I have read many books and websites about childbirth. Your daddy and I enrolled in a childbirth class. I have read birth stories from online forums and heard birth stories from family and friends... but nothing quite compares to being there from start to finish with my sister while she delivered her first baby.
Even seeing all she went through, and hearing her thoughts on the process (without leaving out any gruesome details!!), I still don't feel at all prepared for the day I will deliver you.
I am excited for that day.
I am anxious for you to be here.. to see what you look like, to hold you in my arms, to be able to kiss your sweet face and watch you sleep and stir and stretch your tiny arms....
I really am excited.
And scared.
Well, terrified, really.
Your Aunt V was due on 6/14 (I thought 6/12 but I didn't realize they had pushed it back a couple days).
On Thurs 6/11, she left work around lunch to start her maternity leave early because she was having recurring back pain that she thought may be early labor.
The back pain stopped sometime that afternoon and she said she felt great on Friday, hardly even felt pregnant (which would have been great any other time during the pregnancy, but by that point she was eager to get the show on the road!).
Your Daddy and I got to Houston Friday evening and sat around visiting for a while, excited to be spending their last weekend pre-parenthood with them. She was set to be admitted to the hospital Sunday evening to start Cervidil overnight and Pitocin Monday morning.
Saturday morning we all schlepped around the house in our PJ's being lazy, and just after lunch she told me she was leaking fluid, and she wasn't sure if it was her water breaking or not.
I wanted her to call her doctor or go in for an ffn test.. but because she was having absolutely no contractions, she decided to wait it out a little bit and see what happens.
We went about our plans - pedicures with our mom, a last minute run to Target for a few things she needed to pack in her hospital bag, etc. When we finished our trip to Target, we got in the car to head home and she said she was still leaking.
Again, I said I would call the dr if I were her... but she wasn't concerned enough to do so and didn't want to be sent home for a false alarm.
By the time we went to bed that night, she had soaked through 4 pairs of panties/pads!! We all (my mom, your Daddy and I) went to bed that night fully-clothed with our bedroom doors open just convinced we'd be dashing to the hospital sometime in the late night hours.
We were wrong. No such luck.
I crawled into bed with her for a few minutes in the morning, and we just chatted for a few minutes before I left the room so she could try to get some more rest. Not 5 minutes later she casually walked into the kitchen and said "I think its time to go". Apparently she had gotten up to go the restroom and had her 'bloody show'. We all sprung into motion, dashing around the house finding shoes and keys and wallets before she casually said "You know, I think I'll take a shower first".
WHAT?! Are you sure?? Okay, fine, but make it a quick one!
Your Daddy and I decided to go ahead and go so we could pick up breakfast for everyone on the way to the hospital, and by the time we had kolaches in hand and were en route to the hospital, I got a text from my mom saying "5 minutes apart!!!".
Wow! She went from not having ANY contractions, not a single Braxton Hicks, to contractions coming 5 minutes apart (this started in the shower).
She went up to L&D and they took her into the triage room to check her.. they asked her to change into a gown in the bathroom and while she was in there her water really broke.. not just a slow leak anymore. She came out of the bathroom and apologized for making a mess on their floor... the nurse took one look at it and said "That's amniotic fluid, no need to check you - let's get you a room!".
She was admitted at 915am and was still only 1cm dilated (as she was the week before) but the nurse said her cervix was paper thin.
The fact that her water started leaking the day before and she hadn't called or come in to be checked really baffled the nurse! I guess they are used to getting first time moms who come in for (seemingly) no reason.. and here she was with her water broken and didn't even call. ;) She's a rockstar like that, your aunt.
Because it had been so long since her leak started, they wanted to get the Pitocin going pretty soon so they could move things along, so they gave her a bag of IV fluids in preparation for the Epi and Pit.
They started her epidural around 11 (much to her relief, those contractions were looking very painful!!!) and started her Pitocin soon after. I'm not sure of the unit they measured the Pitocin drip, but they started at a 6 and increased by 6 every half hour or so. By 215 the Pitocin was at 42 and the nurse checked her progress to find she was now dilated to 6cm!
Around 230 she started feeling some pelvic pressure and the nurse realized they never gave her the "epi button" to boost the epidural every so often. They attached the button, pressed it and told her if she was still feeling pressure/pain in another 15-20 minutes to call the nurse back. They checked her again before the nurse left the room and she proudly exclaimed "7 cm and the baby's coming down a lot more!". YAY!
Pushed the epi button again at 245 but by this point she was feeling pain with every contraction, where as before we would have to tell her she was even having one. Called the nurse back just after 3 and at 311 the nurse said she was fully dilated to 1o cm! HOLY COW! She went from 1 to 6, 7, 10 in a matter of an hour!
They started doing "test pushes" at 324. I'm not really sure what differentiates a "test push" from a REAL push, because they certainly seemed like real pushes to me!!!
The on-call doctor (who we didn't love) came in at 345 and the broke the bed down, wheeled in all the carts of things they would need (including the baby scale, so exciting!!), and got down to business.
Rylan was born at 401 pm (37 minutes of pushing) weighing in at 7lbs even, 19 1/2 inches long.
I will save the gory details of the delivery, but will say I sat wide-eyed for a while.. taking in the scene from a stool in the corner of the room up by V's head.
We found out very shortly after delivery that the dr had to do a "partial 3rd degree episiotomy" (where "partial" apparently means "almost"). Ouch.
Rylan's APGARs were 9 and 9, and he clearly had very healthy lungs, as proven by his beautiful wailing.
I stuck around to take a few quick pictures of their first couple minutes as a family of 3, then everyone left the room for them to have some bonding time to themselves.
It was truly an amazing experience for me to be there for his entrance into the world.
Amazing.
And terrifying.
I just cannot wrap my mind around the idea that that will be ME in 11 weeks or less.
Wow.
I hope I handle labor and delivery as well as she did!!! She did AWESOME. Not one scream. No profanity. No threats of bodily injury directed towards her husband (or anyone else). She did great.
Rylan is a handsome, perfect, sweet little man.
He is eating well (though his mama is in pain!), he is sleeping quite a bit (though not always at night), he has spent quite a bit of time alert taking in the new world he's a part of, and he is the world's sweetest cuddle bug (at least until you come along, sweet girl).
I am so in love with this precious babe, and can only imagine how much greater the feeling of awe and admiration will be with you, my daughter.
Being here for his arrival, for his first few days home, his first pediatrician's appointment, his first bath -- all these things have taught me a thing or two about the way I will need to handle things at home when you are here, Camy. It has helped me make some of the decisions I've been pondering, and made me rethink some of the decisions I thought I had already made.
It has been a great crash course in Mommyhood for me. I am so thankful to have been able to walk along side my sister on her journey, so thankful that we got to experience our first pregnancies together, so thankful she will there walking me through my delivery, and HUGELY thankful that you will have a cousin so close in age to grow up with and share your life experiences with.
I hope you and Rylan are able to develop a strong bond.
I hope you will always be the best of buds. And love and trust each other as much as your Aunt and I do.
I can't wait for you two to meet. To celebrate the holidays with the both of you. To watch you both grow.
I couldn't have imagined a scenario better than this for the way our 2 families would grow.
1 comment:
Lol--if no screaming or cursing = being awesome through delivery, I don't want to be awesome. ;-P
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