Here is what happened on 5/28/12, (38 weeks and 1 day pregnant) the day we became a family of four:
On Memorial Day, May 28th, 2012, Maddy woke up early and I went to her bed and tried to get her to fall back asleep a little longer by crawling into bed beside her. About a half hour later, I could tell she was awake for the day and got out of her bed to go to the bathroom. Maddy was whining about wanting to come with me to the bathroom, and as I was telling her to hurry up and get out of bed because I had to go "right now!", I felt what could have either been total loss of bladder control or my water breaking (7am). After using the bathroom, and making sure it was in fact my water breaking, I went and told Mike the last thing he was expecting to hear that morning, "Either my water just broke or I don't have any bladder control anymore!"
Luckily, it was a holiday, so my mom was going to be home. I called my mom, let her know what happened, and she came over to watch Maddy for us. (Grandma Judy was in charge of Maddy during the day and Grandma Jane had Maddy over at night for her first sleepover without mom or dad.)
Luckily, it was a holiday, so my mom was going to be home. I called my mom, let her know what happened, and she came over to watch Maddy for us. (Grandma Judy was in charge of Maddy during the day and Grandma Jane had Maddy over at night for her first sleepover without mom or dad.)
As we were getting our bags packed (hadn't gotten around to it yet), Mike went to check in the garage to make sure our hidden keys were in place in case any grandparents needed them. While the automatic garage door was lowering, the bracket that supports the weight of the door buckled and the upper part of the door caved in, breaking the little glass windows, shattering glass everywhere and bending the top garage panels beyond repair. As Mike was trying to fix it and clean up the glass, I told him we couldn't deal with this now and to call his parents, let them know what was happening and ask them to come deal with the garage door. It was nice to have so many grandparents at the house to distract Maddy from the fact that we were leaving for a couple days.
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| Right before leaving for the hospital, Maddy was too busy watching Grandpa K work on our garage door. |
It was a holiday so there was no traffic and our drive to the hospital only took about 5 minutes, and the parking structure, which is normally a nightmare, was almost empty. We were admitted and one of the midwives that I had seen when my regular midwife was out for hand surgery for a few months was on duty and would deliver Emily! (At our hospital you are delivered by what doctor or midwife is on duty.)
Since my water had broken and this increases your risk for infection and other complications, and I wasn't having any contractions, I agreed that at 10:15 we could start pitocin and be induced. I had always hoped to avoid this, but didn't want to take any risks of having Emily end up in the NICU away from me after birth. I ended up being given the pitocin around 10:45, when I was still only around 2 centimeters dilated, and not having strong enough contractions to be picked up by the monitors.
The major downside of being induced is that you need to be hooked up the monitors for the rest of your labor. I was very mobile and found comfort stretching my body by grabbing the top of the door frames and kind of hanging my body while in labor at home with Maddy. In order to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, they taught Mike how to unhook some wires and which machines to wheel over to the bathroom with me.
My contractions picked up within 15 minutes of starting the pitocin and by 1:30 they were coming every 2 minutes, I considered my pain level to be a 6. Mike and I were debating new middle names for Emily. We had chosen "Jun" originally to go along with Maddy's "Mae", but Emily decided to be born before June. We decided on "Leini", pronounced Lay-Knee, after Grandma Jane's middle name Leiko, but dropped the -ko ending and added -ni, which means second in Japanese, for our second daughter.
During my contractions, I would lay sideways curled up as tight as I could and grab Mike's hand with both of my hands and have him pull his hand back and strongly as he could, I would pull back with my hands. This was the only thing that helped me cope. This labor was much different than Maddy's, pitocin is no joke! I was hoping to go through this labor without an epidural (like with Maddy), but I was already at the pain level I considered a 10 (that was equivalent to the highest pain level during Maddy's birth) at only 5 cm dilated. I didn't want to see how much worse it could get, so got an epidural at 4pm. The nurse told me she thought it would be a late evening delivery and to try to rest up. At 5 pm, I was 6 cm dilated and feeling great, I think I managed to nap a little after I texted my sister, mom and best friend about the glory of an epidural.
Within the next hour I felt pressure down below, and I had dilated to 10 cm! I started to feel like I could push and it felt like everyone was moving in slow motion around me, I was afraid the baby was going to come before they were all set up. TMI ALERT... My midwife let me decide when to push, and after the first push advised me to take it nice and slow because she could see I was going to re-tear where I had torn with Maddy. On my second push at 6:19 p,, I literally felt a pop, and Emily's whole body came out at once. Everyone was surprised at her quick arrival. They laid her on my chest and although she was breathing she hadn't started crying. I remember looking in her dark brown eyes and telling her she needed to cry. The nurse took her and started suctioning out her mouth. I asked Mike to go take pictures and the nurse asked him to wait (this made me worry that something was wrong). The nurse used a suctioning machine and kept rubbing her vigorously to get her crying....this felt like forever and Mike and I watched silently, too scared to ask if anything was wrong. Once all the fluid was suctioned out and they monitored her oxygen levels, she was fine. They wiped her off a little but she was still covered in the white vernix, since she was 'early', there was a lot! She weighed in at 6 pounds 12 ounces, and 19 inches long. She was very calm, with dark brown hair covering her head. She nursed for an hour the first time she latched on!
Thank goodness I got the epidural because I tore horribly. The pain for the week following her birth was unbearable and made it very hard to do anything. I couldn't get comfortable in any position and requested as many pain relieving drugs as safely possible while breastfeeding.
Emily was a great baby from the start, she ate quickly and slept soundly. My let down was a little fast for her and she'd choke on the milk, but I learned this was common in second babies. This also caused her to spit up a lot. Her pediatrician assured us she was gaining weight and once her digestive system matured a little more, she'd outgrow it.
We brought Emily home on Wednesday, May 30th around 1:30 pm, couldn't wait to get out the hospital and start our life as a family of four!
The major downside of being induced is that you need to be hooked up the monitors for the rest of your labor. I was very mobile and found comfort stretching my body by grabbing the top of the door frames and kind of hanging my body while in labor at home with Maddy. In order to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, they taught Mike how to unhook some wires and which machines to wheel over to the bathroom with me.
My contractions picked up within 15 minutes of starting the pitocin and by 1:30 they were coming every 2 minutes, I considered my pain level to be a 6. Mike and I were debating new middle names for Emily. We had chosen "Jun" originally to go along with Maddy's "Mae", but Emily decided to be born before June. We decided on "Leini", pronounced Lay-Knee, after Grandma Jane's middle name Leiko, but dropped the -ko ending and added -ni, which means second in Japanese, for our second daughter.
During my contractions, I would lay sideways curled up as tight as I could and grab Mike's hand with both of my hands and have him pull his hand back and strongly as he could, I would pull back with my hands. This was the only thing that helped me cope. This labor was much different than Maddy's, pitocin is no joke! I was hoping to go through this labor without an epidural (like with Maddy), but I was already at the pain level I considered a 10 (that was equivalent to the highest pain level during Maddy's birth) at only 5 cm dilated. I didn't want to see how much worse it could get, so got an epidural at 4pm. The nurse told me she thought it would be a late evening delivery and to try to rest up. At 5 pm, I was 6 cm dilated and feeling great, I think I managed to nap a little after I texted my sister, mom and best friend about the glory of an epidural.
Within the next hour I felt pressure down below, and I had dilated to 10 cm! I started to feel like I could push and it felt like everyone was moving in slow motion around me, I was afraid the baby was going to come before they were all set up. TMI ALERT... My midwife let me decide when to push, and after the first push advised me to take it nice and slow because she could see I was going to re-tear where I had torn with Maddy. On my second push at 6:19 p,, I literally felt a pop, and Emily's whole body came out at once. Everyone was surprised at her quick arrival. They laid her on my chest and although she was breathing she hadn't started crying. I remember looking in her dark brown eyes and telling her she needed to cry. The nurse took her and started suctioning out her mouth. I asked Mike to go take pictures and the nurse asked him to wait (this made me worry that something was wrong). The nurse used a suctioning machine and kept rubbing her vigorously to get her crying....this felt like forever and Mike and I watched silently, too scared to ask if anything was wrong. Once all the fluid was suctioned out and they monitored her oxygen levels, she was fine. They wiped her off a little but she was still covered in the white vernix, since she was 'early', there was a lot! She weighed in at 6 pounds 12 ounces, and 19 inches long. She was very calm, with dark brown hair covering her head. She nursed for an hour the first time she latched on!
Thank goodness I got the epidural because I tore horribly. The pain for the week following her birth was unbearable and made it very hard to do anything. I couldn't get comfortable in any position and requested as many pain relieving drugs as safely possible while breastfeeding.
