Birth Story

I've deliberately waited a week to record this, first so that I could spend that time getting to know our little girl, and secondly so that I could be clear-headed to write it.

But everybody has a story, right? And at the very least, I want to record Mia's birth here, for posterity.

I was due April 10, but Mia was just way too comfortable and not interested in going anywhere. The following week, I went in for an NST and fluid check on Monday...nothing. No change, no signs of impending labor. I thought that my water may be "leaking", but when they did a check, it came back negative for amniotic fluid. We scheduled another NST for Thursday, and induction for that Friday, the 17th, and went back home.

The rest of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday passed uneventfully. Besides being large and uncomfortable and cranky, there was nothing else going on. Then, Wednesday night, I started having contractions, out of the blue, but nothing serious. They continued throughout the night, and by Thursday morning, were less than 5 minutes apart, but still tolerable.

We went to my appointment, where they did another NST, and cervical check. They were about to send me home, but I mentioned that I still felt like I had a slow leak, and they decided to do another litmus test to check for amniotic fluid. This time, it tested positive straight away, so they decided to induce me. That was around 11 am.

The delivery ward at this hospital is small, averaging about three babies a day. On the day I was there, they delivered six. Needless to say, it was a little busy. I was placed in a recovery room and an IV started while I waited for a labor and delivery room to be available. It was around 12:00 when they moved me into labor and delivery, and another hour or so before they started pitocin 2 hours, because I still hadn't progressed past 2 cm.

In the next 3 hours, I went from 2-4cm and we were feeling pretty optimistic that things would move along without having to continuously increase the pitocin.

And then I stalled out.

I held out on the epidural until about 4:30pm, but at that point, progress was still extremely slow, despite the fact that the contractions were more intense and closer together. The epidural was a blessing, though it immediately dropped my blood pressure quite a bit and left me feeling fuzzy and shaky for about an hour or so.

There were lots of hours and lots of television, lots of body shakes, and some other unpleasantness until almost 10:45pm, when I finally reached 10cm. The nurse came in and told me we were going to start pushing, but that new babies sometimes took 2-3 hours of pushing before they were born. I had had it at this point and started to cry that I couldn't do this anymore. Baby Mia must have taken pity on me, however, because once the next phase started, things happened FAST. I pushed for about 45 minutes and she was out, healthy, pink, and wailing at 11:54 pm on Thursday, April 16. 7 lbs, 10 ozs, and 21 inches long. I had quite a bit of tearing, and so I was a little bit slower than I would have liked bouncing back, but we're doing well.

She had a slight bit of jaundice and so spent one day under the tanning lights, but that was all it took. I'm so lucky to have such a sweet little baby. She only cries when she's hungry, breastfeeding has been a breeze, and she only wakes up once between 9:30pm and 6am. I've quickly learned to pick up on her moods and we've settled into something of a routine, at least as much as you can with a newborn.

Thank you for all your thoughts, well wishes, cards, emails, and messages. I haven't been responding, but I've been reading them all. Since Mia is so good about napping in the afternoon, I'm hoping to be able to use some of that time today to catch up. In the meantime, check back here soon for a few more pictures.