A baby story

I happen to be one of those people who loves to hear detailed birth stories. I also happen to love telling them. So, being in a self-indulgent and self-serving mood, I now give you the story of Della Carina's birth. Little Della seemed to take her time. Of course, we had never been absolutely certain about her due date, since I couldn't really remember my last menstrual period. It was either December 3rd or December 10th, and I think Don and I thought it was cooler to say that the due date was September 9th. In all fairness, though, she might have actually been 2 days early rather than 5 days late. I was ready for her, though.

There were several differences between the end of this pregnancy and my pregnancy with Lydia. First, I didn't have the terrible swelling that I had with Lydia. I had some minimal edema after a long day of work, but I didn't get the big puffy face and huge ankles I had last time. I also didn't have to get up to go the bathroom quite as frequently as I did with Lydia. Near the end of that pregnancy, I was going every half-hour to 45 minutes. Thankfully, I never had to get up more than 4 times a night this time, even at the very end. In exchange for this benefit, I was cursed with heartburn this time. Heartburn is miserable. I really understand those commercials now. Fortunately, one of our derm residents recommended Zantac, which she took during her pregnancy, and that worked wonders. The worst part about the end of this pregnancy, though, was that I got stretch marks in the last 2 weeks. I didn't get any with Lydia, so I thought I was safe, but stretch, stretch, stretch in those last few weeks. Ugh!

OK, on to the big day. Don's mom had been staying with us since Friday, because I had been contracting a lot that day and thought Della might arrive that night. After a whole weekend of contractions that would come and go, I woke up on on Monday the 14th after a really good sleep. I found that my contractions were more painful and that I had to breathe through them. Still, I wasn't quite sure if this was the real thing (with Lydia, I didn't really have early labor; my water broke and threw me right into active labor). The contractions didn't really seem to go anywhere until around 5 pm, when we went to Kroger to do some grocery shopping. While we were walking around the store, I had to grab Don a few times because the contractions were so intense. We went home and I cooked dinner. I didn't really want to rest because I wanted Della to arrive. The contractions became more intense and regular (8-10 minutes apart). I ate dinner, then gave Lydia a bath, and put her to sleep. The contractions were really coming, so we were pretty sure that this was the real thing. We took our last family of 3 picture at this point.

After putting Lydia to sleep, I made sure that my bag was completely packed and headed downstairs. I had already called my mom and told her that Papa should come home from Old Mission and that a baby was probably on the way. The contractions became more and more intense, but were still tolerable. I was on my hands and knees for each contraction. Don would rub my lower back through the contractions, which made it easier. I wanted to wait to go in until the contractions were less than 5 minutes apart for at least an hour. I called my nurse midwife to let her know that we were in labor and that I was going to try to do it naturally, if I could. Soon after making the call, the contractions became still more intense and closer together. They were starting to come 3-5 minutes apart. We only did about 10-15 minutes of that before I felt an urgency about getting to the hospital. Don grabbed some last-minute things and we were off.

We arrived at the hospital at 9:20 and went up to triage to check in. They brought us back, put a monitor on me, and we waited for the midwife to check me. She checked my cervix probably around 9:45. I had decided that I wouldn't get an epidural if I was dilated more than 6 cm, but that I might if it were less than that. After checking, she said, "I can't find a cervix". Don and I both felt somewhat confused. I remember distinctly thinking, "Of course there's one there. What does she mean?" She followed that with, "All I feel is a huge bulging bag of water, one of the biggest bags I've ever felt." She said that I felt fully dilated, but she couldn't be sure until the water broke. I could either let her break my water, or wait for it to break on its own. I decided to let it break on its own. My greatest fear is that we would intervene in some way that would make the baby posterior, and give me a long, difficult labor like I had with Lydia. She said that she would admit me, and offered to let me either walk or be wheeled down the hall to my room. Not wanting my water to break mid-stroll, I took the option of being wheeled to my room. Wow! We went fast! Don had to trot along to keep up.

We got to my room, I kept contracting, and we answered all the necessary questions. The nurse said to let her know if I felt "pushy". After 15-20 minutes in the room (maybe more, maybe less...), I felt like I had to push. I got up on my hands and knees and waited for a good "push" sensation and then pushed away, breaking my water. Another 5-10 minutes later, I felt like pushing again. So push, push, push for I don't know how long, a change of position on to my left side with my right leg pulled back, and out came little Della at 10:44 pm, 1 hour and 24 minutes after our arrival at the hospital.

It was a wonderful, uncomplicated, unmedicated delivery. Della was in great shape and cried and pooped right away. She weighed in at 8 pounds (that accounts for the stretch marks, I think) and 19 inches. She nursed like a champ right from the start and continues to nurse really well. Thus far, she is a very good little girl. She rarely cries and rarely fusses. She does grunt a lot, but I think that's natural. More to come soon, I hope :)