Hellobee

by Maddy of Somewhere Splendid

My husband and I arrived at the hospital at about 3:30 in the morning. As I mentioned in the first part of the birth story, despite having contractions for much of the week leading up to the Big Day, I hadn’t progressed at all in terms of dilation, so I was hoping that I had made enough progress that they could admit me. I really didn’t want to be sent home! My pelvis check showed that I had effaced quite a bit (about 60%, when I was only about 10% at my doctor’s appointment a few days before), but I only dilated a half a centimeter for what the nurse called a “roomy 1.” When they delivered the results of my pelvic check to the on call doctor from my practice, she asked that I walk around for an hour to help me progress.

So walk we did. I put on some comfy slippers and did laps on the eerily quiet maternity and lobby floors of the hospital. Occasionally, someone would walk by my husband and me while I was contracting, and would shoot us a very distressed and concerned look as I was quietly moaning while I leaned against the wall or a railing, swiveling my hips. After an hour passed, we returned to the L&D area, only to find that the doctor had put in an order for me to walk around for an additional 45 minutes – so away we went again.

By the time we returned, my contractions were getting quite a bit more intense. They weren’t so bad that I was in serious pain, but there was a definite difference, so I was hoping that I would finally be admitted. Fortunately, my next exam showed I was a “loose 2” and had effaced even more, so we were officially admitted to the hospital as the sun came up, and the waiting game began!

Labor, for the most part, went pretty smoothly. I had hoped to go for as long as I possibly could without an epidural, and I managed to get to 8 cm before I needed one. My doctor  did a pelvic check and afterwards, I went from a 7 on the pain scale to a 10. My nurse explained that at the stage of labor that I was at, it was not uncommon for contractions to suddenly become substantially more intense after the doctor checks the cervix. Because I was literally writhing in pain during contractions, she called the epidural team for me and they came in under 10 minutes. Once it was put in, it didn’t take a long time for it to take effect, and fortunately it didn’t slow down labor at all. In fact, I hit 10 cm rather quickly after the epidural was put in, and I got a little bit of shut eye in the meantime since I had been up since about 1:30 or 2 in the morning.

At around 5:30 in the evening, I was fully dilated and effaced. The baby was a little higher in my pelvis than the doctor liked, so she had me wait a little bit until I started pushing to give the baby a little more time to drop. At about 6, the delivery team started having me push. From this point on, I don’t actually remember anything – Devon had to tell me this part because all I could do was focus on getting her out. A full hour into pushing, I had barely made any progress, and the nurses assisting the doctor had me try two different pushing positions, which worked much better. Suddenly the baby started having problems with her heart rate – it was all over the map. They became very concerned about her, and prepped for a forceps delivery. Thankfully, the last set of pushes got her to crown, so they encouraged me to push a couple extra times on the contraction to get the baby out. With those two extra pushes, I felt her head and body pass and seconds later, I heard a little high pitched cry.

They put her in my arms. I thought I would cry, but I think I was so exhausted from the whole process that I didn’t. Instead, I found myself staring down at this gorgeous little baby and immediately began covering her with kisses. I didn’t get to hold her for that long because they needed to take her back. Aurora had fluid in her lungs so they had to help her clear it while I was stitched up (considering how much difficulty I had with the pushing, I was lucky to only have one small tear). When I got her back, my parents (who had arrived from New York about an hour before I started pushing) came in and got to see her. It was perfect!

When we decided to name her Aurora, we were looking for a name that was an older name like Vivienne that wasn’t too trendy, and wasn’t going to make her sound like she was a grandma from Day One (which meant she wasn’t going to be named after either of my late grandmothers, Hilda or Gertie). As it turned out, it was more appropriate than we could have imagined, since my time in L&D lasted from sun up to sun down. Over the past week plus, it’s been amazing to get to know her – it’s amazing how much of their personality is set from their birth! I can’t wait to see who she becomes in the next few years and over the course of her life. She’s the love of our lives!