Our Journey Through Parenthood: November 2011

Our precious baby girl made her way into our world on November 21st @ 12:33 a.m.

She is beautiful and perfect in every way!!!

Our birth plan was to do a natural delivery

Here is her birth story:

It all began at about 4 a.m. on the morning of the 20th. I had woken up and felt 'wet' but not soaked, I was wondering if my water had broken but it didn't seem like "enough" for it to be my water, so I headed to the bathroom to use the potty and then went back to bed w/o incident so all seemed status quo. But as I lay there I started to feel like something was leaking out of me???? I was confused but just laid there for a while to kind of assess the situation. Probably about 30 min or so later I felt like I needed to use the restroom again so I stood up and started to head to the bathroom and then it happened, I had a huge gush of water running down my legs...there was no denying at this point that my water had broken. So I woke Chad up and we called the doula. I knew I wasn't contracting and I didn't want to rush off to the hospital but I wanted to know what my doula thought about what we should do. So we got advice from her to check my temp (ensure no elevated temp) and check baby's heart rate w/my doppler (so glad I purchased this when I was pregnant with the twins) and if everything checked out we were safe to stay home for a while. She advised me to take a shower and then go back to bed...so since we weren't packed yet, Chad and I packed ourselves and Annaliese's bag, I took a shower and went back to bed but of course I couldn't sleep my mind was reeling, I couldn't believe this was actually happening. I thought for sure I would make it past at least Thanksgiving. Hind sight being what it is though I will say that I felt 'off' all day, very thirsty, nauseated and food aversions all over again...maybe these were all signs of what was about to come.

My body never really kicked into labor, at least not for a while at 5:00 that evening we were still at home waiting for the contractions to start but really didn't seem to think they were ever going to come. My doula wanted to come over to check on us and see if she had any tricks up her sleeve that might get things going. I had been resting up to this point in our bedroom w/one of my favorite candles lit and all the lights off and some relaxing spa music playing. When Taba (our doula) came over she came up to the bedroom w/me and put me through a series of exercises aimed to help 'open' things up and hopefully allow Annaliese to fall in the most optimal position. But after an hour and a half still not even a contraction :-( so we went downstairs and ate dinner and discussed our game plan everything from her going home and us reassessing in the morning to trying some more 'tricks' to see if we could get anything going. Our plan at this point is that she would spend the night in case things kicked off in the middle of the night and we had a hard time getting our baby sitter over in a timely manner. In the mean time she wanted me to go upstairs and take a nap. It was probably around 7-7:30 at this point. I got back in the shower as it seemed to help me feel a few contractions before, and then got in bed to rest. As I lay there I felt 2 very strong contractions but only had the 2 of them in about a 30 min span but it was something, so I went downstairs to let Taba know. She then set me up in a comfy position on the couch so I could 'hang' with her and Chad and they could watch to see if I had any contractions come in any kind of consistent pattern. Unfortunately the longer I sat there the further apart the contractions seemed to get, if not totally disappear. So up I got and we started walking up and down the stairs and circles around the kitchen and then all of a sudden there they came, one right after another they were only about 30 second each and coming anywhere from 1.5-3 min apart, they were strong and a bit painful but not unbearable. I kept thinking at some point they would go away but thankfully they kept coming. We did learn that if I sat down they would start to space out a bit more from each other so I stayed on my feet. The consistent contractions kicked in about 8:30, by 11:15 Taba said we needed to call our baby sitter and have her come over and then head to the hospital. So we called Celina (our babysitter) and the Midwife to let them know we were headed to the hospital. We left our home about 11:45 and made it to the hospital shortly after 12. I was in a new kind of pain on the way to the hospital. I felt all kinds of pressure and the contractions had changed a bit, they were longer and harder but a bit further a part, I only had 4 on the way to the hosptial but they were really good ones LOL. When I got out of the car I had another gush of fluid and my pants were soaked but I didn't care, I was in so much pain by this point I really didn't notice or care about anything. I could barely walk and Chad and the doula wanted to put me in a wheel chair but the idea of sitting down was so uncomfortable I just wanted to walk myself in between contractions. Thankfully we didn't have a super long walk. When we got up to L&D I had another gush of fluid running down my legs and I think the nursing staff knew at that point that baby was coming NOW...so no paper work for us...just a quick registration card and off to triage, where all I did was put on a gown and they checked my cervix, and I was 9/10 cm, +2 station and obviously 100% effaced :-). So they whisked me off to the delivery room but we were still waiting on the midwife to show up. She lived about 1 hour away from the hospital so it wasn't surprising that she wasn't there yet. I was laying on the bed in the L&D room just in another world, I am not going to lie, it hurt :-) A LOT!!!! I said things that I thought you only see in the movies like "she's coming" or "I'm pushing" my doula kind of laughed afterwards saying that the nurses were like, yea we know we can't stop you at this point but we are not helping you either. They desperately called the on-call doctor to get down to my room as the midwife still was not there and Annaliese was coming no matter what, and they knew it, even the nurse that restlessly kept trying to get the IV line in my wrist....she kept telling me to stay still and I was like 'whatever lady, I am having a baby'. About 5 min after the midwife showed Annaliese was born. Pushing was easier than what came before it and the pain seemed to ease a bit but I was spent at this point...I remember saying in the middle of pushing her out "I can't do this" not because of the pain but I was so tired and exhausted, of course I knew I had no choice but to finish what I started and with just a few more pushes out she came. I think I only pushed for about 14 min total, if that.

She is precious and beautiful and worth every contraction I felt and then some.

After I had pushed her out they laid her on my tummy and left her there for a while, it was so nice not having her whisked away, they had Chad cut the cord and then gave her back to me before they bathed her. We were in L&D for a bit after the birth filling out the paper work (you know the stuff you normally do before your baby is born) and signing the consent forms.

Annaliese latched right away and is a champion nurser. Still working on perfecting her latch so it isn't painful anymore and we are getting there, one feeding at a time.

All around we had exceptional care and a wonderful experience and Yes I would do a natural delivery again 10 x over before I would get an epidural. I felt wonderful afterwards, it was so amazing to not have the drugged strapped to the bed feeling. I was able to avoid all IV fluids as well which meant no edema, wooohooo...I had a positive experience with the twins as well but how I feel now compared to how I felt after the twins birth would always make me want as little medical intervention as possible.

I will note though that it wasn't on purpose that we got to the hospital so late, its just that I progressed much faster than anyone was realizing. But it was nice delivering only 30 min after arrival :-) and not being the girl walking up and down the halls trying to jump start her labor :-)

CHAD's Version

Aside from a handful of days in my 36 years of existence, the 4:00 AM hour is usually one that I sleep away. And on Sunday, 20 Nov 11, I was keeping with status quo and logging some good sleep in the wee hours of the morning. But as the clock pointed to 4AM, I was awoken by my wife’s sweet voice calling out to me in a deliberate but whisper-level tone. It took me a handful...a large handful, given the time of day, for my mind to process what me ears were hearing. ...”Honey, my water broke!”

“What? Really? Huh? Say that again? Dude, you need to rush to the hospital! Seriously? Holy Moly?...these were among the myriad of self-talk thoughts that ran through my mind. So as I got out of bed to walk over to the bathroom, it became readily apparent that indeed “Annaliese’s pool” no longer had a deep end. I recall our Midwife saying that if Gena’s water broke that they wanted us to call and then head into the hospital. I also knew that virtually every movie or television show that has a birthing scene in it usually includes some mad dash to hospital. So while it seemed we should call and go in, we took a strategic pause and thought. My idea was to give our Doula,

Taba, a call and get her opinion. The fact that it was 4AM gave me reservation in waking her up; but the reminder of Gena’s 24+ hours in the hospital last time reminded me that we wanted to stay home as long as safely possible this time around. So we called her and talked for a bit. Our plan became that we’d remain at home and monitor Gena’s temp (if it rose, we’d head in to ensure infection wasn’t becoming an issue) and

use the doppler to monitor Annaliese’s heart rate (a rise would indicate she might be under stress, which would also drive us to head in to the hospital.) I don’t frequent Holiday Inn Express, and while I did graduate from Health Careers High School and obtained a Biology degree from the USAFA, I know the limitations of my medical knowledge and will always err on the conservative side, particularly when health of my family is the concern. So while it seemed counter-culture to stay at home after Gena’s water broke, I felt comfortable with it and Gena desired that....so on the day went.

Unaware of the events of the past 3 and half hours, our twangels emerged from their room at 7:30 AM ready to rock and roll! I both love and admire the enthusiasm with which angels that age begin their day. Mom and Dad are trying to get a bit of shut-eye after breaking news in the wee hours of the morning and Evan and Taryn are ready for some breakfast and play. So from 7:30, the day began to take shape like so many others prior to it...and we used some time throughout the day to pack our bags for the eventual trip to the hospital.

At 1023, Taba sent me a text asking me how things were going. I replied that we had stable temps and heart rates and contractions were at 11 min apart. ...all good thus far.

She said to let her know if/when contractions were 6 mins apart.

And with things looking stable, I took the kids and ran out to the grocery store to pick up a few items for the impending trip to the hospital. And up through noon, the day remained normal.

Sent Taba another update at 12:11, with heart rates and temps still good and contractions picking up in intensity here and there but still in the 11-15 min range for spacing. In her reply, she asked how we were doing. I knew that a concern was the clock was working “against us”...if there wasn’t any progression in the 24 hours of Gena’s water broke, we’d essentially have to head to the hospital as a precaution. So I mentioned to Taba that as the afternoon rolls into the evening, it’ll be increasingly frustrating for Gena if things don’t progress. So we had a “line in the sand” of around 1AM...that if nothing in the 6 min spacing range by then, we’d begin the trip over to the hospital....tick tock, tick tock.....

Gena continued to rest upstairs and I continued to keep the twins occupied downstairs with normal daily activities. Around 2pm, I mentioned to Taba that it might be beneficial if she shows up between 5 and 6pm. Temps and Heart Rate will still steady, and there hadn’t been a lot of progress on the contraction front.

Taba arrived a few minutes after 5pm and worked with Gena upstairs while I got dinner ready for the kids. At about 6:30, Taba and Gena came downstairs to see the kids and to get some dinner. They’d done some things to try to help the progression, and for the most part things were just in a holding pattern. We talked about our options, and decided that Taba would plan to spend the night to continue working with Gena and then we’d head to the hospital by early morning if things still hadn’t moved along.

Taba suggested that I reference in the internet on her iPad so that I could have more info for how our situation was shaping up. As long as you levy a grain of salt to what you are reading and consider the source, the internet can be a great resource for information. So we googled “PROM”. Yes, I went to something by the same name back in 1994, but it had a whole different meaning here in Nov of 2011. So I was able to read some articles and see that remaining at home carried low risk as long as Gena’s temp was stable and Annaliese’s heart rate was stable too (thank goodness for our doppler!) Peace of mind is a great things, especially in these situations.

I gave the kids and bath and tucked them into bed. Gena continued her progression regimen with Taba. Around 8am, Gena was starting to experience some contractions that were significantly painful. Other signs were also points to some potential progression. Contraction frequency was picking up; and it went from where she could sit down on the balance ball to get a break from the contractions to it didn’t matter whether sitting or standing...they were frequent, and they were painful.

Just before 11pm, Taba suggested that we go ahead and call our babysitter so she could begin getting ready and work her way over to the house...she said she thought

that by the time she got here and based on the contractions that it’d be a good time to start working our way to the hospital. We also called our Midwife Practice to let them know...and after passing our stats to them, Katie (Midwife on call) said she was going to start towards the hospital (45 min drive for her) and would meet us there.

Our babysitter, Celina, arrived at 11:25pm. By that time, Gena’s contractions were 2-2.5 minutes apart. So when she needed to go upstairs to finalize and grab what she needed to bring to the hospital, we had to use the “hunker and hustle” tactic. “Okay,

get ready, this contraction is about to end and you’re only going to have a minute and a half to get up the stairs and grab your stuff”, coached Taba. So I was the wingman for the journey and helped her through the 4 contractions she had while assembling the necessary items. It must have taken a nerve-wracking amount of time because Taba came upstairs and tried to encourage us to hurry. I gave Celina some final reminders

as we headed towards the car. All loaded up, on we started towards the hospital at 1139pm. Gena was in some serious pain by this time and I knew that having to sit for the entire ride was not going to help things and I was not going to be able to help with the pressure/pain relief techniques while driving. As I hit the road, Gena reminded me that I needed to wait because Taba needed to follow us to the hospital.

According to Google Maps, it’s 16.4 miles from the front door of our condo to the

“Labor and Delivery” Parking spots right in front of the entrance to Anne Arundel Medical Center. So as we got rolling down the street, I continually did “Contraction Math”.

Contractions are 1.5 mins apart; and lasting for about 1.5 minutes; that’s three minutes for a total “cycle”; it’s 16.4 miles to the hospital; if I drive 1 mile per minute (60 MPH), that 16.4 minutes of transit time...which equates to about 5.5 contractions during the trip...that’s A LOT of pain...so speed up! Oh wait, it’s raining pretty hard and that wouldn’t be very safe...not to mention this thing called a speed limit! Thank goodness, at least, that it was almost midnight...it if had been 17 hours later during Monday rush-hour....well, I might have had to challenge the off-road capabilities of our MDX. Because I don’t think there should be any highways that are still 55MPH, murphy would stick me on one. So I took Texas Latitude and creeped up the speedometer to 60, and then added 1 for Gena, 1 for Annaliese, 1 for Taryn, 1 for Evan, and 1 for me...guess that wasn’t too much, because alongside came a police car and he just continued on his way.

We rolled into the Labor and Delivery parking spots at 1201AM. Taba parked next to us and I hurriedly threw what seemed like a dozen bags on my shoulder and scurried around the car to meet Gena and get rolling to L&D. 7 steps from the car...another contraction. A nurse drove slowly passed us and gave a nod and a sympathetic smile as if she knew exactly what was going on. One minute and seventeen seconds later, we continued the trip into the building. As we made it inside the entryway, I recalled the “if you only remember one thing” from our hospital orientation a few weeks prior: “Second Floor”. Taba offered to get a wheelchair but I thought it’d take longer to find one than to just keep going. But then there was the football field of a hallway that we

had to make our way down in order to get to the elevators. Given the fact that we traversed that distance with only one contraction timeout, we’d kept a pretty good pace.

Up the elevators and over and through the doors to Labor and Delivery. Things were quiet on the floor overall...multiple staff members behind the desk and one couple roaming the halls as if to try to help their labor progress (yah, we didn’t have that problem!) So we are literally not that far from having a baby right here in their hallway and they want to play 10-questions and have us fill our a patient information card. Really! Taba tackled the adminstrivia while Gena took on another contraction. The nurse steered us to the exam room so they could do the admittance exam (which was going to be like taking a test that you have the answers). They told Taba she’d have to temporarily leave and wait downstairs on the first floor until they completed the exam and put us in one of the rooms. Well, Taba knew how far along we were so she only went outside the doors to L&D and hungout there to await the word to come back.

The nurse did the exam...fully effaced, +1 station, 10cm...we weren’t the least bit shocked. The nurse team, on the other hand, furiously got a wheelchair, reminded Gena not to push and not to have the baby in the hallway, and got us moving to the

delivery room. I quickly sent a text to Taba and told her to come on in because it wouldn’t be long. As we left the exam room, the nurses began their diligent efforts to page the on-call OB because our doctor had not yet arrived and based on Gena’s progress they weren’t sure she was going to get to the hospital in time. We arrived in the delivery room at 1213 AM. As the nurse team, led by Michelle, assembled, they quickly realized that even the on-call doc needed to hurry. “Has someone paged the on call doctor yet?” We were told that Katie and the on-call doc met up in the hallway and Katie told him “I got this one!” :) She wasn’t about to miss what was her last delivery here in Annapolis (she was relocating to TX the following month). So a small “cheer” went out from the nurses as Katie arrived in the room at 1228 AM. That’s quite the timing when your midwife arrives and the words that followed “Hello” were “Okay, on this next contraction you’re going to have a baby.” And at 1233AM, our little Annaliese was born. A beautiful baby girl, 6lbs 13oz, 18.5 inches long with a full head of dark brown hair. The entire nursing staff marveled at what a beautiful little girl she was. What a miracle...what a night...what a blessing....what a beautiful daughter.