The saga started on Monday, December 8th. I squatted down to make the bed and felt a small trickle. I went to the bathroom to confirm that it was not just my leaky bladder (sorry people, if this is too much information you might want to stop reading now!)
I called out to Adam, who was already dressed for work that I thought my water had broken (although just a little bit.) I placed a call to the OB's office for some direction. Based on my description and my lack of contractions, he told me that I needed to go to Labor and Delivery right then to be examined. I called our friend Jill and asked her to come over. Jill is also pregnant (8 mos at the time) and has a son Henry's age.
After she got there with her son, and Henry's subsequent meltdown we headed off to L&D. The nurse took me into the bathroom so that she could examine the fluid and try to catch some of it on the test strip to see if it was indeed amniotic fluid. She agreed that she did see something, even thought it was just a small leak. She was very concerned by the color of it and thought it qualifed as looking like meconium was mixed in (this is not good). They whisked me out of triage and straight to a labor room. If meconium is involved you need to deliver right away because of a risk to the baby. They hooked me up to the monitors and I was only contracting every 10 minutes. The triage physician's assistant came into the room and was annoyed that they had moved me to L&D since she was not convinced my water had broken. Apparently she and the nurse don't get along and I was in the middle of their pissing match.
They did an ultrasound and the baby looked fine and there was still a ton of fluid. They asked me to walk around a bit to get the water to break more conclusively. After being there about an hour they decided to send me home since they didn't think it really broke and there was no danger to the baby. We picked up Henry who was now at Jill's house and headed home. We called Barry (Adam's brother) and asked him to be on-call should we have to go to the hospital that night.
I continued to have more leakage and intermittent contractions throughout the day and night. They were very light and I was able to get some sleep. I woke the next morning and they had completely stopped. I asked Adam to work from home again just in case. I also wanted to go see the OB since I was not convinced that I was not leaking and was worried about an infection. He saw me at 11:15am and although I was not contracting on the monitors, I was now 4cm dialated. He did some more tests and agreed that he didn't think my water had broken.
I decided to drown my sorrows by picking up some Shake Shack burgers for lunch. Adam, Henry and I tucked into a nice greasy meal and I immediately started to not feel well. I was contracting ever 8-10 minutes, but they were pretty uncomfortable so I knew they were the real thing. We called Barry and asked him to come over for dinner (or at least by 8pm) so that we could get Henry acclimated before bedtime. One of my bigger fears was having him wake during the night without us there and be scared.
By 3pm, I was really uncomfortable and told Adam to call Barry and ask him to come over sooner. Being in labor with your toddler in the house is actually a good thing. You have to work so hard to remain in control and not scare them that it helps deal with the pain. I'm sure Henry was mildly curious though why his mother kept squatting in the corner every 5-7 minutes!
Around 4:30pm, I was now contracting every 3-5 minutes. That was the measurement that the PA at the hospital had given me to come back in. I casually called my OB's office to let the on call doctor know that I would be heading in soon. The assistant to my doctor came onto the phone and told me that the Dr. wanted me to go RIGHT THEN. I told her we were waiting for Barry and would leave in about an hour. My doctor then got on the phone and told me that if I didn't want to give birth in a taxi cab I should go to the hospital. Apparently the PA didn't take into account how dialated I already was and that this was not my first child.
Barry arrived shortly after and I was ready to haul ass to the hospital. I was in excrutiating pain and knew it was not long now. Henry threw the mother of all tantrums and was in complete hysterics. I was trying to calm him down (even carrying him) in the midst of my contractions. Picking up your 26lb toddler in the middle of a contraction is not something that I recommend!
Somehow I survived the cab ride (in rush hour traffic) and made it to the hospital. I could barely make it a few feet in between contractions so Adam commandeered a wheel chair to get me into the elevator (embarrassing but I didn't care at that point.) The waiting room was packed and I sat there sweating and feeling like I was dying, I am sure scaring the other women half to death who were just there for monitoring. Luckily my OB had cleared me to skip triage and they got me right into a room.
They checked me and I was 6cm dialated. The world's slowest nurse filled out my paperwork and tried to find a vein to start the saline IV required for an epidural. She couldn't get it in and I think my cursing, sweating and shaking scared her off because her supervisor came in and I never saw her again. They finally got the damn bag started and then the anesthesiologist was no where to be found. Adam was literally pacing the hallways looking for her. Poor guy was pretty scared of the demon that had overtaken his wife. She finally came in and I told her to just give me whatever paperwork I needed to sign, I promised not to sue her.
Just as they were prepping me for the big needle to the spine, my water broke in a huge gush. I literally felt the baby shoot down like she was on a water slide and I screamed. It qualifes as one of the strangest feelings ever. Somehow they got the epidural in and I was now in heaven. The doctor checked me again right away and I was 10cm and it was time to push. She asked me to take one practice push and she saw the head. She ran off to get a nurse and two pushes later the baby was out. I was sitting up enough to see the sex before Adam could shout it out. He admitted that he thought it was a boy initially. I was shocked (and thrilled) to see it was a girl, I truly expected a boy. I could not believe how pudgy she looked. The doctor handed her to me right away, something I didn't get to experience with Henry because of the fever I had during labor. She was so cute and I was just stunned that she was here so quickly.
We started calling her Molly immediately. She is named after Adam's great-grandmother Molly, who died when his grandfather (his mother's father) was a young boy. We wanted to pick a name that started with an M to honor Adam's mother Marlene, who died when Henry was 7 weeks old. Marlene was named an M name after Molly, so it all flows. We picked Anne because that was Marlene's middle name and is my mother's middle name as well.
As you can see by the picture, she was born with a full head of black hair and she has light eyes like Henry. She is such a sweet baby and we are thrilled to have her!
I called out to Adam, who was already dressed for work that I thought my water had broken (although just a little bit.) I placed a call to the OB's office for some direction. Based on my description and my lack of contractions, he told me that I needed to go to Labor and Delivery right then to be examined. I called our friend Jill and asked her to come over. Jill is also pregnant (8 mos at the time) and has a son Henry's age.
After she got there with her son, and Henry's subsequent meltdown we headed off to L&D. The nurse took me into the bathroom so that she could examine the fluid and try to catch some of it on the test strip to see if it was indeed amniotic fluid. She agreed that she did see something, even thought it was just a small leak. She was very concerned by the color of it and thought it qualifed as looking like meconium was mixed in (this is not good). They whisked me out of triage and straight to a labor room. If meconium is involved you need to deliver right away because of a risk to the baby. They hooked me up to the monitors and I was only contracting every 10 minutes. The triage physician's assistant came into the room and was annoyed that they had moved me to L&D since she was not convinced my water had broken. Apparently she and the nurse don't get along and I was in the middle of their pissing match.
They did an ultrasound and the baby looked fine and there was still a ton of fluid. They asked me to walk around a bit to get the water to break more conclusively. After being there about an hour they decided to send me home since they didn't think it really broke and there was no danger to the baby. We picked up Henry who was now at Jill's house and headed home. We called Barry (Adam's brother) and asked him to be on-call should we have to go to the hospital that night.
I continued to have more leakage and intermittent contractions throughout the day and night. They were very light and I was able to get some sleep. I woke the next morning and they had completely stopped. I asked Adam to work from home again just in case. I also wanted to go see the OB since I was not convinced that I was not leaking and was worried about an infection. He saw me at 11:15am and although I was not contracting on the monitors, I was now 4cm dialated. He did some more tests and agreed that he didn't think my water had broken.
I decided to drown my sorrows by picking up some Shake Shack burgers for lunch. Adam, Henry and I tucked into a nice greasy meal and I immediately started to not feel well. I was contracting ever 8-10 minutes, but they were pretty uncomfortable so I knew they were the real thing. We called Barry and asked him to come over for dinner (or at least by 8pm) so that we could get Henry acclimated before bedtime. One of my bigger fears was having him wake during the night without us there and be scared.
By 3pm, I was really uncomfortable and told Adam to call Barry and ask him to come over sooner. Being in labor with your toddler in the house is actually a good thing. You have to work so hard to remain in control and not scare them that it helps deal with the pain. I'm sure Henry was mildly curious though why his mother kept squatting in the corner every 5-7 minutes!
Around 4:30pm, I was now contracting every 3-5 minutes. That was the measurement that the PA at the hospital had given me to come back in. I casually called my OB's office to let the on call doctor know that I would be heading in soon. The assistant to my doctor came onto the phone and told me that the Dr. wanted me to go RIGHT THEN. I told her we were waiting for Barry and would leave in about an hour. My doctor then got on the phone and told me that if I didn't want to give birth in a taxi cab I should go to the hospital. Apparently the PA didn't take into account how dialated I already was and that this was not my first child.
Barry arrived shortly after and I was ready to haul ass to the hospital. I was in excrutiating pain and knew it was not long now. Henry threw the mother of all tantrums and was in complete hysterics. I was trying to calm him down (even carrying him) in the midst of my contractions. Picking up your 26lb toddler in the middle of a contraction is not something that I recommend!
Somehow I survived the cab ride (in rush hour traffic) and made it to the hospital. I could barely make it a few feet in between contractions so Adam commandeered a wheel chair to get me into the elevator (embarrassing but I didn't care at that point.) The waiting room was packed and I sat there sweating and feeling like I was dying, I am sure scaring the other women half to death who were just there for monitoring. Luckily my OB had cleared me to skip triage and they got me right into a room.
They checked me and I was 6cm dialated. The world's slowest nurse filled out my paperwork and tried to find a vein to start the saline IV required for an epidural. She couldn't get it in and I think my cursing, sweating and shaking scared her off because her supervisor came in and I never saw her again. They finally got the damn bag started and then the anesthesiologist was no where to be found. Adam was literally pacing the hallways looking for her. Poor guy was pretty scared of the demon that had overtaken his wife. She finally came in and I told her to just give me whatever paperwork I needed to sign, I promised not to sue her.
Just as they were prepping me for the big needle to the spine, my water broke in a huge gush. I literally felt the baby shoot down like she was on a water slide and I screamed. It qualifes as one of the strangest feelings ever. Somehow they got the epidural in and I was now in heaven. The doctor checked me again right away and I was 10cm and it was time to push. She asked me to take one practice push and she saw the head. She ran off to get a nurse and two pushes later the baby was out. I was sitting up enough to see the sex before Adam could shout it out. He admitted that he thought it was a boy initially. I was shocked (and thrilled) to see it was a girl, I truly expected a boy. I could not believe how pudgy she looked. The doctor handed her to me right away, something I didn't get to experience with Henry because of the fever I had during labor. She was so cute and I was just stunned that she was here so quickly.
We started calling her Molly immediately. She is named after Adam's great-grandmother Molly, who died when his grandfather (his mother's father) was a young boy. We wanted to pick a name that started with an M to honor Adam's mother Marlene, who died when Henry was 7 weeks old. Marlene was named an M name after Molly, so it all flows. We picked Anne because that was Marlene's middle name and is my mother's middle name as well.
As you can see by the picture, she was born with a full head of black hair and she has light eyes like Henry. She is such a sweet baby and we are thrilled to have her!
1 comment:
Love the labor story. Amazing how different it is the 2nd time around (note to self). Congratulations again and hope you are feeling well! By the way, we'll be joining you guys in a few short months with a baby girl!
Take care!
- Queenie
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