Lola's Birth Story

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Since Bo was participating in a TEXSAR training most of the day, I was left to my own devices. I had breakfast at Kerbey Lane (In case you’re wondering I had French toast and Migas topped with queso aka the Paris Texas Platter), walked about a mile and a half with Brodie and then puttered about for the rest of the day.  After visiting with Bo after he got home, I turned in around 10:30 PM.  I had just fallen asleep when I felt a small amount of fluid - I didn’t think I peed - but I’ve heard it’s totally normal at this point for that to happen so I blamed the fluid on a faulty bladder and tried to go back to sleep.  I just couldn’t convince myself of the possibility that my water had broken. That, and everything I had read or heard suggested that it was rare for your membranes to rupture prior to labor starting (the What to Expect website says less than 15%).  So I did my best to go back to sleep – being slightly anxious made it difficult to get into a deep sleep.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

At 1AM I awoke again to another small gush of fluid. At this point, I knew I wasn’t peeing in my sleep, so I was starting to convince myself that my water had indeed broken. Now, sleep was the last thing on my mind. I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t gotten the pediatrician forms scanned and e-mailed back to them, so I decided I would work on that because, although nothing else was happening, sleep wasn’t going to happen.

Finally around 1:30, after much debate, I decided to wake Bo up “just in case”.  I told him something to the effect of, “I’m not sure, but I think my water broke. Nothing else has happened, but I decided to go ahead and work on the pediatrician forms. I need you to help me get this last one printed out.”  Shortly after I got Bo up, I started feeling some menstrual-like cramps and probably half an hour later I noticed the “bloody show”. At that point, I knew labor was imminent. I think I even showed Bo, just to make sure - haha!

Back in the office, we were still waiting  for the same form to print out – it was apparently a ridiculously large file size (the reason it was taking me days to print them out) – so I

decided to take a shower as the “cramps” were becoming more rhythmic and coming in

waves. The warm water felt amazing. The contractions weren’t painful at this point,

just uncomfortable, and I found myself swaying side-to-side and vocalizing this low

“oooo” sound. I’m not sure why I ended up doing that, but it helped me focus and relax.

After I got out of the shower, Bo decided we needed to try and sleep so we could have

plenty of energy for the next day. I laid down and not even 5 minutes later I had a

contraction that definitely was not like the others I had been having. I told him that laying down was not a possibility – it hurt too much.

My plan all along was to labor in our office for as long as possible. It’s a nice calming green color and not an area that Brodie frequents very often.  While I stretched out over the labor ball, Bo put a heated rice pack on my lower back and then applied some counter pressure. Both of those techniques seemed to stop the discomfort. I want to say it was at this point I also requested some applesauce. The Bradley classes emphasized how important it was to have some easily digestible snacks during early labor, and well, I was also hungry, so Bo spoon-fed me applesauce in between contractions. From this point, I began giving Bo some “honey-dos” because I knew we weren’t as prepared as I had intended to be. After all, we were a week early (according to “our” due date) and I had some how anticipated being overdue. So in between contractions I had him feeding and watering the chickens and rabbit, throwing extra clothes into the suitcase (he did manage to not pack me any shirts!), getting Brodie ready to be left, etc.  Basically, I would have him push on my lower back and then when the contraction passed I’d give him something else to do.  When the contraction started again, I’d yell for him.  This went on for at least an hour or more.

Around 3:30AM, the contractions were getting harder, and increasingly more difficult to talk through. Bo decided to call the doctor. Since I had only been laboring for two hours,

she encouraged us to stay at home a few more hours, if we could. Not wanting to

spend several hours laboring at the hospital, we decided to stay at home. Hindsight tells me we probably should have left at this point. The contractions only got harder after we called. Then the nausea started and I suddenly ran to the bathroom - yep, there went the applesauce I was so eager to eat just an hour or so earlier.  

While I was in the bathroom, the shakes started up. It wasn’t until much, much later (like days later) that I realized I was in transition at this point. I’m not sure why I didn’t

realize that during the moment, but I think everything was just happening too quickly

for me to process anything. I don’t remember much after this point. I do know that I

returned to the office and the contractions were so bad that I thought to myself, “There’s

no way I can do this for 10 hours without an epidural, there’s just no way.” I believe they

were double-peaking at that point and I was strongly considering asking Bo to call the

doctor back.

The pain got so bad that I ended up in the dining room. I think I was looking for

Bo. He was probably doing something I had asked him to do earlier. I remember telling

him, that I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom. “I feel like I need to poop, but I know I don’t need to.” I think he asked me if we needed to go to the hospital, and I vaguely

remember telling him maybe. I believe this is when he told me that he wasn’t putting anything else in the suitcases and the only thing he would do was put the suitcases in the car.

By the time he came back inside I knew it - I was starting to push. Bo looked scared and asked if we needed to stay at home. My first thought was, “Please don’t call 9-1-1, that would be so embarrassing!” I definitely was more willing to risk having a baby on the side of the road, than to be wheeled across my lawn for all of my neighbors to see. So we decided to take a chance and drive the 20 minutes to the hospital.

Let me say that trying not to push while in the car wasn’t easy. I was able to relax

enough at every other contraction to not push. A couple of weeks earlier, we had put Lola’s carseat into our car.  It’s huge in our little car, but I was so worn out that I would rest my head between it and my seat between contractions. Bo was doing his best to check on me and drive safely (and speedily, I might add). The sweat was beading up on my forehead and then Bo would occasionally stroke the top of my head. I was really scared we were going to have her in the car, on the side of Mopac, at 5:00 in the morning.

We got to the hospital around 5:30 AM. Of course the L&D doors are locked at that time.

So, we had to “buzz in” which made Bo mad because he thought they would be waiting on us since we called the doctor before leaving the house. I imagine that 30 seconds was a long 30 seconds for Bo. When the doors opened, the lobby wasn’t just empty - it was closed.  Bo started for the huge staircase, and even though I had never used the elevators, my brain seemed to know where the were.  There is no amount of money you can have paid me to walk up those stairs.

Once we got up to L&D, Bo said, “My wife is in labor” and no one seemed too concerned about it. For some reason a nurse brought over a wheelchair for me and then took forever trying to put the foot rests down. I’ve never seen someone move so slow – I’m talking about the ancient nurse, not the woman in labor. They took me to one of the triage rooms to check my progress and of course I was at a 10 and ready to go – again something I was confident was happening, but I’m just the lady having the baby. Then the nurse tells me that they are going to move me to another room to have the baby.  Seriously? Why on earth didn’t we go there first?! I begged them not to move me because I didn’t want to sit in the wheelchair again - it hurt like crazy. The nurse sweetly assured me that they were just going to move me to a bed with wheels and then wheel me over there. Before being moved over, a male doctor popped in.  I’m thinking my doctor isn’t male and then Bo says, “Wrong Dr. Miller” to which he responded, “No I was just seeing if you needed any help.”  I was happy he wasn’t sticking around because I decided, at that point, that I wasn’t going to have the baby.  Dr. Miller walked in about 30 seconds later.  I don’t remember the ride over, but I think it was just down the hallway.

I swear there were something like 50 people in the room (Bo said there were maybe 5). I guess because we came in so quickly they didn’t have time to prep anything - it was also shift change. While one nurse was putting a various assortment of bracelets on me, another was prepping me for the saline-lock in case I needed an IV. I begged her not to place it. Dr. Miller said, “We talked about this”. I really thought I could get out of it, but like they had already told me, it was non-negotiable. At least I tried.

Bo was on my right side and a really awesome nurse was on my left. I think we know

where Dr. Miller was. Although the Bradley Class had taught us various birthing

positions, I don’t think any of them came to our minds. We were both still in shock. Luckily the nurse on my left was reminding me to keep my chin tucked and helping me stay in a good position. She was a life-saver. In between pushes, I remember joking about the birth plan being in the car. I spent several hours working on it and all Dr. Miller needed to know was if we were delaying the cord clamping, giving the Vitamin K shot, eye drops and Hep B vaccination. Why on earth I was thinking about the birth plan at that moment is beyond me. As I was starting to get really tired, Dr. Miller encouraged me with “just a couple more pushes and she’ll be here”. As she was making her way out (y’know the ring of fire?), Dr. Miller said, "You can reach down, if you'd like to feel your baby's head". It was the most amazing and weirdest feeling in the world. To this day, if I rub Lola’s head, it takes me back to that moment.

Thirty-three minutes after we arrived at the hospital Lola was born. They placed her on

my lower abdomen (her cord wasn’t long enough to be placed any higher) and I remember holding her there why she cried and we waited for the cord to stop pulsating. I was so relieved that we were done with the birth. I was so proud of myself and Bo. I couldn’t believe that I was staring at MY baby.

Our First Family Picture