amelia's birth story.

{ben's story}

late friday night, i noticed some twinges to my abdomen. at first, i thought nothing of it. i had experienced braxton hicks on wednesday and thought they had returned. especially after our swimming escapade!

didn't really time them or anything. i was not in the mindset that i would go into labor. her csection was scheduled before her due date. but then i couldn't fall asleep. so, i started looking at the clock. sure enough, they were pretty darn regular. ten minutes or so apart.

nick had just come up to bed about thirty minutes before i noticed them. didn't want to wake him, but decided i probably should. told him that i thought i might be having contractions. that i was going to hop in the shower and see if that helped.

holy cow. it so didn't help. by the time i was done, i could barely stand. but went ahead and brushed my teeth. apparently, nick heard me brushing my teeth and thought that it was a false alarm. he figured if it were serious, i would have told him before that point. i was bent over the sink brushing my teeth. managed to finish, and open the door to the bathroom and told nick, 'i think you should call my mom.'

he does. there is no answer. rut roh. nick decides to call his dad and michelle. michelle answers and nick tells her we need her to watch ben. her response, 'sure bring him over.' ha! guess we woke her up! she did make it to the house pretty darn quickly. shockingly, my brother heard the message and called nick back. asked if we needed his assistance. so surprising. we had just joked about how ben is pretty low maintenance and he could totally take care of him, if need be, when we were at my parent's house earlier in the evening.

i'm walking around. trying to breathe. nick is running around trying to pack a bag. we leave about 1:35am. i hate contractions and labor. or the fact that i don't have an epidural and i'm in labor. ;) the pressure to my lower abdomen/bladder was insane. i seriously thought i could pee at any moment. {tmi? sorry. just being honest.}

nick got the hospital and dropped me off. the intake lady commented on how nice i smelled and asked if i just showered! ha! of course, i did! who knows what was going to happen and when the next time i was going to shower would be.

the er guys took us up to labor and delivery. the one was impressed with my contraction app. such a blessing. i couldn't think straight.

got to the floor and was placed in a room. had to answer a million questions. which i was told i wouldn't have to answer when i had my non stress test the friday before. sigh. nick tried to answer for me so we could get through as quickly as possible.

the doctor was called around 2:15am. the nurses were working on iv access. they were the worst. seriously, five sticks and they still couldn't get me. ended up giving me the morphine as a shot rather than through the iv because they were so unsuccessful. finally called iv team. bless shirley. she got it on the first stick. i love her. tell her that if i was in charge of naming this baby, she would be called shirley in her honor! 

about 2:45am the doctor came in. mine, unfortunately, was not on call. however, this doctor was very nice. dr. pulliev? they called him dr. roman. as they were discussing my condition and how i wasn't hydrated because it took like 25 minutes for an iv, that i could have the epidural until i was hydrated, that my contractions were pretty intense, that i had gone from a finger tip to 3 cm dilated in just about 30 minutes, i felt something strange with a contraction. yelled to them that my water broke. they all paused and looked up at me like i was crazy and then you heard the water hit the floor. then they really got moving.

i hear the nurse say there is meconium in the fluid. uh oh. here comes surgery and i'm trying to transfer from the bed to the cart but i can barely move. the contractions are not giving me a break and i feel useless! i was sweating and shivering and miserable. i just kept telling nick, 'help me.'

they take me to or and i have no epidural. tell me that we have to move now and they'll do it when we arrive. i'm not sure where nick went. i know he had to get gowned up to join me. the epidural was an interesting feat. i could barely crouch over or hold still. the one anesthesiologist, bless him, held me since nick was unavailable while the other one did the actual procedure.

i could feel it almost immediately. yay. i'm a happy lady. then they mentioned that i would feel pressure and tugging but no hot or cold sensation or sharp pains. really? i don't remember that with ben? but then again, that was after a long day of no progress. i might have fallen asleep for parts of it.

a very flattering picture. ;)

3:51 am baby arrives! nick actually got to watch the doctor pull her out of my stomach. he said that he thought she was going to be decapitated with how hard he had to pull. i'm sure it's no easy feat pulling an almost 9 pound baby out of lots of contracting muscles. 

the nicu was there because they knew there was meconium in the amniotic fluid. knew they took her to the corner to check her out. didn't hear much crying. she did quack like a duck at one point. which was kinda funny to us because my friend's husband had just said she should be named afflack. her nickname instantly became ducky.

the neonatologist came over and told us that she had aspirated the fluid and needed to be taken to the nicu. nick went with her and i stayed in the or to get stitched up and then headed to recovery.

 her first picture.

no family photo this time since they wanted her to go to the nicu.

i'm not exactly sure what these are. but nick took them, so i'm assuming they are important. not like him to just take random pictures. if it were me taking the pictures, that would be a different story!

lady bug. 

the recovery nurse was obnoxious. she was the loudest gum chewer ever. and seriously, that is one of my biggest pet peeves. ugh, so annoying. again, i was shaking. i remember shaking uncontrollably after delivering ben. love their warmed blankets. i had like 3 on me. my sensation came back a lot quicker this time. i think it was because i didn't have the epidural through the laboring process. so they put the meds that they needed in and then removed the access.

about 5:50am i was taken to my post partum room. visited with nick. said that baby ducky was doing ok. had oxygen and an iv. told me her stats.

i was in and out of it all day. had been up for almost 36 hours. we were exhausted. had some weird itching with the duramorph that was in my epidural. bless the assistant who told me a trick was to not get too warm. she was so right. even offered to bring me a fan!

my bruised and battered arms....

nick kept checking on both of us all day. he was able to feed her and speak with the neonatologist.

i didn't get to go visit lady bug until about 4pm.

meeting momma. 

so chubby!

first family photo. minus ben, of course. yes, i'm tired. 

much better even if nick did chop off his head! 

she's thinking. and i think she decided that she likes us. ;)

one of the first things nick told me about her was that she had ridiculously long fingers and toes.

when we were visiting with baby, nick got a work phone call. he had to go in to work. of course he does! that's been his hectic work life lately.

ben didn't really get to meet baby. there was a misunderstanding about nicu visitation. he did get to see from a distance. like he stood outside the nicu and someone held the baby up inside the nicu. he excitedly exclaimed, 'i got to see my baby through the door!'

then everyone headed home and nick left and went to work and then headed home to get some odds and ends that he had forgotten in the frenzy to pack his bags!

the only good thing about a baby in nicu, is that you get to have uninterrupted sleep. okay, let's reword that. sleep that isn't interrupted by a baby. of course, the nurses and ancillary staff are still in and out of your room at all hours.

such a crazy, quick experience. makes me glad we didn't venture far out for the fourth. we would have had a baby that was delivered in a car!

so thankful that she was healthy, ignore the quick nicu stay. had so many bottled emotions and anxiety with her birth. couldn't relax and be excited because i was so worried that there would be something wrong despite the reassurance from the genetic doctors from university of chicago. twice.

had made for a pretty nerve wracking pregnancy. glad we can relax and just enjoy our the new addition to our family.