It’s been 13 weeks, about time I got Whitley’s birth story
written up!
I hadn’t slept well at all. I kept waking up and unable to
fall back asleep had been sucked into the live footage of the shooting/police
chase of the Boston bombers-so I was exhausted. When 7:30 AM finally rolled
around I debated skipping class but figured that I should go so that I would
have less missed class time when the baby did come (which was going to be never
the way that I was feeling that day!)
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| 36+3 |
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| 38+5 |
Around 8:30 I was starting to notice there was a pattern to
my Braxton Hicks contractions, and that they were starting to hurt, but I
figured they were nothing since I had been having them for several weeks at
that point. This actually got me even more ugly because I was so
hesitant to get excited and have them die down. David that he knew how to make
sure that baby came tonight and cracked open the first beer that he had allowed
himself to drink in about a month. He no sooner took the first sip and I was
rocked with a pretty painful contraction. We were laughing about it, fully
expecting the contractions to stop but they got increasingly more painful.
Around 10:00 we told my mother-in-law that if they didn’t
die down we would be going in to the hospital and to be on alert. I cautioned her to not get excited, but not to
crack open a beer either!! I decided to take a bath (which was a major flop
because the dumb tub sprung a leak and I ended up looking like a creepy,
oversized toddler stuffed in a tiny tub with 2 inches of lukewarm water)
The
contractions died down a little bit
in the tub and were coming so sporadically. There was really no actual
pattern
and I was hopeful but expecting them to stop at any moment.I was texting
with my dad and thinking that 4/20 sounded like a good day for a
birthday-it had such a nice ring to it! (I did finally realize after her
birthday was announced in the hospital why 4/20 had a ring to
it....Doh!!)
Although I was still in denial about actually being in
labor, at about 11 I decided that I would probably be going in at some point
that night so I asked my MIL if she wouldn’t mind coming then just in case since she lived an hour away. I figured that
it would be easier for her to come at 11, then to have to wake up at 3 and rush
in. I decided to clean the living room hoping to help along these “BH
contractions” (that I was still waiting to stop.) As I was vacuuming I suddenly
was hit with the mother of contractions. My mother-in-law (who was a little
excited) already had all her bags in the car when we called so had been able to
just hop right in and go when we had called, and thank GOD for that! It was
about to get crazy up in here!
Within 30 minutes my
contractions were barely manageable. When she was 15 minutes out and I realized
I was going to have to leave as soon as she arrived I went into the bathroom.
Based on how long I had been laboring I expected that I could have only been at
5, maybe 6, cm. My labor with Nathan had
been 18 hours after my water broke, and my water hadn’t even broken yet. I got
into the bathroom and was gripped with the most violent contractions yet.
Now I realize that I
must have been transitioning but still thinking that I was in the beginning of
labor started rethinking my decision for natural labor. I was laid over the
toilet puking and started to completely panic because I knew it shouldn’t hurt
so bad at that stage of the game. David came in and tried to reassure me. I puked so hard that I peed my pants. A lot. Like needed a change of clothes. As I changed I
realized that I was bleeding but just then my MIL got there so I went out to
the living room.
I was contracting hard when she walked in and at that point
they were 1 minute apart and so bad that I could barely breathe through them. I
contracted on the couch, walked to the kitchen and contracted again, got to the
door and contracted a third time and by the time I reached the bottom of my
steps to leave the house I felt a pressure and the first urge to push. Still,
being the dumdum I am and not acknowledging that I was about to have that
baby in my dirty little stairwell, I continued to panic thinking something was
horribly wrong.
We raced to the hospital and they wheeled me straight up to
my room. They gave me a robe to put on and I asked to use the bathroom.
Although I was feeling all that pressure, I couldn’t go so I stood back up. At
that point I had the worst contraction of my entire labor and felt a gush of fluid.
Whew!
I was relieved knowing that now they couldn’t send me back home
since my water had just broken. But when I looked down I was surprised to see
that it was actually bright red blood (which did nothing to help my fears.) I
got into bed and the nurse checked me, made an alarmed face and started
hollering to get a hemorrhage kit and a table in there immediately and that
someone needed to find the doctor now. She must have realized that I was
getting panicky because she looked at me, told me I was complete and that I
needed to avoid the urge to push at all costs. I asked what was wrong and with
a smile she told me it was baby time. David’s reaction was priceless. He had
his back turned to me, loading my bags into the cupboard. He just froze in
midair!
The OB nurses have that down to a
science because in 1 minute flat the table was broken down, all the equipment
was in the room and the on-call doctor (who I had never met before that moment)
was standing in front of me breaking my water. It was time to push! And holy mother-of-pearl
did that hurt.
And I just totally wasn’t ready
for this. Ten minutes earlier I had been worried that they would check me and
send me home, and now I was pushing??
After my first 3 pushes, I lost
my grip and called a time-out. I wasn’t ready for this and I was not doing it! This
went on for about 30 seconds. They brought me back to reality and I did one
more set of pushing (and a lot of hollering “It burns! It burns!”), I started to
tear so they did a quick episiotomy and her head was out with two more pushes.
My next push and she was completely out.
Miss Whitley Harper-Grace was here at
20.5 inches long, 8 lbs, 2 oz and blonde hair! Only 9 minutes after checking
in!!!
They put her on my stomach but I ended up with the spins so bad that I had
to close my eyes. Thank God nobody was taping that because I looked like a
total dick. I didn’t even look at her!
They took her away and when I
finally could open my eyes I realized she wasn’t crying.
It turns out that she had her cord wrapped twice, and had
come out so fast that she hadn’t had the chance to squeeze any of the fluid out
of her lungs. The nurses convinced me that she was ok and just clearing out her
lungs and the doctor stitched me up and delivered the placenta.
So, this being my third pregnancy and third issue with my
placenta, and knowing just how devastating things could have been again, I
think we are finally content with our decision not to have any more kids.
Whitley gave us several scares throughout the night as she tried to clear her
lungs, at one point she stopped breathing and had to be pounded and suctioned,
but most of the night we had to stand over and help her work out all the fluid.
Thanks to my mother-in-law, Nathan was able to be there to
meet his sister immediately after delivery. He stayed for a few minutes (it was
2 AM after all!!) and then she took him back home. While I didn’t want any
visitors in the hospital it was really important to be able to have Nathan
there without demanding all of David’s attention, so a special thanks Kathy!
I am amazed by how perfectly it went. Nathan was such a
traumatic delivery, and of course Noah’s birthstory was just heartbreaking. I
had really doubted my ability to deliver naturally(particularly because I was attempting
a VBAC), so to have delivered without even having an IV was really empowering
for me and somewhat redemptive of my body’s ability. She was my first take-home
baby and really closed the door on my child-bearing years with the nicest end I
could have asked for. She’s beautiful and an absolute joy. I have yet to figure
out how two children can each captivate my heart completely, but they do!
Baby
gains about 3 ounces this week. The weight is in muscle, bone mass and
organs. The body begins to fill out with its appearance increasingly
becoming more like that of a newborn. Taste buds begin to form. If I drink something strange or bitter, baby may be observed showing her distaste. 