D Day....delivery day that is

For those of you who have no interest in childbirth, this post may not be for you.....for those of you who do read on.

The last few weeks of Micah's pregnancy were extremely uncomfortable.  (Apparently I'm not one of those women who love being pregnant.)  Honestly it wasn't fun, but so worth it.  My blood pressure had been on the high side, and my doctor had been monitoring it closely.  I was extremely swollen, by mid morning my legs literally felt like they weighed a ton.  I had a few tests run at my last doctor's appointment and one indicated preeclampsia, so we were scheduled to induce on Wednesday.  It was beautiful news, because I couldn't wait to meet this little man, even if this meant we had to induce labor.

Thankfully our colleagues were in town renewing visas, so we were able to drop Calvin off at their apartment before we headed to the hospital. This was such an incredible blessing to know he was with people he was comfortable with. The day before we went into the hospital this is all Calvin would talk about, "how much longer before we go to their house and play?"

Once we got to the hospital at 9:00 a.m. they showed us to the labor room, I got dressed, and had blood work done while Marvin filled out the paperwork for admission.  Everything was very similar to Calvin's labor, it was like we were doing the same thing, in the same order as we did with Calvin, just 3 years later.  The initial exam showed I was barely dilated, 1 cm, so pitocin was started.  The rest of our morning was very mellow and boring.  We read for a bit, watched the miners rescue for a long time, then after a while started watching some Office episodes to help pass the time.  The doctor came in around 11:00 p.m. to see if things were progressing, I had only dilated to 2 cm, but she thought around 3:00 she would come and break my water, and things would really get moving.  So more waiting ensued, they brought me lunch and were just waiting for the show to get started.  I could feel the contractions getting stronger but they weren't uncomfortable, an honestly there were times I wasn't even aware I was having them because I was either laughing about something or not paying attention.  It was very weird, because labor is supposed to hurt.

So 3:00 pm. came and went and our doctor still had not come, they moved us to the delivery room and we thought it would be any time now, but we just kept waiting and so we started a new season of Survivor.  Turns out our doctor was caught up in surgery, which is why she was running behind.  Finally at about 6:20 pm she came in to break my water.  At this point I was only dilated 3-4 cm and according to Dr. Deniz she thought I'd deliver around 9:00/9:30 pm.  After she broke my water the contractions really started to intensify.  I found a good spot on my side with Marvin rubbing my lower back through the contractions.  This made them manageable, and gave me some relief in between them, unfortunately the fetal monitor wasn't picking up the baby's heart beat well and it kept dropping, so the nurse came in, called in our doctor and after a few changes in positions figured out that it was picking up my heart beat and not the baby's.  After this little scare I was a sight for sure.  They had been monitoring my blood pressure so I had that on my left arm, a heart rate monitor on the index finger on my left hand, fetal monitors hooked up to my belly, an oxygen mask on my face, and finally the pitocin line coming into my right hand. At one point they handed me more medication to regulate my blood pressure and I couldn't figure out how to grab it and the cup of water due to the number of cords coming from all directions.

At this point I felt like I could handle more labor at the intensity I was experiencing.  They released me from the monitors for a bit I went to the bathroom and by the time I got back the contractions were 10 times as intense.  I was able to stand up leaning on the big ball for a bit and I could tell things were progressing, but I was getting shaky.  This was maybe 20 minutes after they broke my water and at this point they wanted me back on the fetal monitors, which meant back into bed.  I was already shaking from standing up and beginning to get nauseous.  The nurse checked and said I was around 5-6 cm.  I decided to wait until 7:00 to decide on an epidural. 10 minutes passed and I was able to sit up instead of lay down and still get a good reading on the monitors, but the contractions were picking up speed.  I decided since I was a couple hours from 9:00 that it would be worth it to get the epidural since I still had a ways to go.  By the time the anesthesiologist got there it was around 7:15, she got things going and finished up around 7:30.  What I heard was "it should be 15 minutes and you shouldn't be able to feel anything".  What I missed was that I was only given the initial dose and she'd be back later to hook me up to the real deal.  So I was literally counting down the minutes before it would take effect.  15 minutes later, 7:45, I was still in pain, mainly on my right side, but was able to relax a bit in between contractions and the nausea subsided, which was completely worth getting the small dose in my opinion.  At this point I was feeling a lot of pressure.  A different doctor came in to check on me, and the next thing I knew they were getting everything ready for delivery, and told me Dr. Deniz would be here in a few minutes.  Dr. Deniz came in and told me that she was going to check me, then looked at me and asked me if I need to push.  I did so quickly she got ready.

I pushed for about 15-20 minutes and then Micah made his debut at 8:24 p.m. I'll never forget his little squeaks and his tiny cry.

They cleaned him off and quickly handed him to me, and let me hold him for quite some time before they took him up the the nursery to get him weighed, cleaned up and dressed. I was very thankful that they let me hold him longer than we were able to with Calvin.

Marvin followed them up to the nursery and watched as they weighed him, measured him and got him dressed.  He weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. 

We had such a great group of ladies present at Micah's birth, our nurses were so sweet and patient with our limited language and really professional. 

Of course I cannot say enough wonderful things about our doctor.  She's always calm and the kind of doctor you dream to work with.  We are so blessed to have had such a sweet delivery and that Micah was born healthy and without any complications.  Oh and the anesthesiologist came in after he was born to check on me, very surprised to see we had already delivered.  She was a hoot, and it was nice to finally be able to communicate with her.