RedOakMomma
02-25-2006, 03:37 PM
:sunshine
Our son Noah arrived on Thursday, February 23rd, at 2:29pm. He's a healthy, dark-haired, 8.5-pound blessing. When I get a chance, I'll post his birth story. Right now we're getting settled. :D :love
The birth went SO well...and SO INCREDIBLY FAST!!!! I can't get over how fast it was...
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_26NoahsleepingEML.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_24NoahinthesunbwEML.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_24NoahandDaddyIIEML.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_24MommyandNoahfavoriteEML.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_23CloseupofNoahIIEML.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_23AfterhisfirstbathEML.jpg
:sunshine
:love Wishing you all the best and happiest births! :love
Okay....here's the birth story. It's a total novel, and I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to shorten it. I hope it isn't too much!
----------------------------------------------------------
Noah’s Birth Story
Wednesday, February 22nd was a normal night. I went grocery shopping at the co-op, Michael and I had buffalo burgers for dinner, and after the boys were in bed we watched the Olympics for a while. I ironed the baby’s coming home outfit, the final undone task on the baby list. We were getting into bed at 11:30, and as I bent down to turn off the bedside light, I felt what I thought was a very low punch or kick. Instead, it must have been a pop. When I stood up, my water flooded the legs of my pajamas. “My water just broke.” Michael’s look and response was so incredulous and happy at the same time…”really?”
It was so much like how Ian and James’ labor started, just a huge gush out of nowhere, so I started preparing for a similar labor…hours of little or no contracting. Michael got towels, and we sat down on the bed to talk. It made us both smile to know that tomorrow we’d meet our son. I couldn’t believe he chose to come early—I was only 38 weeks and 5 days when my water broke! The whole pregnancy I had been sure he would wait until March to arrive.
I called my dad, and Michael called his parents to let them know they should be on the watch for a “come watch Ian and James” phone call sometime in the next day or so. I really wanted to take a shower (and shave!), so it was after midnight by the time we were settled into bed. I was feeling mild contractions, sometimes 10 or 7 minutes apart, but nothing much. Some were stronger than others. We laid in bed for a while, trying to sleep, but after two hours of tossing and turning, I decided to get up. Michael was sound asleep.
I came downstairs, checked my email, ate a very early breakfast (oatmeal, walnuts, banana) looked online at the Mothering.com site, and brewed up an especially strong pint of red raspberry leaf tea. It’s supposed to shorten labor and tone your uterus, and I wanted to have it ready for when we went to the hospital. My plan was to sip on it as I labored. With the RRL tea packed, and cameras set to go, I looked around for other things to do. In the basement I had been just a few hours away from finishing James’ toddler bed quilt, and I really wanted to get the binding done before the baby arrived. So, for a couple of hours, contracting here and there, I was at the sewing machine working on James’ quilt. I put a big bath towel through my pants and left it hanging out the back like a big tail. Michael stumbled downstairs around 3 and looked at me like I was crazy, but I told him I couldn’t sleep. He went back to bed. Around 4 am the quilt was finished, washed, and in the dryer. I went upstairs to try to rest.
From 4 to 6 I tried sleeping sitting up in the study…I was afraid that if I laid down to rest, labor might stall because gravity wasn’t helping it along. Kinda silly, but I spent those two hours propped up by pillows, sitting on towels, and watching the clock every time a contraction woke me up. Still 8 or 9 minutes apart at their closest, sometimes more like 12 or 14
At 6 I was through with my gravity concept. I wanted to sleep. Went upstairs to bed, being *so* careful not to squeak the floor and wake up the boys. I slept two hours, then it was time to wake up the boys and get their morning routine going.
While Michael dressed and fed the boys, I tried to eat a little breakfast (toast). It wasn’t very appetizing. My contractions were still irregular and 7 or 8 minutes apart, but I could tell some of them were getting stronger. I wanted to push things along, so I went downstairs and started walking on the treadmill. By then the fluid had stopped gushing, so I suspected he was engaged. I walked a mile, very slowly, and finished up just after 9 am. I had a mug of raspberry leaf tea, and sat on the birthing ball with a towel on it. I kept drinking water…all morning, all night, I was so thirsty.
Around 10, Michael brought the boys downstairs to play. Ian was so happy to see me, and he kept hovering around me. I think he knew something strange was happening. Michael started writing down the contractions, and they were 5 or 6 minutes apart at the closest. I’d have little ones that were closer together, then strong ones that were farther apart. When the strong ones hit, I tried to relax and remember how the whole system works…picturing the muscles of the uterus, my cervix being pulled and pushed open, and everything being pulled back. Picturing the biology of it helped me relax and not feel it as pain. Don’t get me wrong, though, it was definitely uncomfortable! I also swayed back and forth on the birthing ball, sometimes doing a figure eight, during the height of the contraction. I remember looking at piece of glitter stuck in the carpet…as I’d sway its reflection would flicker on, flicker off, flicker on, flicker off. Staring at that point of glitter was how I got to the peak of the contraction, then at the peak I could let my mind wander to other things. I remember wondering if I could take that piece of glitter with me to the hospital. Would I be able to find it again if I put it in my pocket?
We were watching “French Kiss” with Kevin Kline, and I knew things were getting down to business when I’d need Michael to turn down the volume so I could concentrate through a contraction. The scene where Meg Ryan screams out “lactose intolerance!” was NOT cool. I also started wanting to keep the boys away from me during contractions. We stopped the movie before noon and Michael took the boys upstairs to eat lunch.
I came up to get water, and Michael brought the birthing ball upstairs. I started laboring in the study, again sitting on the ball. Whenever I could feel a contraction start, I’d say loudly “contraction!” and Michael would write down the time. After the contraction, I always wanted to know how they had been spaced. I stopped telling him if they had been little or strong contractions. By this point, they were all the same. They were five minutes apart and regular by noon, and I sat in the study doing my figure eights on the birthing ball. At first I stared a piece of thread on the floor…it was arranged in a looping pattern, and I liked thinking of circles. Eventually it became too difficult to find that tiny piece of thread, so I set my water glass down on the floor in front of me. When a contraction started, I would put my elbows on my knees, lean forward, dangle my hands down, and move so that my hands traced the rim of my water glass. Circles, circles, circles. Sometimes I thought of dilating, or getting to be as open as the water glass, but mostly it was just about tracing that circle over and over again.
With contractions 5 minutes apart, Michael called his mom so she could come watch the boys. He also called my dad, my OB, and the labor/delivery department at the hospital. At some point a little earlier I had wandered upstairs to brush my teeth and go over the “take these things to the hospital list.” In hindsight, I don’t think I had any idea how far into labor I was. Laboring at home was so different than laboring at the hospital. I think the tone of the hospital makes you concentrate more on the “seriousness” of laboring, whereas at home I felt comfortable and distracted.
We were ready to go, but waiting for Kathy to arrive. I was back on the birthing ball, breathing through some very intense contractions and focusing on my glass. Michael would check in on me now and then, but he seemed occupied with the kids. At one point he came in and picked up my empty water glass. I kind of snapped at him “No, I need that.” That was my first clue that I was farther along than I thought. I was set in a ritual, and I hadn’t even realized it. A few contractions later, I heard Michael taking James upstairs. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was going to put the boys in their room so they’d be safe…that we were going to leave and Kathy would be at the house soon. I told him no, we couldn’t do that. He agreed, but I could tell he was suddenly very worried. He told me my last three contractions had all been three minutes apart. I asked him to call Kirsten, our sister in law, and ask her to come over if Kathy didn’t show up in the next five minutes.
Five minutes later, Kathy pulled in. I was at the door and walking down the driveway before she was even across the street. Contractions were getting very strong. Getting into the car, a contraction started. Michael was saying something to Kathy at the door. “Michael!” and he ran to the car. We were on our way.
Everyone jokes about going over bumps in the road during contractions. It’s not fun. I think I scolded Michael twice for going over bumps. It’s horrible to be sitting, feet cramped in by the car, and then during a contraction some bumpy road sneaks up on you and jostles you the whole way through a contraction. Not the best time to maintain your composure and control.
The car ride was fast, despite some backed up traffic that looked threatening. I drank 12 of the 16 ounces of the raspberry leaf tea. It had a very bitter, twig-like taste. On our way along the lakefront, it was a beautiful sunny day, there was a van ahead of us with two antique-looking angels painted on its rear window. They drove ahead of us all the way to the emergency room entrance.
When we pulled into the emergency room, I got out and walked in by myself. No one seemed especially eager to help us, and a contraction hit. I was standing there, leaning on the handles of two wheelchairs, and my whole body began to shake. Was I in transition? I had been hoping to arrive when I was 6 or 7 cm dilated, but this felt different. A man said he’d walk us up to labor and delivery…just on the way upstairs, I had three contractions, including one in the elevator. All were incredibly intense, all involved full body shaking. In labor and delivery, a nurse met us right away. Sherri. She started asking questions, and another contraction hit. I just leaned my forehead into the wall. Michael asked Sherri to wait until the contraction was over before she asked more questions, and she said she just needed to get through a few more, and then she’d be quiet. She was very nice, very calm considering the circumstances.
In the labor room, another contraction hit just as we were walking in. There was nothing for me to lean on, and I panicked a little. Michael adjusted the tray table so I could lean on it, and I was able to get through the contraction. Sherri was using a fetal monitoring scope to try to find the baby’s heartbeat, and I remember a few anxious moments where she couldn’t find anything. Finally, low on my right side, she found a healthy heartbeat. He was doing well.
A few contractions passed where they were trying to get me set for labor…there was talk about getting my IV started (antibiotics for group b strep), and between two contractions they had me take my clothes off. I had no awareness or care that I was naked. Michael had to bend down and take off my shoes. They tried to get me to step into this body-tight elastic stretchy band so it would hold fetal monitors, but the contractions were getting stronger and I couldn’t help them much. I stayed standing, leaning on the tray table, while Michael tried to pull the band up and Sherri tried to listen to the heartbeat during a contraction. Everything in the room was rushed, improvised. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sherri trying to read my birth plan while she was listening to the baby’s heartbeat. They cut the elastic body band off so I wouldn’t have to think about stepping out of it.
I told them I was feeling a lot of pressure. I knew it was more than just dilating pressure, but they took it less seriously. Sheri said she wanted to check me, so in between contractions, I moved back to the bed and she did a dilation check. She said 8 cm and a lip. They called Dr. L--- and he said he’d be right over. When the next contraction hit, I stood up out of bed and leaned on the table again. The sensations and the shaking were much more intense than with Ian and James’ birth—it was like my body was doing all of this in fast forward. I felt a little frantic, but Michael said my breathing was regular and in control. As long as I could lean and breathe, I was okay. The pressure was overwhelming, and I felt movement…instinctually, on some level I knew I had just felt his head move lower. Sherri was doing something with the IV, or maybe trying to get monitoring belts on me. When the next contraction hit, I felt his head move, all at once, through the birth canal. I could feel that he was just between my legs. I said something about pressure, and not pushing. Something I said grabbed Sherri’s attention, and she put her hands down to feel between my legs. She said something about crowning. In two or three contractions, I had gone from 8cm to crowning. No wonder I’d been shaking so much.
Everything got a little crazy in the room when they realized I was so close to pushing. They called in the resident, Dr. L**, to catch the baby. I just remember how rushed they all were, but I only caught glimpses of what was going on. Just like last time, when I got to the pushing stage I seemed to want to keep my eyes closed. I briefly saw Dr. L**, and heard the voice of another labor nurse, Candy, but I didn’t notice much until Dr. L--- walked in the room. I think Michael told me he was there. He walked in so calmly, with his friendly face, and immediately I felt much more calm. Crazy circumstances or not, everything felt normal once he was there. Dr. L--- really wanted the nurses to get the antibiotic IV started, so during all the following contractions, and even some of the pushing, Sherri and other nurses were trying to get the IV going. I think they tried three times, and on the last one they were successful. They pushed the meds in quickly.
My feet were supported by pushing pads, and I was semi-reclined in the labor bed. Dr. L--- asked me to push, and I did. After one or two contractions of pushing, it started to ache and burn. The “ring of fire” everyone talks about isn’t that bad, though. It’s nothing compared to all the other sensations going on. Dr. L--- kept telling me to push into the pain, and he wanted me to push several times during each contraction. I felt in control, though, and nobody was counting or cheerleading, just encouraging me to push again. After a few contractions, I reached down to feel his head. Michael said he had a lot of dark hair (I knew it!). I could feel a large fold of skin standing up on his scalp, and the sensation made me open my eyes “it’s just a wrinkle of skin” from Michael or Dr. L--- made me close my eyes again. Time to push.
Dr. L--- said I’d make more progress if I leaned back more in the bed and pulled my own legs back while I was contracting and pushing. I protested, I didn’t want to feel like I was closer to being on my back, but he said it would help. He was right. It took another two or three contractions, the last one pushing SO HARD, and suddenly I could feel him leaving me. It only took a second for him to come out, but I remember feeling the relief of his head leaving, then his shoulders. They asked me to stop pushing, and I did. When his body was pushed out, I said “oh, that feels so much better” and opened my eyes. I heard his first noise, a sort of puppy-like nuzzling whine, and looked down to see him. Dark hair, scrunchy face, chubby limbs and chubby cheeks. Vernix on his back. They laid him down on my chest and covered him with warm blankets. One nurse said 2:38, but a moment later they looked at the monitor and said 2:39. He cried, and I held him very, very close. Dr. L--- asked what his name would be, and I said “Noah.” Then I asked Michael if it was okay, “Noah.” He smiled and said yes.
Dr. L--- started working on the tears right away. He said there was a second degree tear, less severe than an episiotomy would have been, and two other tears. While he stitched and stitched, Michael got out the camera and took photos and video of Noah there on my chest. It must have been a long while. I felt a lot of pressure behind the stitches, and Dr. L--- said it was the placenta. One mildly unpleasant push later (but who cares when you’re holding a baby?), and the placenta was out. Dr. L--- said it was very large, but I didn’t get a chance to see it. When Dr. L--- was done, he had Michael cut the umbilical cord. Dr. L--- had left it unclamped all that time.
Dr. L--- said a couple weeks earlier he thought the baby would be big, so I asked that they weigh Noah before Dr. L--- left. Turns out he was close on his estimate...Noah weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces at 38 weeks 6 days. Thankfully, though, there weren’t any problems with him being so big he got stuck. The nurses were rushing to get him measured and weighed and back to me, so it looked to me like their length of 20 inches wasn’t correct. Sure enough—at his first doctor’s appointment a few days later, Noah was 22 inches long. Michael is pretty thrilled with having such a tall baby.
We thanked Dr. L--- for making it in time, and laughed about how fast it had all gone. The nurse put an ice pack on my perineum and left the three of us alone for an hour…Noah attempted his first breastfeeding, and Michael and I stared at him in wonder. His thick dark hair was so precious to me, and Michael kept remarking on how long and narrow his fingers and fingernails were. He had long, perfectly shaped fingernails…almost like he’d had a manicure. His feet were long and so incredibly narrow, with little finger toes just like my dad. He was covered with downy pale fuzz, except on the outside ridge of his ears—they each had a little wispy peak of dark fuzz. We thought he looked a lot more like a M----- than Ian or James had, and lot more like a newborn in that scrunchy newborn way. Something about his mouth and jaw reminded me of my grandma Helene, too.
It was such a fast, unexpectedly intense birth. We both felt a little caught off guard, almost like we had arrived at a hospital and someone placed a baby in our arms. We stayed at the hospital two days, which was longer than we wanted. Because I didn’t get two full courses of antibiotics, they wanted to wait on a blood culture for Noah. The doctors and nurses were great about giving us lots of uninterrupted time, though, and we actually enjoyed our little babymoon in the hospital. Now that we’re home, and taking care of three kids, we’re a lot busier than we thought we would be. We’re happily adjusting. Noah is our perfect little newborn, we couldn’t be more in love.
Our son Noah arrived on Thursday, February 23rd, at 2:29pm. He's a healthy, dark-haired, 8.5-pound blessing. When I get a chance, I'll post his birth story. Right now we're getting settled. :D :love
The birth went SO well...and SO INCREDIBLY FAST!!!! I can't get over how fast it was...
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_26NoahsleepingEML.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_24NoahinthesunbwEML.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_24NoahandDaddyIIEML.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_24MommyandNoahfavoriteEML.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_23CloseupofNoahIIEML.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e294/elisabeth_w/2_23AfterhisfirstbathEML.jpg
:sunshine
:love Wishing you all the best and happiest births! :love
Okay....here's the birth story. It's a total novel, and I'm sorry I haven't had the chance to shorten it. I hope it isn't too much!
----------------------------------------------------------
Noah’s Birth Story
Wednesday, February 22nd was a normal night. I went grocery shopping at the co-op, Michael and I had buffalo burgers for dinner, and after the boys were in bed we watched the Olympics for a while. I ironed the baby’s coming home outfit, the final undone task on the baby list. We were getting into bed at 11:30, and as I bent down to turn off the bedside light, I felt what I thought was a very low punch or kick. Instead, it must have been a pop. When I stood up, my water flooded the legs of my pajamas. “My water just broke.” Michael’s look and response was so incredulous and happy at the same time…”really?”
It was so much like how Ian and James’ labor started, just a huge gush out of nowhere, so I started preparing for a similar labor…hours of little or no contracting. Michael got towels, and we sat down on the bed to talk. It made us both smile to know that tomorrow we’d meet our son. I couldn’t believe he chose to come early—I was only 38 weeks and 5 days when my water broke! The whole pregnancy I had been sure he would wait until March to arrive.
I called my dad, and Michael called his parents to let them know they should be on the watch for a “come watch Ian and James” phone call sometime in the next day or so. I really wanted to take a shower (and shave!), so it was after midnight by the time we were settled into bed. I was feeling mild contractions, sometimes 10 or 7 minutes apart, but nothing much. Some were stronger than others. We laid in bed for a while, trying to sleep, but after two hours of tossing and turning, I decided to get up. Michael was sound asleep.
I came downstairs, checked my email, ate a very early breakfast (oatmeal, walnuts, banana) looked online at the Mothering.com site, and brewed up an especially strong pint of red raspberry leaf tea. It’s supposed to shorten labor and tone your uterus, and I wanted to have it ready for when we went to the hospital. My plan was to sip on it as I labored. With the RRL tea packed, and cameras set to go, I looked around for other things to do. In the basement I had been just a few hours away from finishing James’ toddler bed quilt, and I really wanted to get the binding done before the baby arrived. So, for a couple of hours, contracting here and there, I was at the sewing machine working on James’ quilt. I put a big bath towel through my pants and left it hanging out the back like a big tail. Michael stumbled downstairs around 3 and looked at me like I was crazy, but I told him I couldn’t sleep. He went back to bed. Around 4 am the quilt was finished, washed, and in the dryer. I went upstairs to try to rest.
From 4 to 6 I tried sleeping sitting up in the study…I was afraid that if I laid down to rest, labor might stall because gravity wasn’t helping it along. Kinda silly, but I spent those two hours propped up by pillows, sitting on towels, and watching the clock every time a contraction woke me up. Still 8 or 9 minutes apart at their closest, sometimes more like 12 or 14
At 6 I was through with my gravity concept. I wanted to sleep. Went upstairs to bed, being *so* careful not to squeak the floor and wake up the boys. I slept two hours, then it was time to wake up the boys and get their morning routine going.
While Michael dressed and fed the boys, I tried to eat a little breakfast (toast). It wasn’t very appetizing. My contractions were still irregular and 7 or 8 minutes apart, but I could tell some of them were getting stronger. I wanted to push things along, so I went downstairs and started walking on the treadmill. By then the fluid had stopped gushing, so I suspected he was engaged. I walked a mile, very slowly, and finished up just after 9 am. I had a mug of raspberry leaf tea, and sat on the birthing ball with a towel on it. I kept drinking water…all morning, all night, I was so thirsty.
Around 10, Michael brought the boys downstairs to play. Ian was so happy to see me, and he kept hovering around me. I think he knew something strange was happening. Michael started writing down the contractions, and they were 5 or 6 minutes apart at the closest. I’d have little ones that were closer together, then strong ones that were farther apart. When the strong ones hit, I tried to relax and remember how the whole system works…picturing the muscles of the uterus, my cervix being pulled and pushed open, and everything being pulled back. Picturing the biology of it helped me relax and not feel it as pain. Don’t get me wrong, though, it was definitely uncomfortable! I also swayed back and forth on the birthing ball, sometimes doing a figure eight, during the height of the contraction. I remember looking at piece of glitter stuck in the carpet…as I’d sway its reflection would flicker on, flicker off, flicker on, flicker off. Staring at that point of glitter was how I got to the peak of the contraction, then at the peak I could let my mind wander to other things. I remember wondering if I could take that piece of glitter with me to the hospital. Would I be able to find it again if I put it in my pocket?
We were watching “French Kiss” with Kevin Kline, and I knew things were getting down to business when I’d need Michael to turn down the volume so I could concentrate through a contraction. The scene where Meg Ryan screams out “lactose intolerance!” was NOT cool. I also started wanting to keep the boys away from me during contractions. We stopped the movie before noon and Michael took the boys upstairs to eat lunch.
I came up to get water, and Michael brought the birthing ball upstairs. I started laboring in the study, again sitting on the ball. Whenever I could feel a contraction start, I’d say loudly “contraction!” and Michael would write down the time. After the contraction, I always wanted to know how they had been spaced. I stopped telling him if they had been little or strong contractions. By this point, they were all the same. They were five minutes apart and regular by noon, and I sat in the study doing my figure eights on the birthing ball. At first I stared a piece of thread on the floor…it was arranged in a looping pattern, and I liked thinking of circles. Eventually it became too difficult to find that tiny piece of thread, so I set my water glass down on the floor in front of me. When a contraction started, I would put my elbows on my knees, lean forward, dangle my hands down, and move so that my hands traced the rim of my water glass. Circles, circles, circles. Sometimes I thought of dilating, or getting to be as open as the water glass, but mostly it was just about tracing that circle over and over again.
With contractions 5 minutes apart, Michael called his mom so she could come watch the boys. He also called my dad, my OB, and the labor/delivery department at the hospital. At some point a little earlier I had wandered upstairs to brush my teeth and go over the “take these things to the hospital list.” In hindsight, I don’t think I had any idea how far into labor I was. Laboring at home was so different than laboring at the hospital. I think the tone of the hospital makes you concentrate more on the “seriousness” of laboring, whereas at home I felt comfortable and distracted.
We were ready to go, but waiting for Kathy to arrive. I was back on the birthing ball, breathing through some very intense contractions and focusing on my glass. Michael would check in on me now and then, but he seemed occupied with the kids. At one point he came in and picked up my empty water glass. I kind of snapped at him “No, I need that.” That was my first clue that I was farther along than I thought. I was set in a ritual, and I hadn’t even realized it. A few contractions later, I heard Michael taking James upstairs. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was going to put the boys in their room so they’d be safe…that we were going to leave and Kathy would be at the house soon. I told him no, we couldn’t do that. He agreed, but I could tell he was suddenly very worried. He told me my last three contractions had all been three minutes apart. I asked him to call Kirsten, our sister in law, and ask her to come over if Kathy didn’t show up in the next five minutes.
Five minutes later, Kathy pulled in. I was at the door and walking down the driveway before she was even across the street. Contractions were getting very strong. Getting into the car, a contraction started. Michael was saying something to Kathy at the door. “Michael!” and he ran to the car. We were on our way.
Everyone jokes about going over bumps in the road during contractions. It’s not fun. I think I scolded Michael twice for going over bumps. It’s horrible to be sitting, feet cramped in by the car, and then during a contraction some bumpy road sneaks up on you and jostles you the whole way through a contraction. Not the best time to maintain your composure and control.
The car ride was fast, despite some backed up traffic that looked threatening. I drank 12 of the 16 ounces of the raspberry leaf tea. It had a very bitter, twig-like taste. On our way along the lakefront, it was a beautiful sunny day, there was a van ahead of us with two antique-looking angels painted on its rear window. They drove ahead of us all the way to the emergency room entrance.
When we pulled into the emergency room, I got out and walked in by myself. No one seemed especially eager to help us, and a contraction hit. I was standing there, leaning on the handles of two wheelchairs, and my whole body began to shake. Was I in transition? I had been hoping to arrive when I was 6 or 7 cm dilated, but this felt different. A man said he’d walk us up to labor and delivery…just on the way upstairs, I had three contractions, including one in the elevator. All were incredibly intense, all involved full body shaking. In labor and delivery, a nurse met us right away. Sherri. She started asking questions, and another contraction hit. I just leaned my forehead into the wall. Michael asked Sherri to wait until the contraction was over before she asked more questions, and she said she just needed to get through a few more, and then she’d be quiet. She was very nice, very calm considering the circumstances.
In the labor room, another contraction hit just as we were walking in. There was nothing for me to lean on, and I panicked a little. Michael adjusted the tray table so I could lean on it, and I was able to get through the contraction. Sherri was using a fetal monitoring scope to try to find the baby’s heartbeat, and I remember a few anxious moments where she couldn’t find anything. Finally, low on my right side, she found a healthy heartbeat. He was doing well.
A few contractions passed where they were trying to get me set for labor…there was talk about getting my IV started (antibiotics for group b strep), and between two contractions they had me take my clothes off. I had no awareness or care that I was naked. Michael had to bend down and take off my shoes. They tried to get me to step into this body-tight elastic stretchy band so it would hold fetal monitors, but the contractions were getting stronger and I couldn’t help them much. I stayed standing, leaning on the tray table, while Michael tried to pull the band up and Sherri tried to listen to the heartbeat during a contraction. Everything in the room was rushed, improvised. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Sherri trying to read my birth plan while she was listening to the baby’s heartbeat. They cut the elastic body band off so I wouldn’t have to think about stepping out of it.
I told them I was feeling a lot of pressure. I knew it was more than just dilating pressure, but they took it less seriously. Sheri said she wanted to check me, so in between contractions, I moved back to the bed and she did a dilation check. She said 8 cm and a lip. They called Dr. L--- and he said he’d be right over. When the next contraction hit, I stood up out of bed and leaned on the table again. The sensations and the shaking were much more intense than with Ian and James’ birth—it was like my body was doing all of this in fast forward. I felt a little frantic, but Michael said my breathing was regular and in control. As long as I could lean and breathe, I was okay. The pressure was overwhelming, and I felt movement…instinctually, on some level I knew I had just felt his head move lower. Sherri was doing something with the IV, or maybe trying to get monitoring belts on me. When the next contraction hit, I felt his head move, all at once, through the birth canal. I could feel that he was just between my legs. I said something about pressure, and not pushing. Something I said grabbed Sherri’s attention, and she put her hands down to feel between my legs. She said something about crowning. In two or three contractions, I had gone from 8cm to crowning. No wonder I’d been shaking so much.
Everything got a little crazy in the room when they realized I was so close to pushing. They called in the resident, Dr. L**, to catch the baby. I just remember how rushed they all were, but I only caught glimpses of what was going on. Just like last time, when I got to the pushing stage I seemed to want to keep my eyes closed. I briefly saw Dr. L**, and heard the voice of another labor nurse, Candy, but I didn’t notice much until Dr. L--- walked in the room. I think Michael told me he was there. He walked in so calmly, with his friendly face, and immediately I felt much more calm. Crazy circumstances or not, everything felt normal once he was there. Dr. L--- really wanted the nurses to get the antibiotic IV started, so during all the following contractions, and even some of the pushing, Sherri and other nurses were trying to get the IV going. I think they tried three times, and on the last one they were successful. They pushed the meds in quickly.
My feet were supported by pushing pads, and I was semi-reclined in the labor bed. Dr. L--- asked me to push, and I did. After one or two contractions of pushing, it started to ache and burn. The “ring of fire” everyone talks about isn’t that bad, though. It’s nothing compared to all the other sensations going on. Dr. L--- kept telling me to push into the pain, and he wanted me to push several times during each contraction. I felt in control, though, and nobody was counting or cheerleading, just encouraging me to push again. After a few contractions, I reached down to feel his head. Michael said he had a lot of dark hair (I knew it!). I could feel a large fold of skin standing up on his scalp, and the sensation made me open my eyes “it’s just a wrinkle of skin” from Michael or Dr. L--- made me close my eyes again. Time to push.
Dr. L--- said I’d make more progress if I leaned back more in the bed and pulled my own legs back while I was contracting and pushing. I protested, I didn’t want to feel like I was closer to being on my back, but he said it would help. He was right. It took another two or three contractions, the last one pushing SO HARD, and suddenly I could feel him leaving me. It only took a second for him to come out, but I remember feeling the relief of his head leaving, then his shoulders. They asked me to stop pushing, and I did. When his body was pushed out, I said “oh, that feels so much better” and opened my eyes. I heard his first noise, a sort of puppy-like nuzzling whine, and looked down to see him. Dark hair, scrunchy face, chubby limbs and chubby cheeks. Vernix on his back. They laid him down on my chest and covered him with warm blankets. One nurse said 2:38, but a moment later they looked at the monitor and said 2:39. He cried, and I held him very, very close. Dr. L--- asked what his name would be, and I said “Noah.” Then I asked Michael if it was okay, “Noah.” He smiled and said yes.
Dr. L--- started working on the tears right away. He said there was a second degree tear, less severe than an episiotomy would have been, and two other tears. While he stitched and stitched, Michael got out the camera and took photos and video of Noah there on my chest. It must have been a long while. I felt a lot of pressure behind the stitches, and Dr. L--- said it was the placenta. One mildly unpleasant push later (but who cares when you’re holding a baby?), and the placenta was out. Dr. L--- said it was very large, but I didn’t get a chance to see it. When Dr. L--- was done, he had Michael cut the umbilical cord. Dr. L--- had left it unclamped all that time.
Dr. L--- said a couple weeks earlier he thought the baby would be big, so I asked that they weigh Noah before Dr. L--- left. Turns out he was close on his estimate...Noah weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces at 38 weeks 6 days. Thankfully, though, there weren’t any problems with him being so big he got stuck. The nurses were rushing to get him measured and weighed and back to me, so it looked to me like their length of 20 inches wasn’t correct. Sure enough—at his first doctor’s appointment a few days later, Noah was 22 inches long. Michael is pretty thrilled with having such a tall baby.
We thanked Dr. L--- for making it in time, and laughed about how fast it had all gone. The nurse put an ice pack on my perineum and left the three of us alone for an hour…Noah attempted his first breastfeeding, and Michael and I stared at him in wonder. His thick dark hair was so precious to me, and Michael kept remarking on how long and narrow his fingers and fingernails were. He had long, perfectly shaped fingernails…almost like he’d had a manicure. His feet were long and so incredibly narrow, with little finger toes just like my dad. He was covered with downy pale fuzz, except on the outside ridge of his ears—they each had a little wispy peak of dark fuzz. We thought he looked a lot more like a M----- than Ian or James had, and lot more like a newborn in that scrunchy newborn way. Something about his mouth and jaw reminded me of my grandma Helene, too.
It was such a fast, unexpectedly intense birth. We both felt a little caught off guard, almost like we had arrived at a hospital and someone placed a baby in our arms. We stayed at the hospital two days, which was longer than we wanted. Because I didn’t get two full courses of antibiotics, they wanted to wait on a blood culture for Noah. The doctors and nurses were great about giving us lots of uninterrupted time, though, and we actually enjoyed our little babymoon in the hospital. Now that we’re home, and taking care of three kids, we’re a lot busier than we thought we would be. We’re happily adjusting. Noah is our perfect little newborn, we couldn’t be more in love.