Birth Story: Rose

Rose Elizabeth

5/3/2013 at 8:58 am

7 lb, 7 oz, 18.5"

Previous visits to L&D at 35 w, 37 w, and 38 w due to contractions/prelabor

At my 39 week Dr appointment I asked Dr Langley to strip my membranes if it was possible. I was sitting at a stretchy 2 cm and 60% effaced so he went ahead. We went to Cruising Grand that night and walked around. I experienced some strong contractions but nothing consistent. We were officially on nervous baby watch. I felt like I had been in labor on and off for weeks and my body and mind were tired. 

My 40 week Dr appointment ended up being with NMW Erin Phillips who did my first prenatal appointment when expecting Jasmine. My blood pressure had been high at my previous appointment and was again at this appointment. At this stage of pregnancy they don't take high bp very lightly. I was taken across the hall for a NST (non stress test) and quick ultrasound to check on amniotic fluid levels. Everything looked well but I was still sent across the parking lot to get labs drawn. Thankfully there was no protein pointing to Pre-E but the elevated bp was still a concern so I was scheduled to be induced that Thursday am.

Thursday am (40 w + 1 d) I received a call from L&D saying they were full so not to come in but to call the charge nurse at 10am to check on bed status. This similar phone dialog  continued through out the day to the point that Jasmine was returned home and James came to hang out and spend the night instead. Finally at 11pm I got the call saying to come in.

May 3, 2013 (40 w + 2 d)

We arrived to Scripps Encinitas shortly after 12am and got checked into L&D. I got changed into my spiffy butt baring gown then got my IV port put in. There was some difficulty with the IV because the vein on my wrist/forearm kept rolling. So after 2-3 attempts it ended up in the top of my left hand (ouch). Once I was hooked up on the monitors the on-call Dr came in to check me. I asked if we could start as natural as possible and do the water break before starting any Pitocin. When the Dr checked I was dilated 2 1/2 cm and 80% effaced which meant she agreed to break my water. Unlike the water balloon burst I had with Jasmine this one was more of a continued wetting of myself, a weird sensation to say the least. Ha! They let me contract on my own for an hour and a half while being monitored. Contractions kicked off right away but didn't get any closer than 5 min apart. Pitocin started at 2:30am at a 2 and by the end worked its way up to 9. At this point I tried my best to rest between contractions because I thought there was a Long day ahead of me with little chance for rest, much less sleep. I also encouraged Brandon to get a little sleep. Over the next few hours I slept as much as I could but kept being woken by increasingly stronger and closer together contractions. 

Around 6am I woke Brandon up saying I needed his support, the contractions were getting much much stronger. Little did I know they were only going to double in intensity. I really had to focus on breathing through them now and was moaning through most of them too. I definitely couldn't talk through them. Shortly before 7am I was checked again because I was experiencing a lot of pressure. The nurse said 5cm. My initial internal response was "Oh No! I don't think I can keep at this for several more hours! I'm going to have to break down and ask about an epidural, I won't get to have an unmedicated birth anymore" and that thought process coupled with the pain was just too much to bare. I started crying while attempting to process what was going on. Had we made the right decision to go along with the induction?The nurses change over from night to day staff at 7am and came to introduce the day nurse Carolyn while I was covered in tears. The night nurse had pain in her eyes seeing me so upset and said "it's starting to get tough isn't it mama?" while rubbing my leg. She was so sweet. The day nurse was wonderful too, she knew of my wish to keep it as natural as possible and started suggesting different positions and turned on a spa music channel on the TV set next to my bed. I asked her, if I decided to get the epidural what would the process be? She gave a general response along with "but it doesn't sound like you're sure, you tell me when you know you want it". I really appreciated the distraction and change in approach. She helped coach me through several contractions while rubbing my shoulders, back and legs. It was like getting the Doula I had wanted but didn't think was possible. 

Around 7:30am I had Brandon take the hospital gown off by unsnapping it at the shoulders because I didn't want anything on anymore. My sports bra only stayed because it was more helpful than a hinderance.

Around 8:15am I started to reach transition. I was making a lot of deep noise through contractions, wanting to jump out of the bed while knowing I couldn't. I started telling Brandon I was sorry, that I tried but I wanted to get the epidural. He stuck to his training and kept trying to push me off. The contractions were pretty on top of each other at this point so I only had little windows of delirious speech. He finally said "OK, I'll get the nurse" at 8:30am and had me sign the anesthesia consent form that we had pre filled but left unsigned "just in case". The nurse came in with a cart and said that the anesthesiologist was in a c-section and would be at least 20 minutes. I thought there's no way I'll last that long! I started saying "hot!" over and over and was suddenly drenched in sweat. More apologies and some colorful words came out of my mouth when I could talk. The nurse checked me and said I was 7cm dilated and fully effaced. That's it?! Then just after the nurse left I looked at Brandon and said "Oh baby!! Baby!!" I could feel Rose coming down the birth canal. He told me I couldn't push yet that I was only a 7, to which I responded "not again!". I tried so hard to fight the urge to push. I started making animalistic guttural sounds trying to fight the intense contractions and urge to push because I was terrified I was going to do some serious damage. The nurse came back in and said "sounds like somebody is pushing!" and I said "I'm trying not to!". I had no control over the sounds coming out of my mouth anymore, I'm sure I sounded like some kind of animal. This point until Rose's arrival is all a blur for me. There were nurses flying in while trying to page the NMW then trying to page the on-call OB. All the while I could feel Rose getting increasingly closer to officially joining this world. As I could feel her head crowning somebody told me to take my right leg and push how I wanted that my baby was almost here. I barely lifted my leg closer to my chest and Rose's entire body came out at 8:58am.

 

I did it, I birthed my daughter while on Pitocin without the help of any pain medication, and no tears!

Apparently what was really going on during those final moments was Dr. Brody running in from a C-Section where the patient had just gone under. Dr. Brody and the nurses were trying to open all of the sterile baby equipment and get it on the bed in time. Some of the items were still being opened after Rose was born.

It took a second before they were able to scramble and put Rose on my chest where she gave a little cry covered in vernix. Once the cord stopped pulsing they clamped it and Brandon got to cut. Then Rose latched on, first try. I was so happy. After a few minutes though I handed her to Brandon because adrenaline started to take its toll and my entire body was shaking really bad. Thankfully it didn't last too long. 

We spent the next several hours just staring in amazement at each other and soaking up the precious bonding time before having our first nap and tackling the rest of the day.

SAHM = Stay At Home Mom

Being a SAHM was always an ultimate goal of mine, especially while having little ones in the home, but I honestly thought there was no way we would be able to afford it living in southern California. When it came down to it, I was willing to make sacrifices and cut amenities to make it happen. I do face a regular internal struggle of the fact that I am not financially contributing to this family like I used to but the emotional contribution of knowing our daughter and future children will be raised by me in our home is beyond invaluable. I understand that there are some wonderful sources of childcare out there, and I was fully prepared to hunt down a great nanny of our own or a share situation, but my requirements would have left a very small margin of take home income. Now I get to witness on a daily basis the amazing mind and goings on of this amazing little girl that I call my daughter <3 She blows me away with her persistence, attention to detail, tenacity and brilliance. One tool in my mommy arsenal, that I am SO glad we use, is American Sign Language (ASL). The only sign we do a "baby sign" version of is "dog" because she doesn't have the dexterity to even try snapping for a while, otherwise we use actual ASL signs. If one day her ASL vocabulary gains her new friends on the playground it would be a shining moment, or if she decides to continue to grow her ASL vocabulary over time to the point that she becomes an interpreter would be amazing as well. In the end, if nothing else, ASL has made communication possible from a very early age and encouraged her to learn and use new words on a regular basis. We will definitely be using ASL with this next baby!

Development: Jasmine's newest spoken words are "Dirty" and "Noodle", her newest sign is "Turtle"

So Close!

This has been a whirlwind of a year and two and a half months. This Friday marks the Four Week Countdown to when B is done with his home injection treatment. We are both so looking forward to the return of his old self. I'm not sure who is looking forward to it more actually, ha! :) It sounds like it will take about two weeks before he notices any real difference in his overall health and energy levels and around two months before he is "back to himself". So come February he should be full of energy just in time for me to have very little. I'm looking forward to getting to do more family things though. Like getting back into the routine of taking the dogs to the park for a good 2-3 mile walk multiple times a week. That will be great exercise for my big baby belly too. Yes, in the midst of this tornado called life we will be adding another little bundle to the family in April/May 2013. We're excited and I'm especially looking forward to B getting to enjoy more of the little things when the baby comes that he didn't really get to fully enjoy when Jasmine arrived. Now, we wait. We wait for the treatment to be over, for his energy to increase, and to find out if the family team will be tipping the score card in favor of pink or blue. 

Schedule Me Time!

A big item has come to my attention as a relatively new first time mom (FTM). 

It is important imperative to schedule some "Me time" as a mom. 

When you are constantly caring for your child(ren), home, and spouse, it is easy to get all tangled up in the goings on that you don't realize how badly you need the break until you are forced to take one. I got sick along with Baby J, and I broke out in a stress rash (very similar to poison oak, Google it) all over my body. Having all of that hit simultaneously made me reflect on how much I internalize until I'm ready to snap which isn't healthy and is most definitely not conducive of a well lubricated family home unit either.

Some good "Me time" ideas I've come up with, keeping a minimal budget in mind, are: 

• Getting a scheduled pedicure, alone
• Getting together with a girlfriend for coffee, window shopping, or exercise, alone
• Working out while the baby is napping
• Reading, either at home in a quiet setting or at a coffee shop, alone
• Keeping an active craft project on hand for a quiet hour alone in the evenings after baby's bed time
• Playing classical music whenever possible to keep tensions low, or any other soothing tunes
• Yoga

So go ahead, schedule some "Me time"! It would be ideal to happen in some fashion or another on a daily basis but at the minimum twice a week.

Middle of the night goings on

We have established a little varied routine for the mid-night feedings. It has gone down to two feedings a night lately, around 1 am and 5 am. Both are over an hour of waking time each for me. I hear Jasmine start to fidget (or brandon tells me she is trying to suckle the corner of his pillow) and I take her into the nursery. First I check her diaper, then we get down to business. I nurse her forever or until she starts to fall asleep, whichever comes first. Then I attempt to delicately get out of the glider without waking said sleeping child so I can ooze back into bed. Sometimes Jasmine is the only one of the two of us that gets to go back to bed after the second feeding. There is simply too much to do in the mornings to be getting back in bed at 7 am. Have I ever mentioned how much I love coffee? :)

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Jasmine's Birth Story

Jasmine's Birth Story

from Dad's Perspective

Day of (August 22, 2011)

The day started out with Sarah getting some much stronger contractions (around 4AM) than she had been getting for the last week or so.  She was able to breathe through them though and in the morning when I got up for work she seemed pretty much the same emotionally and physically as the night before.  This happened to be my first day of work back in the office after working from home the entire previous week.  Off to work I went and the day proceeded on as usual.  At about 9:30AM I received an IM from Sarah asking what my work schedule looked like today and tomorrow.  I was immediately suspicious of the question and began to get excited!  I told her I had 1 appointment today and one appointment tomorrow.  She then said, “You may need to cancel your appointment for tomorrow”.  Which I then was super excited and responded with, “Really?!”  She told me her contractions were now 5 ½ minutes apart and the same intensity as the early morning ones.  She also said that she wanted to take a walk and needed a walking buddy, so she drove up to her mother’s house in Vista.  (We live in Escondido.) They walked all over a local park but things didn’t advance any further.   I was anxiously awaiting an update as I continued working throughout the day.  Sarah decided that she wanted to go get a trigger point and reflexology message from a friend of ours.  I highly recommend this to anyone as long as they go to someone who knows what they are doing.  You’ll see why in a minute.

                After a few more IMs throughout the day, it was decided that I would not need to come home early as she had not progressed any further.  Sarah finished her “massage”, I say “massage” because it is not a pleasant massage as one typically thinks of.  This “massage” is designed to trigger contractions and get things moving down there.  Sarah left from her “massage” at about 5:50ish PM.  She called me immediately on her way home and said that her contractions had become even more intense but still at about 5 ½ minutes apart.  While we were on the phone I hear “oh --- , my water just broke”!

Two weeks prior

                Braxton Hicks contractions have now turned into steady actual contractions.  Doctor’s visits are weekly now and during our regularly scheduled visit we stated to the doctor (Dr. Langley is awesome!) that Sarah had been having actual contractions now but that they were not consistent yet.  The doctor checked her cervix and to our surprise Sarah was 2cm dilated and 60% effaced!  What joy!  Hold up.  Don’t get too excited yet.

                The next few days roll by and contractions went from 10 minutes apart to 7 minutes apart.   Sweet!  She is making more progress!  Her cervix is checked this week and she is at 3ish cm dilated and still 60% effaced.  I just kept telling myself and Sarah “Hold it together and don’t get discouraged”.  We are so close!  Also, I think we walked about a bazillion miles over the next couple of days, to include lots of stairs!

                Over the following weekend we continued with normal plans.  We got up on Saturday morning and Sarah ran some errands while I did some long needed house work.  On Sunday we went to church as usual and then off to hang out with a friend of ours who just had a baby.  I’m telling you, we pulled out all the stops to get things going.

Day of continued…

            Recap:

“Oh --- , my water just broke”!

 Immediately contractions were much more intense.  She needed help cleaning up the truck, so I met her in the drive way to help cleanup.  I started gathering the last minute things that we needed to throw in the truck and head to the hospital.  Sarah said, “Just because my water broke doesn’t mean we need to rush off to the hospital”.  Which I knew but was very worried with how intense her contractions were.  They were veeeeeery strong at this point and seemed to be probably about 2-3 minutes apart.  I wasn’t tracking with my contraction app at this point.  I was too busy trying to help Sarah through another contraction.  By the time we got in the house she was starting another contraction and said she wanted to get in the shower.  (Ladies, I highly recommend a nice hot shower.  It was amazing for Sarah.)  The water felt great and it helped the pain be more manageable but at this point the contractions have now kicked up another notch.  Then I hear, “I really feel like I need to push”.  What?!  “Don’t push” I kept telling her.  To which she would respond with “No push” as this was all she could manage at this point.  At  this point I have to leave her in the shower and pack up as much of the last minute things needed as much as possible in between contractions.  Now they are right on top of each other and I’m not getting a chance to really do anything.  So finally I tell her, I’m sorry love, I have to get this stuff out to the truck and then we are going to the hospital.  She said OK then I am going to stay in the shower.  I quickly pull together the last few things and go flying out to the truck.  I run back into the house and Sarah is out of the shower and getting her robe on so that we can get on the road.  She is still having contraction after contraction with only about maybe a minute break in between.

On the freeway now from Escondido to Scripps Encinitas, this was the longest car ride in history!  We couldn’t get there fast enough!  Why are there other cars on the road now?!  Argh!  So it is now 6:20ish PM and I’m breaking just a couple of laws ;) with hazards flashing and me waving people over like a mad man because they won’t move out of the way.  I drove fast but safe.  By the way, if you ever see anyone with hazard lights flashing and driving fast down the highway, move out of the way!  You are supposed to turn on your hazards when you have emergencies and other drivers are supposed to move out of your way, but I digress.  So, Sarah is hanging on to the door and the handle trying desperately not to push.  She just kept saying “No push” over and over.  I kept encouraging her.  “You are doing so great baby.  I love you.  Don’t push.”

We finally get to the hospital and it is now 6:45PM.  We get to the counter and I said my wife is in labor, we are already registered in your system and we need to get into a room ASAP.  I had called in ahead so I knew they had one for us.  J  I highly recommend everyone do this as well.  We get into the room and the nurse hooks Sarah up to fetal monitor and checks her cervix.  At first she said “oh wow, she has no cervix”, but then checked again and said that she was at 9cm and baby is at 0 station.  Sarah is now having a serious urge to push and shaking uncontrollably trying not to because the nurses told her she can’t yet until the cervix is all the way gone.  The nurse called the doctor to come over because things are obviously about to go down.  The whole time this is happening (maybe 10 minutes) they are still trying to get babies heartbeat.  They got a week signal and wanted to use the internal monitor instead.  To which we both said “no, we want to do this natural”.  The nurses response was then “that has nothing to do with natural but OK”.  Looking back on it now, she was correct but we knew what we wanted and we just said the wrong thing.  Sarah did have to get an IV due to the precipitous labor with electrolyte fluids and an oxygen mask because she kept saying she felt like she was going to pass out (focused on breathing out, no so much the breathing in). The doctor comes in and it’s now 7:15 PM and he starts filling out all the required paper work that you typically do prior to delivery.  Little things like consent forms.

The nurse checks Sarah’s cervix again and I hear “oh…. That’s babies head”.  “Doctor you need to get over here to catch”.  He is getting his scrub top on and Sarah yells “No push”!  The doctor asks why “no push”?  Sarah said “I’m not allowed to”.  Then the doctor said that she was cleared to push and that it was actually “highly recommended at this point”.  Sarah gave a couple of grunts with some decent pushes with a good yell and the head came out up to Jasmine’s (our baby) eyes.  The nurse quickly grabbed the head to get ready to catch as everyone was caught off guard due to how quickly it all happened.  The doctor said, “please don’t scream, we are about to bring your child into the world” (which was meant to be funny and we laugh about it now) and came over and said “when you are ready, go ahead and push again”.  Sarah gave one more good push and our babies head was out!  The whole time I’m encouraging Sarah and giving her a play by play of what is happening.  I told her I could see the head now and that she was almost there.  “Keep pushing.”  She pushed one more time and our beautiful baby girl was born at 7:42PM on 8/22/11.  If you are doing the math Sarah was only in hard labor for 1 hour and 42 minutes.  Insanely fast for a first time baby.

Coming in at 9cm was waiting a little too long but we think it worked out in our benefit because Sarah was concentrating so hard on not pushing that she barely even tore when it was finally time to push.  All in all it was a truly amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world.

Jasmine Marie Baker

7lbs 15oz

19.5 inches

A BIG thank you to our Bradley Method instructor, Liza Janda.

We were armed with an arsenal of knowledge that helped immensely!

http://www.yogajanda.com/mommy.php 

 http://prenatalyoga.wordpress.com/