In honor of Zoe’s one-week birthday, I thought I’d post a little more about her actual delivery. (Feel free to skip if you’re not  interested in labor stories!) As a bit of background, on Wed. night we went to a neighbor’s pre-Thanksgiving party, where I ate tons of cheese and other appetizers (note: this is relevant for later) and got tons of advice/well-wishes from the oodles of moms there. We headed to bed around 11, and I woke up a few hours later with some major stomach issues. I immediately blamed the cheese, but when the pains started coming at fairly regular intervals, I started to think about labor. I actually got on my Treo in the middle of the night and Googled “labor pains and gas” to see if labor could possibly feel like GI pains. Indeed, it could!

I woke up Q around 6 AM, and we started doing contraction counts at 8. Football games came on at 9, so I was kept distracted by them for awhile – but by noon, the contractions had become pretty intense. They tell you to wait to go to the hospital until the 5-1-1 rule (one-minute long contractions every five minutes for an hour) applies, but most of my contractions – painful as they were – only lasted 20 or 30 seconds. When we called the hospital, the triage nurse told us that we should probably wait to come in; if we showed up too early, we would just be sent home.

By 2 PM or so, my mind-set was “screw the nurse!” I was in some pretty major pain, so we headed to the hospital (which, luckily, is only 10 minutes away). I was taken to an exam room and – after what felt like hours of waiting for a doctor to see me – we learned I was already 5 cm dilated. (For those not in-the-know, you only go to 10 cm before it’s time to deliver.) “When can I get the epidural?” was one of my first comments to the nurse – that, and “I’m sorry I can’t talk. I didn’t know it would hurt this much.”

I was taken to a delivery room and an anesthesiologist was paged. He was all set to give me an epidural – but only after my platelet count got checked. Unfortunately, the lab took forever to get back to us, and it wasn’t until 6 or so that I finally got the go-ahead. (My platelets, thank God, were high enough.) It was worth the wait, though: Once the medication kicked in, I felt like a new woman. I had virtually no pain, and I was just so happy that the worst part was over.

I was checked shortly after getting the epidural and was told I was fully dilated. We’re fairly confident that I had gotten all the way to at 8 or 9 cm before I got the meds – which means that Ms. Pain Management herself basically experienced natural childbirth (without wanting to)! If I had to do anything over, I would have gotten to the hospital sooner, and demanded a blood test upon arrival!

Back to the story… The labor team had me rest for a little while, and we started pushing around 8. This part of the process was amazing – and totally different than I had expected. Maybe I’ve watched too many movies and ER episodes, but I imagined that labor would involve tons of people coming and going (and yelling at you to push) in a sterile, bright room. During the majority of my pushing time, though, there were just three of us – Q, the labor nurse and me – in the dimly lit room. It was just so tranquil, and I told the nurse that if we had some incense and candles, it would feel like a spa! The nurse was absolutely amazing, and beween contractions the three of us talked about a whole bunch of non-baby topics, including football. (She’s a huge Chiefs fan, and she was thrilled when Q pulled out his cell phone, checked the score, and informed her that they had won that night’s game.)

My contractions slowed down, but after a bit of Pitocin things sped up again. Q was really hoping that the baby’s birthday wouldn’t be the 23rd (why? it’s a long story), and it was looking like perhaps we would make it to the 24th. But then, a bit before 11, a team of doctors came in, and we knew it wouldn’t be long. The doctors got on their gowns and approached me, and I was told that all it would take was one final push. “That’s it? One push and she’s here?” I asked, and I remember thinking, “Oh my God – this is it.” Sure enough, one (painless) push later, out came Zoe. They plunked her on my belly, and I was in total awe over what just happened. As posted earlier, it was the most amazing thing I had ever experienced. I was too much in shock to even cry, although I certainly did get teary.

The rest of the night is like a blur. They had me stay in the delivery room for at least a few hours; they wanted to make sure I was okay after the pain medication stopped (I was) and that my platelets were still at a good level (they were). Q’s brother Dan and his girlfriend, Jenny, came to visit us - so they were the first family members to welcome Zoe to the world. I was moved into a postpartum room around 2 AM, and both Q and Zoe were able to stay with me. Q called it a slumber party, and it was certainly one of the most fun ones I’ve ever had (despite all the nurses/doctors coming and going every few hours)!

The rest of the stay was positive and uneventful, until we learned about Zoe’s platelets on Sat. afternoon. The extra days at the hospital threw us a curveball, but the experience wasn’t terribly negative. We met some amazing people – including this sweet and fun nurse who actually lives three blocks from us (we’re getting together for coffee in a few weeks) – and got a lot of baby tips from the nursery staff. The time there was also a total bonding experience for me and Q, and we were able to get into a little pattern when it came to caring for Zoe. (I was the feeder, he was the soother and diaper-changer.)

Despite my lifelong fears of labor (and general ambivalence about having children), one of my first thoughts after having Zoe was, “I want to do this again!” I even started feeling sad that I wasn’t pregnant any longer! (Of course, that could have just been the hormones.) The pains and troubles really WERE worth it, and I’m so grateful to have experienced such an incredible thing. As I told my dad this morning, the pain was worse than I thought it would be – but the payoff was better.

-M

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 30th, 2006 at 10:01 am and is filed under 02.Labor and Delivery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.