diane's birth story

i woke up at 2:30 am on saturday morning and felt like i had to go to the bathroom. this was not unusual (although not something that i had to deal with during madeleine's pregnancy), especially in the last couple weeks, when i had been growing more and more uncomfortable in my pregnancy. especially at night.

after going to the bathroom, i went back to sleep, only to wake up five minutes later with the same feeling. after doing this two more times, i realized that theses probably were not my usual unfruitful bathroom pregnancy urges, but in fact, contractions. in my defense, i did not experience anything less than extremely painful contractions with madeleine, so this was a completely new sensation for me.

still not sure if this was the real thing, i decided to give it a few more minutes and hop in the shower in case we were going to be heading to the hospital so that i would be awake and clean for the birth. i took a short shower, and by the time i was out, the contractions were coming more regularly and were stronger and i decided that we should head to the hospital. i woke up randy, finished a few last minute preparations, and by 3:40 am, we were out the door. one of the convenient things about sharing a house with my sister is that we were able to leave madeleine with her and didn't have to worry about that in addition to getting to the hospital.

i called the midwife on call on our way to the hospital and told her all of the important stats: i was having contractions that were pretty strong and about two minutes apart that lasted for about thirty seconds; i was 39 1/2 weeks along and measured at 4cm and 80% effaced at 36 weeks; my last labor only lasted two and a half hours; every midwife that had seen me since 36 weeks told me to high tail it to the hospital as soon as anything started happening and call the midwife on call right away; and we were on our way to the hospital. she told me she was going to head to the hospital as well and that she would call ahead so that they would be ready for me.

even though i had been instructed to go to the hospital as soon as any kind of labor started, i was still feeling a little worried if we were heading to the hospital prematurely and that they would kind of roll their eyes when we showed up (this is what comes from not having a "normal" birth experience the first time around). however, by the time we arrived at the hospital (3:55 am), the contractions were coming more frequently and were stronger. they took me straight to a delivery room and when they checked me at 4:00 am, i was dilated to 7cm. i was glad that we had left no later than we did.

they immediately hooked me up to an i.v. and started antibiotics because i was group b strep positive and was supposed to have four hours of antibiotics before delivery. by 4:10 am the anesthesiologist had shown up, and like the anesthesiologist i had with madeleine, was reluctant to start an epidural when i was already progressed so far. he suggested the idea of just doing a spinal (which is what i had with madeleine), but we decided to just go with the epidural. by 4:30 am, the epidural was placed and had kicked in.

it's funny, with madeleine, i was in so much pain before i got my spinal that i was really sedate and withdrawn before and afterwards, i was joking around with everyone and much more chipper. with this one, i was joking around before the epidural (although still in pain), but once i got the epidural, it kind of put me out. i got some shakes and was also pretty nauseated, so i just kind of took it easy and didn't say much.

at 5:15 am, they checked me again and i was "pretty much at 10 cm," according to the nurse. at this point, the midwife came in to talk to us and told us that her game plan was just to wait as long as possible in the hopes that they could get through all of the antibiotics that i needed. she told me to just take it easy and try to get some sleep. easier said than done.

by 6:00 am, i had thrown up a few times and was feeling the urge to push pretty strongly despite having an epidural. also, i was watching the fetal heart rate monitor and diane's heart rate kept having decelerations. (sidenote: while i was a law clerk, we had a ten day medical malpractice trial that focused almost completely on whether a nurse and doctor had properly read a fetal heart rate monitor. i am not usually an alarmist, but after hearing several days of expert testimony on fetal heart rate monitors, i didn't really want my baby having decelerations of any kind) i decided that this baby wasn't going to wait a couple more hours and told the nurse that i was ready to go. the midwife came in at 6:15 am and had me push a couple times and then checked and skeptically said that diane was still up behind my pelvic bone. she still let me continue though, and at 6:18 am, she broke my water. after about five pushes, diane was out. time of birth: 6:25 am.

they wiped her down and then put her on my chest and i got to hold her for about half an hour and then feed her for another half an hour before they whisked her away for a bath and testing. i didn't get that experience with madeleine and loved being able to just hold her and have some bonding time before they took her away.

diane is a beautiful little girl and a wonderful addition to our family. randy and i keep saying that it's hard to imagine her birth going much smoother than it did. we are grateful that she and i are both healthy and feel so blessed to be her parents.