Emma Bailey Matheson arrived on Saturday, March 15th at 2:58pm. She was a week overdue but a few days before my scheduled induction. She weighed in at 8lbs 7oz and 22 inches long. I'll keep the story of her birth mostly short...
Ian and I decided to go grocery shopping on Friday evening so that we could sleep in on Saturday. I was feeling very pregnant but the walking could - and probably did - help. As we started down the frozen foods aisle, I felt something that made me stand still and say OH a bunch of times. It was not quite my water breaking but close to it. We headed to the hospital and got some mixed messages. Yes, that is fluid... No, my water didn't break... Maybe, it will break soon. We had been through this process twice before - baby monitoring plus walking laps around the hospital... Why not go a third round? :| After returning from another hour long session of hallway loops with multiple bathroom pit stops, they still weren't sure. When they started hooking me up to continue monitoring baby, the dam burst. Game on.
I was admitted into a private birth suite and was ready to get settled. But my contractions weren't regular so more walking was on the menu. After yet another hour long loop, we decided to induce to get the process moving. I laboured for 4 hours. The nurse had turned off most of the lights and Ian laid down to sleep. The contraction pain was tolerable but the constant pain from my hips was unbearable. I couldn't move around because the baby needed to be monitored and there was no way to get comfortable. The nurse read my face perfectly and offered up the epidural. Within 20 minutes or so, I was all set. I was able to get about 2 hours of sleep before the contractions were noticeable again. I pushed for 3 hours before the OB suggested forceps. I was willing to do pretty much anything to avoid a c-section.
My assigned nurse was wonderful. She prepared me for most of what came next. A ton of people in the room: a pediatrician and her resident, a NICU resident, the OB and his resident, the charge nurse and a couple others. I'll spare everyone including myself the gory details but the OB started to use the forceps. At one point Emma's heart rate started to drop with each contraction and push. Thankfully it went back up almost immediately after the contraction was over. The charge nurse got on the phone and started preparing for a c-section. I was super disappointed to hear this but really surprised when the OB kept on trying. I couldn't feel the pain of it all because of the epidural but I could feel the extreme pressure. Nothing was changing until suddenly I had 3 more people in addition to my nurse and Ian helping me push and out she came.
I wasn't able to do skin to skin because they used forceps and Emma needed to see the pediatrician first. The rest was a blur. People worked on me, people worked on Emma, lots of talking. She didn't exactly cry right away but following a little suction she let out a wail. Ian and I were getting teary eyed. :P It's crazy how life suddenly changes.
She was mostly ok from delivery... She was crooked in my pelvis so her head was a little cone shaped to the side. The forceps left some bruising on her face and a bright red mark across her eye. All of this has since cleared up and she's only 4 days old. Now we become crazy first time parents who worry over every little thing and can't really see the light at the end of the tunnel at this point. This too shall pass. :)
And we're settled...
No comments :
Post a Comment