Amelia's Birth Story

(since I am still cooped up in the hospital and obviously don't have enough to do...)

I started having contractions when we were out to dinner Saturday night. The prevailing theory is that the onset of labor might have had something to do with said dinner; I had three glasses of raspberry lemonade, a bowl of chilli with a healthy serving of jalapenos mixed in, texas cheese fries again with a healthy dose of jalapenos, and last but not least -- you guessed it -- jalapeno steak quesadillas. Personally, however, I feel that dinner had nothing to do with it and that Amelia simply decided she did not want to share a birthday with Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern, which she would have if she'd waited until her scheduled c-section on the 12th.

Anyway, I told Mike I needed to go home and lie down, assuming that my contractions were the usual Braxton Hicks that I'd been having for weeks. Once at home, I noticed that I was not feeling the contractions in the usual place -- instead of feeling them all over or up high, they were down low. I noted this to Mandy over the phone and she said "Cross your legs till I get there!"

After I put Charlie to bed I promptly went to bed myself, thinking that I would sleep off the contractions the way I usually did But I woke up an hour later to stronger contractions which I soon realized were coming 5 minutes apart like clockwork. I got up and got a glass of water, thinking that I would drink the water and then relax for half an hour, then call Sue if I still thought I might be in labor. I got through half the glass of water before being hit with the next contraction, which was considerably stronger than the others had been. At that point I realized that a) I was definitely in labor and b) it was going to take Sue a good hour to get to the house from Billerica so I had better call her now, which I did.

While I waited for her to come I haphazardly packed my hospital bag in between contractions -- so much for the methodical packing job I had been planning to do with Mandy Monday night. I forgot a few crucial things, and randomly packed a few other things. Then I came downstairs and Mike and I waited for Sue, with me sitting on a towel because I was afraid my water was going to break on our good sofa.

By the time Sue arrived the contractions were still about 5 minute apart but they were now strong enough that they demanded my full attention; I couldn't walk or talk through them but they were still very manageable. We left for the hospital with barely a 'hi' and a 'bye' to Sue. By the time we got to the hospital the contractions had kicked up another notch and things like driving over bumps and laughing in the middle of the contractions became annoying.

The admitting nurse had entirely too many questions for my liking and by the time they got me in a room and hooked up to the monitors my contractions were between 2 and 5 minutes apart and I was definitely feeling that they needed to streamline the whole process a bit and cut right to the part where they cut me open, or atleast give me some pain relief.

When they finally did send the anaesthesiologist up to see me she was my new best friend until she informed me of several things: 1) She did not want to give me an epidural because of the problems I had with the epidural at Charlie's birth; I would have to have a spinal, which is what they prefer to use for c-sections anyway because they are more reliable and take effect instantaneously. 2) Because the spinal takes effect instantaneously they administer it right in the OR directly before the c section -- I could not have it ahead of time, and 3) My OB was tied up with 2 other births and I would have to wait until she was done with those before we could go down to said OR and proceed with the spinal and c-section.

So I was forced to labor through increasingly horrendous contractions while we waited for the green light to head to the OR. By that time the contractions were so bad that I was violently nauseous in between them and fighting to stay conscious during them and pretty well wondering how the species continued for the 1.6 million years it did until adequate pain control methods were developed.

Once in the OR they somehow managed to get the spinal done in short order, thanks to the nurse who basically single handedly held me upright while the anaesthesiologist worked. And I do have to say the spinal did pretty much work instantaneously -- I felt one more contraction as they swung me onto the operating table and that was it.

By the time they let Mike in I was still shaking from the adrenaline of the last few hours but otherwise in much better shape than when I had left him, and I was beginning to get curious again about whether this baby who had just caused me so much trouble was a boy or a girl, whereas 15 minutes before I would not have cared if it was a two headed alien, I just wanted it out.

Mike stood up to watch the delivery; the first observation that everyone made was that the baby had a lot of hair. The second observation, from Mike, was that no, the baby did not have Charlie's big lips. Then when they pulled her out: "It's a girl!!"

I flat out did not believe him: "It's not a girl -- is it really a girl?" The doctor had to assure me that she was looking too and that it was indeed, a girl. A 9lb 1 oz girl, to be exact.

And that, in a lot more than a nutshell, is the story of Amelia's birth :)

If all goes well I and my beautiful girl will get to go home tomorrow! Which means... I need a new title for this blog!! (And hello, some updated header pics would be great...)