Birth Day

Christine's water broke on the night of Wednesday June 4th, just after 8:00 PM. We were talking on the phone to my mother, and Christine took off for the bathroom in a hurry. She came back, and said "I think my water just broke." I asked her to repeat it for my mom, but she had already heard it, and replied, "Isn't this exciting!". We said quick goodbyes and called our doctor's office. The doctor had us come right in to the hospital; luckily we had packed our bags a couple of days before, just in case.

Erin's due date was June 21st, two and a half weeks away. It would be a severe understatement to say that we were not quite ready. Christine had just finished the "What to Expect" chapter on childbirth, and was planning on reading the chapters on baby care next, and I had about four unfinished projects strewn about the house.

We made the hospital by 9:00 PM, and Christine was hooked up to various monitors, IVs, and such. Since it was after hours, our chosen doctor (Dr. Sally Grogono) was not available, and one of her partners (Dr. Patrick Nunnelly) was on call. We were told that delivery may well take until late in the morning, and looked forward to Dr. Grogono delivering our child. But we had nothing to worry about, as Dr. Nunnelly was excellent.

Christine's sister Heidi, her husband Larry, and their 3-year-old Lauren showed up to support us, and probably expected a long wait (as did we), but Christine's contractions started getting more intense, and they left us after a couple of hours. We appreciated their support, but we didn't feel comfortable with Lauren seeing how much pain Christine was in.

We went in to the delivery with open minds regarding pain management, open to either an epidural or a drug-free approach. From our 'baby classes' , we understood that Christine needed to be at a certain dilation, and be in an "active labor pattern" in order to receive an epidural. But because the baby was already so low, the nurses and doctor were unable to check Christine's dilation. In addition, we had expected dilation to take about an hour per centimeter.

So we assumed that Christine wasn't quite ready for an epidural, although she definitely wanted one. But when Christine's contractions started to hurt so bad that she curled up into a ball and cursed her way through them, we decided to ask what exactly the threshold was for an epidural, and if we were yet in an "active labor pattern". We were floored when the nurse said that Christine had been in an active labor pattern since her water broke, and she could have had an epidural at any time; all she had to do was ask.

There was the briefest of pauses, and then (very politely, but very firmly) Christine asked, "May I please have my epidural now?"

The anesthetist was called in, and was very professional and confident with his procedure, but he zinged Christine's leg nerve, and her leg kicked HARD against my knee, then back against the bed. I honestly expected bruising on her leg after the delivery. He adjusted the insertion, finished his procedure, and told Christine that it should start to take the edge off after the next few contractions.

Apparently the epidural worked fine, because a couple of contractions later, Christine was giggling and outright laughing her way through them. She'd press on her backside and giggle that it felt like it was about to fall off... The nurses said they'd seen all kinds of reactions to the drugs, but this was new to them. The giggling continued until the pushing began.

As I mentioned, we were unsure of Christine's dilation. Once the epidural was in effect, around 12:45 AM or so, the nurse checked her again, and we were all surprised to hear her announce that Christine was already dilated to 8 cm. I'm incredibly proud of Christine for making it that far into labor without any pain medication. Even the nurse said that she was surprised because she didn't feel that Christine was showing enough pain to be that far along.

And then the hard part started: the pushing. At one point during labor, one of the nurses mentioned that it may take a while to push, as this was a new experience for Christine. But she did beautifully, taking only two hours.

I'll skip over the details, but at one point a mirror was brought in so Christine could see what she was doing, and a pair of grips was added to the bed so she could have something to push against. I was holding Christine's right leg; the epidural had left her unable to move it at all (although her left leg was merely numb). Once Erin made it past the pubic bone, she started to move right out. In fact, she moved so far and so fast that she started crowning and coming out before the doctor answered his page! One of the nurses closed Christine's legs, and Erin slipped back in. We were a bit crestfallen, and dreaded another hour of pushing, but the nurse assured us that the baby would have no problem slipping right back to where she was.

Dr. Nunnelly arrived shortly, and another nurse arrived and started warming up what looked like a McDonald's fry bin, but turned out to be an incubator. Christine pushed a few more times, and Erin slowly began moving out. The mirror was still in place, and Christine got to see the tip of her head before the doctor mentioned 'episiotomy', and I asked a nurse to please move the mirror now.

At 4:54 in the morning of Thursday June 5th, Erin was born, only taking a little coaxing from Dr. Nunnelly. He artfully flipped her over and said, "Congratulations, it's a girl." We were both pretty surprised. Christine had expected a boy, although she wanted a girl. I had wanted a boy, but prepared myself for a girl. And about 90% of the people who guessed, told us that it was a boy.

But regardless of our expectations, Erin was beautiful. Dr. Nunnelly cleared her mouth and nose, clamped her umbilicus, and handed me a pair of medical scissors to cut her free of Christine. I did the honors, and have to say that the umbilicus is tough; it feels like cutting a garden hose with a sharp pair of shears.

Erin was then checked for her Apgar scores (8 and 9), cleaned up, and checked out. There was a lot of talk about 'immediate mother-child skin to skin contact' in our classes, but it was quite a few minutes before Erin was laid atop a cloth over Christine's gown, and covered with warm towels. During that time, Erin was weighed and checked out, and Christine was stitched and cleaned up. While I was watching our little miracle through tear-filled eyes, Christine asked me who she looked like, and I will forever regret my immediate thought of "Gollum". Sorry, Erin.

Erin lay on Christine's chest, and we hugged our daughter and cried tears of joy and relief, and said, "Look at what we did!" Dr. Nunnelly came over, congratulated us, and took our first family picture. Despite doing all the work, Christine managed to look far better in the pictures than I did.

Christine was wheeled to a recovery room, and I followed Erin to the nursery, where I learned to bathe her, put on a diaper, and do a proper swaddling. Apparently shift change happened right in the middle of everything, and it was about two hours later than Erin and I were escorted to Christine's recovery room a bit later.