*Okay, seriously, this post is TMI. Don't read any further if you don't want to hear gross details.*
Since Eliza's labor was such an anomaly, I was warned from my first OB appointment with Ezra that his labor would probably be even faster. Several times our midwives told us that the usual rules about when to call didn't apply to us and that, when I thought I was in labor, I should go to the hospital immediately, even if that meant throwing Eliza in the car and bringing her with us. This made for a sort of tense last month of pregnancy for me. I kept thinking of all the different scenarios and wishing that I could control things. What if S got stuck in traffic and I had to drive myself? Should we really bring Eliza? I obsessed. Plus, I started getting regular contractions much earlier the second time around. I actually had 2 full blown false alarms with Ezra.
The first time I drove Eliza and I to the hospital as soon as the contractions started to get painful. I knew they would only get worse and I wanted to drive while I was able. When the contractions got closer together, I called Scott and he left to meet me there (Did I mention he has 5 days off for the whole YEAR? So I really didn't want him wasting his time off for false alarms.) I called Eli and he agreed to hang out with Eliza in the OB waiting room while they monitored me. False alarm, but at least it was cheap.
The 2nd false alarm was around 11pm. I called Eli again so he could come to our house and watch Eliza. I was sure this was it; the contractions were 5 minutes apart and quite painful. The doctor on call said to go straight to the hospital. Once we got there, the contractions stopped. That was a more expensive false alarm.
By the time I was 38 1/2 weeks pregnant, I was so over the false labor. I was getting contractions constantly. The midwife gave S instructions for delivering the baby on the side of the road, just in case. On May 29th at 4am I woke up with a contraction again. I rolled my eyes and went back to sleep. Seven minutes later I woke up again, frustrated. When it happened again, it was more painful. I woke S up and told him this might be it. He rolled over and went back to sleep, unconvinced. The fourth time I was certain. I called my parents so that they could stay at our house while Eliza slept. They started getting ready. Eli was out of town for a wedding, so our closest family was an hour away. I wasn't sure this baby was waiting that long, and I really didn't want to wake up a cranky Eliza and have her be all upset while I was in pain. The contractions got worse. I remembered that Zac and Julia were in Austin for her 10 year reunion. I called Zac up and he answered by saying, "Is this it? We're on our way." S got up and said, "Did you really already call your parents and Zac and Jules? What if this isn't really it?"
I told him this was definitely it and went to find some clothes to wear. Turns out I had one clean outfit that covered my belly- a blue dress my friend Michelle had handed down to me the month prior. Note that Michelle had purchased the dress to wear to a wedding. So, I looked a little goofy wearing this dress and my flip flops at 4am. True to his word, Zac and Jules were at our house within 10 minutes and we quickly left for the hospital while Eliza slept. On the way there, we heard the song Clementine. I think of Ezra every time I hear it now. I quickly remembered how uncomfortable contractions are when you're strapped into a car. We got to the front desk of the hospital and the nurse was saying I wasn't in the computer. I felt like such a number, and told her we had been there less than a week ago and I was definitely in the system. Right then Liane the midwife walked up with a big smile on her face and said, "you're having a baby today! I know it will go quickly so we've got everything set up and ready to go." She gave me a big hug. I immediately felt better about the situation.
Luckily when she checked me, I was already at an 8, so I knew I really didn't have to suffer that much longer (and I also knew that, once again, there would be no time for an epidural). The good news was that since I had a crunchy midwife this time around, I wasn't strapped flat on my back like with Eliza. I moved around, changed positions, sat on the birthing ball a bit, etc. Liane kept a heating pad on my back and was so very supportive and calm. I was still in a lot of pain, of course, and Liane recommended I try sitting backward on the toilet, as that's helpful for a lot of women. She had even put a pillow on the flusher, so I could rest on it. Then she left for maybe 2 minutes, the only 2 minutes she wasn't by my side. As soon as I sat down on the toilet, I felt a lot of pressure and said so. S was like, "Get up! You're going to have the baby on the toilet! He told the nurse, Kat, to page Liane. I tried to waddle back to the bed. Halfway there, I felt a huge gush and realized the pressure was my water breaking all over the floor. Liane ran back in and, without the bag of water, I immediately felt like pushing.
I tried a few different pushing positions and Liane just kept saying to listen to my body and do what my body was telling me. She also kept saying it would be much easier this time and "like butter." I think I pushed for a total of 15 minutes. I remember yelling a lot. Ezra was born at 6:32 a.m. He weighed 8 pounds and 4 ounces, even though he wasn't due for another 10 days. When they wrapped him up and handed him to me, I just remember saying over and over, "Hi, Ezra, hi. You're so gooey and wonderful!" I remember Liane saying to S, "Are you a cord-cuttin' kind of guy?!" and he was. That was 6 months ago today. Ez is such a sweet, smiley baby. This weekend we picked out his Christmas stocking, and somehow that felt like an official welcome to the family. We are very blessed.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Eliza's birth story
It occurs to me that Eliza and Ezra's birth stories are starting to blend together in my mind... so I thought I should finallly put them in writing before I forget the details completely! Needless to say, this post will probably be TMI. Here's Eliza's!
Eliza was born 2 weeks prior to her due date, on a Saturday night at 11:45 p.m. The night before S and I had dinner with our good friend Susan at Eastside Cafe. I had fairly regular contractions during dinner, but I didn't mention them because I didn't want to freak anyone out. Besides, what first time mom gives birth 2 weeks early? All my books said I could expect to deliver 1 week after her due date. The contractions stopped and we went to bed. The next day we went to Highland Mall and bought Eliza a Christmas stocking. (No one knew her name was Eliza at that point; we didn't tell a single person! I used to sing that song "Hey There Delilah" to her, only changing her name to Eliza, when no one else was around to hear her super secret name.) I also watched Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion while S mowed the lawn. We had lunch at Amaya's Taco Village with the Butchers. I joked to Baby Ethan that he should tell his friend to come on out, as I was tired of being pregnant. Later in the day we were bored and contemplated going to the movies, but we didn't see anything playing that we were interested in. S and I started talking about how we were in a bit of a rut and it was a good thing we were about to have a baby to liven things up a little. What an understatement. This is very funny in hindsight. Yup, we had too much time on our hands. We ended up having dinner at Le Madeleine. By 8pm we were back at home watching TV on the couch. I spent the majority of the end of my pregnancy on the couch in as little clothing as possible. (You're welcome for that image.) For once, instead of being sprawled out, I was sitting up and S was next to me. I leaned forward to get comfortable and I felt a pop. I was mortified that I had just peed my pants. I stood up and quickly realized my water was probably breaking, but being a first timer, I still wasn't completely sure and I didn't want to be one of those pregnant ladies sent home because I peed on myself. I started having mild contractions again too. S called the doctor and she said to come on in. At this point I decided it was very important that we put the clean sheets on our bed before leaving the house. S humored me, but I could tell he thought I was crazy. Before we even had the last pillow case on, I said, "Uh oh, these hurt a lot all of a sudden. We better go now!" and got in the car. S started timing contractions. I kept saying "Here comes another one" and he said, "Babe, this are only 3 minutes apart! This is crazy!" We both got a little freaked out. He turned on some classic music to try to calm me down (breathing through contractions while stuck upright in a seatbelt is really hard). I snapped at him, "Just because I'm in labor doesn't mean I suddenly like classical music! You know I hate this stuff!" He meakly turned it off and got a look on his face that remained for the rest of labor. He clearly thought I had gone insane. We got to the hospital and the nurse said, "It seems like you're already in quite a bit of pain." Um, YES! She checked me and it appeared that I still had a long way to go. I said I wanted an epidural. S said he thought I could do it naturally. I told him if I was already in this much pain and still had 6 cm left to go, I wanted an epidural right freakin' now. Did I get an epidural that day? No, I did not. Because by the time the epidural doctor showed up 2 hours later, I was ready to push. It would have taken 15 minutes for the epidural to start working and I'd have to stay pefectly still while having back to back contractions as the needle was in my back. I sent the epidural doctor away, thinking this was just like a movie and I was really going to have to do this with no meds. Eliza's heart rate had been getting crazy and they had been giving me oxygen. The OB (Wendy Cutler, whom I had never met before) said I needed to get the baby out NOW. My panic and frantic pushing, combined with Dr. Cutler's vacuum, and Eliza was out within 15 minutes. I'm not posting any pictures because in every single one of them I look completely shocked (and also sweaty and fat). You can see the epidural cart in the background, which sort of pisses me off since I didn't get to have one. The whole labor lasted less than 3 hours. It's called a precipitious (sp?) labor and it happens in only 2% of first time moms. It went nothing like I thought it would, which was a pretty good precursor for how parenting really goes. She's been the light of my life ever since.
Eliza was born 2 weeks prior to her due date, on a Saturday night at 11:45 p.m. The night before S and I had dinner with our good friend Susan at Eastside Cafe. I had fairly regular contractions during dinner, but I didn't mention them because I didn't want to freak anyone out. Besides, what first time mom gives birth 2 weeks early? All my books said I could expect to deliver 1 week after her due date. The contractions stopped and we went to bed. The next day we went to Highland Mall and bought Eliza a Christmas stocking. (No one knew her name was Eliza at that point; we didn't tell a single person! I used to sing that song "Hey There Delilah" to her, only changing her name to Eliza, when no one else was around to hear her super secret name.) I also watched Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion while S mowed the lawn. We had lunch at Amaya's Taco Village with the Butchers. I joked to Baby Ethan that he should tell his friend to come on out, as I was tired of being pregnant. Later in the day we were bored and contemplated going to the movies, but we didn't see anything playing that we were interested in. S and I started talking about how we were in a bit of a rut and it was a good thing we were about to have a baby to liven things up a little. What an understatement. This is very funny in hindsight. Yup, we had too much time on our hands. We ended up having dinner at Le Madeleine. By 8pm we were back at home watching TV on the couch. I spent the majority of the end of my pregnancy on the couch in as little clothing as possible. (You're welcome for that image.) For once, instead of being sprawled out, I was sitting up and S was next to me. I leaned forward to get comfortable and I felt a pop. I was mortified that I had just peed my pants. I stood up and quickly realized my water was probably breaking, but being a first timer, I still wasn't completely sure and I didn't want to be one of those pregnant ladies sent home because I peed on myself. I started having mild contractions again too. S called the doctor and she said to come on in. At this point I decided it was very important that we put the clean sheets on our bed before leaving the house. S humored me, but I could tell he thought I was crazy. Before we even had the last pillow case on, I said, "Uh oh, these hurt a lot all of a sudden. We better go now!" and got in the car. S started timing contractions. I kept saying "Here comes another one" and he said, "Babe, this are only 3 minutes apart! This is crazy!" We both got a little freaked out. He turned on some classic music to try to calm me down (breathing through contractions while stuck upright in a seatbelt is really hard). I snapped at him, "Just because I'm in labor doesn't mean I suddenly like classical music! You know I hate this stuff!" He meakly turned it off and got a look on his face that remained for the rest of labor. He clearly thought I had gone insane. We got to the hospital and the nurse said, "It seems like you're already in quite a bit of pain." Um, YES! She checked me and it appeared that I still had a long way to go. I said I wanted an epidural. S said he thought I could do it naturally. I told him if I was already in this much pain and still had 6 cm left to go, I wanted an epidural right freakin' now. Did I get an epidural that day? No, I did not. Because by the time the epidural doctor showed up 2 hours later, I was ready to push. It would have taken 15 minutes for the epidural to start working and I'd have to stay pefectly still while having back to back contractions as the needle was in my back. I sent the epidural doctor away, thinking this was just like a movie and I was really going to have to do this with no meds. Eliza's heart rate had been getting crazy and they had been giving me oxygen. The OB (Wendy Cutler, whom I had never met before) said I needed to get the baby out NOW. My panic and frantic pushing, combined with Dr. Cutler's vacuum, and Eliza was out within 15 minutes. I'm not posting any pictures because in every single one of them I look completely shocked (and also sweaty and fat). You can see the epidural cart in the background, which sort of pisses me off since I didn't get to have one. The whole labor lasted less than 3 hours. It's called a precipitious (sp?) labor and it happens in only 2% of first time moms. It went nothing like I thought it would, which was a pretty good precursor for how parenting really goes. She's been the light of my life ever since.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Leg warmers are a good investment
I ordered these trendy leg warmers when Eliza was still in utero. I knew they were a tad ridiculous, but I loved them anyway. Turns out they're the only article of clothing that has consistently fit Eliza for the past 4 years. How did she grow so quickly?
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