When we arrived at the hospital, the security guard who approached to let us know that we had to use the new, far away entrance took one look at me and jogged off for a wheelchair. We then spent 15 minutes in registration, despite being preregistered, before FINALLY getting to Labor and Delivery and strapped into the monitors. Contractions were coming at 4 minutes (photo is of me mid-contraction). Luckily, Dr. Hannah answered her page quickly and arrived shortly thereafter to check me for dialation and membrane rupture. She attempted to break my water, since I wasn't sure. Let me tell you, this isn't a gentle or delicate procedure. YOW! She also determined that I was at 4 cm dialated. She couldn't remember the last time a patient made it to 4 cm at home and told me that I was super-tough. I promptly requested my epidural. The anesthesiologist was AWESOME, and within 10 minutes, I wouldn't have been able to tell I was in labor, were it not for the fact that I was strapped down to a bed by an IV, heart rate monitor, fetal heart rate monitor, contraction monitor, amniotic fluid re-filler, catheter, epidural.... and possibly another few gadgets... I stopped counting. The nurse checked me a short while later and I had progressed to 6 cm. She estimated at that point, that we'd be having a baby shortly after the lunch hour.It then became a game of hurry up and wait- until it was time to push. Unfortunately, this good time was cut short by the fact that Baby Girl's heartrate began to drop. They started pushing more fluids into the uterus, to help float her off her cord if that was the problem, and moving me from side to side. They also put me on oxygen. When that wasn't working as well as they'd like, they paged the doc again. Minutes later Dr. Robert - my primary ob, and Dr. Hannah's Hubby, arrived and said that since I was progressing so fast, we should try to push out the baby rather than go for major surgery. Still, he had the nurses check for an OR. I was at 8 cm, at this point so he didn't think it would be long. 20 minutes and a couple of heartrate dips later, I was at 10 cm, and he nonchalantly put on his scrubs and told Hubby to grab a leg. We were both taken aback at how quickly the moment had arrived. At this point, they also turned off the epidural, so I could feel things better, and push her out more quickly.
Pushing wasn't exactly fun, and got more an more painful at all times, but Baby Girl was headed
for trouble, so I had to get her out quick. At 45 minutes of pushing, I hit the was and didn't think I was going to be able to do it. It hurt so badly, and I was so tired. Thank goodness for nurses. One of my nurses talked me through the pain, let me cry a little and got me ready for the next push. Not long after, out popped our baby girl. All three of us cried. As she emerged- which looked like the doctor trying to a salmon at Pike Place Market, I was overwhelmed by that parenting instinct to count the little pink toes (all I could see). Due to her technical prematurity (she was born at exactly 36 weeks), she had to be whisked away by the NICU staff to be checked for breathing. I could only hear her cry and listen to everyone tell me how gorgeous she was while the doctor fixed me up. They put her on my chest soon enough, though, and despite a seriously gnarly looking head, being covered in womb-cheese, and medical eye goop, she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
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