Elisabeth will be one month old this week, so before the memories start to get foggy, I’m writing baby girl’s birth story. I’m going to post it in two parts because of its length.
As many of you know, this was my fifth c-section. It was scheduled for Friday, December 16th, but for the first time ever, I went into labor on my own.
It was Tuesday, December 13th. We’d had a normal day. I’d had my last non-stress test done that afternoon, and I saw my doctor for the last time before she was scheduled to deliver the baby.
Later that day, I left the house around 6:00pm to drive to the community college to take my final exam for Spanish class. I took the final exam, and as I left my instructor wished me “suerte” with my “bebe” (luck with my baby). I then made my way down the stairs of the campus for the last time, got in my car, and headed for home.
The final exam had only taken me about 30 minutes to complete so I got home much earlier than usual. The kids were happy to see me home so early. We spent time together, and then they were off to bed around 9pm. That’s about the time I started to feel dull back pain and light but steady contractions. Could it be labor?
I wasn’t sure, so Ruben and I stayed awake for awhile to see if the contractions would subside. They didn’t. Whether I was sitting, standing, or walking, the contractions persisted….albeit not intensely.
Finally, I think it was around 11pm when I began to feel tired and so we headed for bed.
I woke up around 3:00am and realized that I was still having contractions. Needless to say, I never ended up going back to sleep after that. How can you sleep when you think you could be in labor?
I think I laid in bed for about an hour before I finally got up. I surfed the web, walked on the treadmill, sat for awhile on the couch, and got myself ready for the day.
The contractions were still there….uncomfortable, not terribly painful, but steady.
At around 6:00am I decided that I’d call the After Hours phone number for my doctor. I spoke with someone on the phone and explained that I was having contractions since the night before. She told me that my doctor could be contacted at 7:00am, but in the meantime that I should head to the hospital.
And so, I let Ruben know what was up, and we started getting the kids ready to go to the hospital. We were not quite sure what was going to happen once we got there so we didn’t call anyone in our extended family to let them know. In the back of my mind, I was thinking I would go and eventually be sent home to return for my scheduled c-section on Friday.
It didn’t happen that way. We arrived at the hospital, and I was promptly put in a wheelchair and we all made the long walk through the hospital to Labor & Delivery. After checking in at Labor & Delivery, I was put in a room and hooked up to the regular monitors to check baby’s heartbeat and my contractions. Shortly after that, a friendly nurse came into the room and did “the check” to see if I was dilated. I was dilated 1 centimeter.
The doctor was notified, and after that things happened rather quickly. The doctor and more nurses came into the room and let us know we were having a baby….very soon! They were going to go ahead and perform the c-section asap (not because the baby seemed in any danger, but rather so they wouldn’t get behind schedule).
Ruben and I made a few quick calls to find out who was available to watch the kids in the next 15-20 minutes. Ruben reached his parents, and they agreed to quickly get to our house where Ruben would meet them to drop off the kids. One of the nurses in the room gave him exactly 30 minutes to get back to the hospital, so I said my good-byes to the kids and they left.
After that, I went through all the usual motions that come with a c-section. I went over medical information with nurses, talked to the anesthesiologist, was given an IV, and wheeled to the operating room.
There I was prepped for surgery. I’ll spare you the details, but by that time Ruben was back from dropping off the kids and once the show got on the road, he was allowed to join me.
My original OB doctor wasn’t there to perform the c-section, so that was a bit disappointing since she delivered all four of our other children, but another great doctor whom I had visited with before in the office performed the c-section and did a great job.
Everything worked out as it should have because it turns out that when Elisabeth was delivered at 9:17am, the umbilical cord was around her neck and she wasn’t crying and responding how she should have right after delivery. She also started pooping right away. Elisabeth eventually did start really wailing after five or six minutes. π Good sign! But the doctor from the NICU was there and said she needed to be taken down to the NICU for observation.
To be continued….
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