Welcome, Baby Reese!

This is my second attempt at writing this. Greg took the older kids to the rodeo last weekend and I spent a solid two hours working on this same post and had it close to ready when I accidentally hit some button and erased everything. I tried everything I could think of and could not get it back, so I just licked my wounds and went to bed. Another week has passed and I’m ready to try again. Here goes:

I wrote in an earlier post about having some pre-term labor and being on light bed rest, so we were definitely prepared for the possibility of the baby coming early. My labor with Abby was very fast—it was only 3 hours from my first real contraction until she was delivered, so I was also nervous about her coming quickly. With this in mind, my doctor had instructed me to come to the hospital as soon as I started having intense, consistent contractions. I had been having contractions off and on for a few weeks, but they started getting painful and were coming about every five minutes around 1:00 AM on Wednesday, July 31. I was due August 15, so this was a little over 2 weeks early. I told Greg we better head to the hospital, so we called my wonderful Aunt Paula to come stay with our kids and off we went. (My parents are living in China these days so we had to come up with a different game plan than we have had with our previous children.)

When we got to the hospital, I was surprised and disappointed to find out I was only dilated to a 1 and about 60% effaced. They hooked me up to the monitors and the contractions were coming consistently, so they kept me there for an hour and then checked me again and I hadn’t progressed at all. The nurse was surprised based on the consistency of the contractions that I wasn’t dilating more, but it didn’t happen so they sent me home. I was so embarrassed and felt like an idiot, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it, so we came home.

I had an appointment with my doctor the next morning and I was pleasantly surprised when he examined me and I was now dilated to a 3 and almost fully effaced. He said the baby’s head was “right there” and my water was bulging. He said I was definitely in labor and had made significant progress from just a few hours earlier when I was at the hospital. He debated sending me upstairs to Labor & Delivery right then, but my contractions had eased up a bit and weren’t as consistent, so he sent me home with instructions to come back as soon as the contractions started up again. My awesome sister was watching Garrett and Abby and told me to go home and get some rest. I had a nice nap and was cleaning the bathrooms when I started feeling the contractions starting up again. We headed back to the hospital and arrived a little before 5 PM.

They examined me again and I was still at a 3, so they hooked me up to the monitors and told me they would check me again in an hour and see if I had progressed. If I had, I would stay and deliver the baby. If not, the nurse said they would probably send me home again. I just about died when she said that—this was my third baby and I knew what real labor and contractions felt like. I told her I was worried about going home because I would honestly have no idea when to come back and would probably wait too long because I would not want to come just to get sent home again. She asked me if I wanted to get up and walk around a bit to see if we could get things going even more and I was more than happy to do so. Emily arrived about that time and we cruised all over the Labor & Delivery floor for about 25 minutes while Greg made some phone calls and worked on the computer in the room. I even snuck into the bathroom and did some jumping jacks (100 of them—just in case you’re wondering) just for an added bonus.

The suspense was as intense as anything I’ve ever experienced when the nurse checked me again a little while later. We were all delighted when I had progressed a bit and she consulted with the doctor and they said I could stay! PHEW!!! My doctor had a meeting and wouldn’t be available to deliver until after 9, so he told us to take it nice and slow and he would be back in a bit. They hooked me back up to all the monitors and we just hung out. She checked me periodically and I was progressing, so things were going well. The contractions were consistent and uncomfortable, but not awful. I figured I might as well get an epidural before it got too bad, so they called the anesthesiologist and he came in. When he was finished, my left leg was tingly and a bit numb, but I could completely feel my right leg and had total control of it. Another doctor came in and broke my water after the anesthesiologist finished and everybody was surprised when they went to change my bedding and I could completely lift my bottom off the bed. I was worried something wasn’t quite right with the epidural because I had so much feeling and control in my lower body, but I wasn’t feeling any pain from the contractions, so they said I was fine.

Mallory (Greg’s little sister) came to visit and the four of us (Greg, Em, Mal, me) had a grand time just laughing and hanging out. I had the best nurse (Aubrey) and we all got along really well. She had a great sense of humor and we had a fun time laughing about the new trends in labor and delivery. We joked about the “birth plans” people come up with and I told her my birth plan only consisted of 3 parts: Go to hospital, get an epidural, deliver baby. I felt like it was a solid plan and so far everything was going well. It was about 9 PM at this point and I was still progressing, but they decided to give me a little Pitocin to speed things up a bit.

Everything was going great and we were having a glorious time until I started feeling some pretty intense pain with my contractions. I kept pushing the button to give me more medicine through the epidural, but it didn’t really seem to be helping. I don’t remember ever having to push the button with my previous deliveries, so I was surprised that I had to keep pushing it. I endured it for a while, but it was getting pretty painful, so I called my nurse back in and told her I was starting to feel quite a bit of pain. She said sometimes towards the end of delivery you can progress too quickly and the epidural can’t quite keep up with it, so she called the anesthesiologist in. He gave me a dose of medicine directly into the epidural line and said within 10-15 minutes I would be completely numb and wouldn’t feel anything from my stomach down. The pain was getting really intense with each contraction, so that sounded great to me! I watched the clock and waited with every tick for the medicine to kick in, but it never did. The pain was getting almost unbearable and I called the nurse back in after 10 minutes to see if I could get more medicine because the previous dose hadn’t worked. She was expecting to find me chilling and feeling great and was surprised when I was doing worse. At this point, I started to get really worried.

(Note: I know people have mixed feelings about epidurals and I don’t want to offend anybody here, but I’ve never felt even the tiniest desire to deliver a baby without one. To me, it’s as crazy as going in for surgery and telling the surgeon to just cut you open without any anesthesia. Why anybody would ever want to willingly subject themselves to that much pain is beyond me when there is help available, but everybody is different and it’s all good.)  

The nurse examined me and my biggest fears were confirmed when she said I was fully dilated. I asked her something like, “So what does that mean?” and she answered with, “It means you deliver the baby.” I asked her if there was anything they could do and she left to talk to the anesthesiologist. The contractions were coming every couple of minutes and lasted for about 90 seconds. The pain was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced and I was just gripping the sides of the bed for all I was worth and just trying to get through it. The nurse came back and said it was clear the epidural was completely not working and our only option was to replace it, but we just didn’t have time and I would likely deliver the baby in the middle of it if we tried. She said the doctor was on his way and they started preparing the room for delivery. A couple of nurses gave me a crash course in pain management and breathing techniques (a “natural” delivery was never on my list of things to accomplish so I never bothered to take a birthing class) and we endured the next few minutes while we waited for the doctor. Greg, Em, and Mal were completely freaked out and I felt bad for ruining the party—we were having so much fun until the dang epidural quit working. In between contractions I told the nurse, “This was NOT part of my birth plan!” We got a little chuckle out of that, but it didn’t last long between the contractions were coming right on top of each other and it only felt like I had about 30 seconds of relief before they started up again.

I’ve never been so happy to see anybody as I was when my doctor walked in. I knew the worst was still to come, but it would all be over soon. It only took a few agonizing pushes and our beautiful little Reese was born at 11:36 PM on July 31. (She snuck in just in time for a July instead of August birthday). She was 6 pounds, 12 ounces and 18.5 inches long with red hair like her big brother. We think she’s perfect and couldn’t be any happier to have her in our family! 

Thanks to Em for the great pictures! 

 FYI: The top line is the baby's heartbeat and the bottom line is the contractions.

We are ready to rock...bring on the baby!!!

This makes me laugh every time I look at it. They asked me if I was allergic to anything and I told them I wasn't allergic to any medications and they asked about foods. I am allergic to Mahi Mahi (random, I know) and I cracked up when they wrote it on the board. I'm pretty sure they don't serve anybody Mahi Mahi in the delivery room so I'm not sure why it needed to be up there, but whatever...

You will also notice what great parents Greg and I are..."Baby to warmer" is code for "please clean the baby up and have her looking more human than alien before you hand her to mom" and "MD to cut cord" really means "her dad will pass out if he even looks at the cord, let alone cut it." We rock, I know.

The best birthing support crew ever!!!

 Sweet Emily tried to help me when the epidural wasn't working. I think Greg and Mal were a bit freaked out...

She's here!!!

After this experience, I've modified my birth plan a bit and will be definitely be passing out copies to all of the nurses and especially the anesthesiologist next time. Here it is:

1. Go to hospital.

2. Get WORKING epidural.

3. Deliver baby.