a little after 1:00 am, it was decided that I was going into surgery and my doctor left to start preparations. Jeff got dressed in his scrubs and after, they wheeled me out of the room and into the operating room. It was 1:25 am.


Jeff would wait in a waiting area outside the room while I was prepped. There were so many people in the room there to help me and the need to thank them came over me. All of these people would make sure my baby and I got through this safely. Within minutes of being in the O.R., I began to shake uncontrollably. It was scary, but my two anaesthesiologists assured me I was OK and that this happens sometimes. Still, I hated it because of how out of control I felt. Once preparations were set, it was time to begin and my doctor said, "Where's Jeff? Why isn't Jeff here? Someone bring Jeff in!" I was wondering myself where he was and then he appeared. Still shaking, I tried to reassure him that all was fine and that they said it was normal. He described it later as it looked like I was convulsing; that's how it felt to me too.

The process began. I could feel tugging, but no pain. I was so anxious and excited to meet our baby after all this time! I kept asking Jeff through my chattering teeth and shaky voice, "Can you see? Do you know if its a boy or a girl?" He couldn't and didn't know yet and then they said for us to get ready...the head was coming...and there it was outside of me. I couldn't see a thing with the curtain up, but I felt it leave my body. I relied on Jeff for the play by play. He still didn't know, boy or girl. Then the doctor said, "It looks like a boy's head to me!"




Since I thought we were having a boy, a smile came across my face, but I wasn't shocked. I was just waiting there to meet him. Then I was told I'd feel a lot of pressure, like nothing I had ever felt. I felt pressure again, not pain, and I could feel the body pulled from inside of me. I heard gasps from the staff, not scary ones, but happy, surprised ones as I asked Jeff and found out, "It's a girl!" It was 2:20 am.




I could feel my smile from ear to ear and my eyes get bigger with surprise; I just could not believe that we had a girl. The doctor held her over the curtain and there my baby girl was! She was coated in blood, but so beautiful. Jeff and the nurses moved to the left of me as they cleaned her up. I could see them through my shakes, and was so eager for them to come back to me. At last, our precious little girl had arrived...