Baby post #3 - Saturn's birth story
So writing 'birth stories' is a big thing, apparently? Here's Saturn's!
I had planned to work until I went into labor, but slept in accidentally on Thursday (40 weeks, 6 days), and had a non-stress test planned for that Friday, and all sorts of appointments for Monday... I decided I wasn’t going to think about whether to go back to work or not, and called maternity leave early.
The last few days of pregnancy were fun and relaxing, although I did complain a bit about how often people kept asking me if I’d had the baby yet. On Thursday, John also played hooky, and we hung out. A great day. Friday, I played a lot of Sims and did some gardening - two of my favorite things.
On Friday (41 weeks), my Mom took me in to Mercy for a non-stress test that took an hour and a half instead of the 20 minutes I’d expected... so maybe a slightly stressful test? I was thankful that she was there, since she’s worked in ob/gyn for years and could tell what was happening - whenever he moved and they’d try to measure an acceleration, he moved away from the heartbeat monitor. Mom finally held it in place, moving it as necessary, and we were out 15 minutes after that. Ann happened to be at Mercy with some ladies in labor, and she stopped in to see if I had any questions. We talked about next steps (what if I don’t go into labor before 42 weeks?) and she checked my cervix - softening, but not yet open at the top, same as on the previous Monday.
The weekend was a suspenseful time. We had fairly big activities planned for both days. Saturday (41 weeks and 1 day), John was instrumental in arranging a bachelor party for a great friend of ours. They all drove out to Columbus (two and a half hours away) for the day, and had a fantastic time. Apparently, 2.5 hours wasn’t quite far enough to kick me into labor, although I did have some stronger and more regular contractions toward the end of the night.
I spent Saturday (41 weeks, 2 days) at home with a lot of friends, getting ready for Sunday - Alex’s going-away party. Alex is a 17-year-old German exchange student who has been our first ‘son’ for the past year. He was due at the airport on Friday morning (42 weeks), and was really hoping to meet his baby brother before he left. His going-home party was awesome - lots of friends and family - but no labor.
Man, that meant I had to keep all of those Monday (41 weeks, 3 days) appointments - I'd been hoping I could skip them. A non-stress test and an ultrasound said that he was very comfortable where he was.
At the Midwife Center, Theresa checked my cervix again - no progress. This baby had been measuring big since we started measuring, and Theresa estimated his current weight at 9.5 pounds. We weren’t comfortable with potentially letting him go past 42 weeks, so we scheduled an induction for Friday morning at Mercy in case it was needed. However, I was interested in laboring at the Midwife Center if possible, so we decided to try a ‘soft’ induction at the Midwife Center on Tuesday morning, repeating if necessary on Wednesday or Thursday.
For dinner, my friend Sarah made me a pizza famous for inducing labor - Skipolini’s ‘Prego Pizza’. It was covered with spicy meats and cayenne pepper, and while it didn’t induce labor, it did induce extreme baby acrobatics. Since I could theoretically kick into labor at the soft induction the next morning, I finished packing my bags, which had been in a half-completed state for weeks.
John and I called first to make sure that there weren’t already 3 ladies in labor, then showed up at the Midwife Center on Tuesday morning (41 weeks, 4 days). Theresa checked my cervix again - open at the top! Prego pizza for the win! She swept my membranes, and Diana checked the baby’s heartbeat. We started cycles of breastpumping and walking - 15 minutes on each side, then a half-hour of walking around the Strip. It was definitely making contractions happen, so we did 3 cycles and checked again - 1-2 centimeters dilated. They sent us home with instructions to call again in the morning. The contractions subsided as we headed home, and I had leftover prego pizza for lunch, with repeat acrobatics.
We had friends over, so I don’t know that I noticed immediately when the contractions started picking back up... but they did that afternoon. We took a nap, and I had trouble getting to sleep. I timed a few contractions, and they were very close together (4-5 minutes), but not very long or very strong.
By that evening, I was having contractions every 2-4 minutes and was ready to go into the Midwife Center. John, Mom, and I left a whole bunch of friends at our house and headed in around 10 pm. On the ride there, we counted contractions - I think we got to 10? Maybe 12? When we arrived, Theresa and Cheryl checked us in and checked us out - I was 3-4 centimeters dilated.
For the next few hours, labor progressed pretty normally and quickly. Contractions hurt my lower back and my cervix. They came fairly close together. I found standing and leaning on something while someone gently rubbed my lower back to be most helpful, but we also tried some other positions. We were excited to hear that there was another lady in labor, so we might both have babies that night.
At about 2 am, Theresa checked me and pronounced me in active labor, at 5-6 centimeters dilated. We started using the tub for pain relief, which was wonderful. I have always enjoyed hot baths, and the sensation of water pouring over my skin during a contraction was something totally different to focus on - I could still feel the pain, but if I tried, I could pay attention to the water instead. John was a champion... he poured water during close-together contractions for hours. Mom enabled him to stay with me by fetching things, asking questions, and generally being available. I entered a sort of dazed dream state, and would occasionally open my eyes to find a different group of people hanging out with me in the bathroom. Our friends Sarah and Zack visited at some point, bringing supplies.
I drank water during this time, but failed to ingest calories - any drinks with sugar in them seemed absolutely awful, and food was right out (I pitifully attempted to eat some Cheerios and got through about 6 of them). Contractions started to slow down, and they checked my urine and found that I was producing ketones, showing that I was not getting enough food and decreasing the effectiveness of labor. Cheryl hooked me up to an IV, which helped some.
By 7 am, I had regressed - Theresa said she could only honestly call me 4 centimeters dilated. We talked about some alternatives - we could try to speed up labor at the Midwife Center by breaking my water, or we could transfer to the hospital and try to speed up labor there. Theresa had said at my last appointment that because the baby was so large, she was going to be sensitive to stalled labor and recommend a transfer if it looked like it was happening. We agreed that a transfer was probably the way to go. It was also shift change time - Theresa had been on call for 24 hours, and Kathy was coming on duty.
John drove Mom and me over to Mercy. It was a bit shocking to come out of the Center into daylight - I don’t usually stay up all night. The three contractions and bumpy roads on the way to the hospital were not my favorite things that happened that day.
At Mercy, I was attached to an IV and some sensors (for heartbeat and contractions), then talked to Kathy a bit about alternatives. We decided to insert an intrauterine pressure catheter to see how effective my contractions were and decide if they were ineffective (and we could help them out) or effective (so why wasn’t I progressing?). I was not ready to have stronger contractions without the pain relief offered by the tub or being able to change positions frequently, so I asked for an epidural first.
The anesthesiologists were nice and rather fun guys. The worst thing about having the epidural put in is that I had to sit leaning over my lap, which put pressure on the bottom of my belly, and was not supposed to move, even during contractions. John and Mom were not allowed to be in the room while it was inserted. Kathy (the nurse) helped me cope with the contractions while they were inserting the epidural, and when the medication started to take effect, the contractions seemed shorter, and then felt like pressure, but not pain. I stretched out on the bed and took a nap for a bit.
Kathy (the midwife) came to break my water. She did so during a contraction, and it was shockingly warm. There was meconium in it - John said it looked like pea soup.
Shortly thereafter, my account of what happened becomes a bit confused - I’m not exactly sure what happened or in what order. That was a big change from before, when I was (although in pain) totally aware and informed and involved with decision making. Here’s what I remember:
A monitor started beeping differently.
Kathy asked someone to reach over and press a button on the wall.
More and more people started appearing, one by one.
Someone reached in and poked the baby’s head hard and repeatedly.
They turned me from side to side.
Someone pulled all of my wires out of the wall and threw them on the bed with me.
They wheeled my bed away and ran me down the hall, bumping into things a bit on the way there.
Kathy told me somewhere during this that the baby wasn’t responding well and they were going to try a few things, but if they didn’t work, I’d have to have an emergency c-section. I wasn’t panicking, but I was afraid.
In the OR, more and more people appeared. The same anesthesiologists were the primary people talking to me - they started putting more medication in through my epidural and checking to make sure I was properly numb. John was not allowed to come in until they were sure they weren’t going to have to put me out completely, but he eventually was there and holding my hand. They offered me some sort of pain reliever that would tone down what I was feeling but has an amnesiac effect - I turned it down.
The c-section happened very quickly. It didn’t hurt, but there was a lot of tugging and pushing and pulling that affected my whole body - John said that I was being shaken all over.
Our son Saturn was born at 9:28 on Wednesday morning, and hearing him cry for the first time was a peak experience in my life. John came and went between me and him - I could see where he was and flashes of skin if I turned my head and craned my neck a little. They put a footprint on the back of John’s hand so he could bring it over for me to see.
The first comment I heard anyone make about him was ‘My, that’s a chunky boy!’. He was born at 10 pounds, 2 ounces, and 22.5 inches long, very healthy and crying lustily. He calmed down quickly, I assume after they wrapped him up - cold is one of the few things he dislikes.
After they sewed me up, they transferred me back to my original hospital bed and gave me Saturn to hold.
I was pretty out of it for the next couple of hours. I don’t know what medication I had in me, but I was loopy and sleepy. I undressed Saturn and held him. Mom and John helped me to breastfeed for the first time - I knew I really wanted to, but was too exhausted to do it on my own.
When I could move my legs on my own again, we transferred to the postpartum ward. Everyone on the labor and delivery unit gathered to say goodbye - I think I recognized most of them from the OR.
Mercy was excellent to me for the next couple of days. Lots of people came to visit; Saturn stayed with me except for brief checkups and did really well. We got off to a great start with breastfeeding. I got to go home one day early since I was doing well.
Later I learned that the monitor beeping was his heart rate dropping precipitously to unacceptablly low levels. They made sure it was his heartbeat dropping, not just that they were hearing mine, and tried to stimulate him in a variety of ways, but that didn’t work. They thought perhaps he had fallen on his cord, which was what the turning was about, but that didn’t help either, so c-section it was. People were getting ready to surgically remove him while others were trying these things, so we didn’t lose any time on attempting to pick up his heartbeat again, but as soon as those measures failed, they were ready to start the c-section. It was very quick from the time things started to go wrong until the time when he was born - no more than 10 minutes.
Some of the first things that we noticed about Saturn -
* His slightly hairy ears and shoulders
* His wrinkly old-man hands and feet
* His excellent surprised pooping faces
* How soft the skin of his head was
* His lovely dark blue eyes
* How much he disliked heel-sticks.
Now we’re back at home and learning to be parents. It’s difficult and easy at the same time. Most days, I manage to have time for a shower!
I’m glad that we gave natural birth a try, and I’m glad that we transferred to Mercy when we did. I’m glad that I got an epidural so that I could be awake and aware for his birth and first hours of life. I’m glad that we had such a good experience with the staffs of Mercy and the Midwife Center. I’m glad to have had John and Mom with me - I couldn’t have done it without them.
Mostly, I’m glad to have Saturn.
I had planned to work until I went into labor, but slept in accidentally on Thursday (40 weeks, 6 days), and had a non-stress test planned for that Friday, and all sorts of appointments for Monday... I decided I wasn’t going to think about whether to go back to work or not, and called maternity leave early.
The last few days of pregnancy were fun and relaxing, although I did complain a bit about how often people kept asking me if I’d had the baby yet. On Thursday, John also played hooky, and we hung out. A great day. Friday, I played a lot of Sims and did some gardening - two of my favorite things.
On Friday (41 weeks), my Mom took me in to Mercy for a non-stress test that took an hour and a half instead of the 20 minutes I’d expected... so maybe a slightly stressful test? I was thankful that she was there, since she’s worked in ob/gyn for years and could tell what was happening - whenever he moved and they’d try to measure an acceleration, he moved away from the heartbeat monitor. Mom finally held it in place, moving it as necessary, and we were out 15 minutes after that. Ann happened to be at Mercy with some ladies in labor, and she stopped in to see if I had any questions. We talked about next steps (what if I don’t go into labor before 42 weeks?) and she checked my cervix - softening, but not yet open at the top, same as on the previous Monday.
The weekend was a suspenseful time. We had fairly big activities planned for both days. Saturday (41 weeks and 1 day), John was instrumental in arranging a bachelor party for a great friend of ours. They all drove out to Columbus (two and a half hours away) for the day, and had a fantastic time. Apparently, 2.5 hours wasn’t quite far enough to kick me into labor, although I did have some stronger and more regular contractions toward the end of the night.
I spent Saturday (41 weeks, 2 days) at home with a lot of friends, getting ready for Sunday - Alex’s going-away party. Alex is a 17-year-old German exchange student who has been our first ‘son’ for the past year. He was due at the airport on Friday morning (42 weeks), and was really hoping to meet his baby brother before he left. His going-home party was awesome - lots of friends and family - but no labor.
Man, that meant I had to keep all of those Monday (41 weeks, 3 days) appointments - I'd been hoping I could skip them. A non-stress test and an ultrasound said that he was very comfortable where he was.
At the Midwife Center, Theresa checked my cervix again - no progress. This baby had been measuring big since we started measuring, and Theresa estimated his current weight at 9.5 pounds. We weren’t comfortable with potentially letting him go past 42 weeks, so we scheduled an induction for Friday morning at Mercy in case it was needed. However, I was interested in laboring at the Midwife Center if possible, so we decided to try a ‘soft’ induction at the Midwife Center on Tuesday morning, repeating if necessary on Wednesday or Thursday.
For dinner, my friend Sarah made me a pizza famous for inducing labor - Skipolini’s ‘Prego Pizza’. It was covered with spicy meats and cayenne pepper, and while it didn’t induce labor, it did induce extreme baby acrobatics. Since I could theoretically kick into labor at the soft induction the next morning, I finished packing my bags, which had been in a half-completed state for weeks.
John and I called first to make sure that there weren’t already 3 ladies in labor, then showed up at the Midwife Center on Tuesday morning (41 weeks, 4 days). Theresa checked my cervix again - open at the top! Prego pizza for the win! She swept my membranes, and Diana checked the baby’s heartbeat. We started cycles of breastpumping and walking - 15 minutes on each side, then a half-hour of walking around the Strip. It was definitely making contractions happen, so we did 3 cycles and checked again - 1-2 centimeters dilated. They sent us home with instructions to call again in the morning. The contractions subsided as we headed home, and I had leftover prego pizza for lunch, with repeat acrobatics.
We had friends over, so I don’t know that I noticed immediately when the contractions started picking back up... but they did that afternoon. We took a nap, and I had trouble getting to sleep. I timed a few contractions, and they were very close together (4-5 minutes), but not very long or very strong.
By that evening, I was having contractions every 2-4 minutes and was ready to go into the Midwife Center. John, Mom, and I left a whole bunch of friends at our house and headed in around 10 pm. On the ride there, we counted contractions - I think we got to 10? Maybe 12? When we arrived, Theresa and Cheryl checked us in and checked us out - I was 3-4 centimeters dilated.
For the next few hours, labor progressed pretty normally and quickly. Contractions hurt my lower back and my cervix. They came fairly close together. I found standing and leaning on something while someone gently rubbed my lower back to be most helpful, but we also tried some other positions. We were excited to hear that there was another lady in labor, so we might both have babies that night.
At about 2 am, Theresa checked me and pronounced me in active labor, at 5-6 centimeters dilated. We started using the tub for pain relief, which was wonderful. I have always enjoyed hot baths, and the sensation of water pouring over my skin during a contraction was something totally different to focus on - I could still feel the pain, but if I tried, I could pay attention to the water instead. John was a champion... he poured water during close-together contractions for hours. Mom enabled him to stay with me by fetching things, asking questions, and generally being available. I entered a sort of dazed dream state, and would occasionally open my eyes to find a different group of people hanging out with me in the bathroom. Our friends Sarah and Zack visited at some point, bringing supplies.
I drank water during this time, but failed to ingest calories - any drinks with sugar in them seemed absolutely awful, and food was right out (I pitifully attempted to eat some Cheerios and got through about 6 of them). Contractions started to slow down, and they checked my urine and found that I was producing ketones, showing that I was not getting enough food and decreasing the effectiveness of labor. Cheryl hooked me up to an IV, which helped some.
By 7 am, I had regressed - Theresa said she could only honestly call me 4 centimeters dilated. We talked about some alternatives - we could try to speed up labor at the Midwife Center by breaking my water, or we could transfer to the hospital and try to speed up labor there. Theresa had said at my last appointment that because the baby was so large, she was going to be sensitive to stalled labor and recommend a transfer if it looked like it was happening. We agreed that a transfer was probably the way to go. It was also shift change time - Theresa had been on call for 24 hours, and Kathy was coming on duty.
John drove Mom and me over to Mercy. It was a bit shocking to come out of the Center into daylight - I don’t usually stay up all night. The three contractions and bumpy roads on the way to the hospital were not my favorite things that happened that day.
At Mercy, I was attached to an IV and some sensors (for heartbeat and contractions), then talked to Kathy a bit about alternatives. We decided to insert an intrauterine pressure catheter to see how effective my contractions were and decide if they were ineffective (and we could help them out) or effective (so why wasn’t I progressing?). I was not ready to have stronger contractions without the pain relief offered by the tub or being able to change positions frequently, so I asked for an epidural first.
The anesthesiologists were nice and rather fun guys. The worst thing about having the epidural put in is that I had to sit leaning over my lap, which put pressure on the bottom of my belly, and was not supposed to move, even during contractions. John and Mom were not allowed to be in the room while it was inserted. Kathy (the nurse) helped me cope with the contractions while they were inserting the epidural, and when the medication started to take effect, the contractions seemed shorter, and then felt like pressure, but not pain. I stretched out on the bed and took a nap for a bit.
Kathy (the midwife) came to break my water. She did so during a contraction, and it was shockingly warm. There was meconium in it - John said it looked like pea soup.
Shortly thereafter, my account of what happened becomes a bit confused - I’m not exactly sure what happened or in what order. That was a big change from before, when I was (although in pain) totally aware and informed and involved with decision making. Here’s what I remember:
A monitor started beeping differently.
Kathy asked someone to reach over and press a button on the wall.
More and more people started appearing, one by one.
Someone reached in and poked the baby’s head hard and repeatedly.
They turned me from side to side.
Someone pulled all of my wires out of the wall and threw them on the bed with me.
They wheeled my bed away and ran me down the hall, bumping into things a bit on the way there.
Kathy told me somewhere during this that the baby wasn’t responding well and they were going to try a few things, but if they didn’t work, I’d have to have an emergency c-section. I wasn’t panicking, but I was afraid.
In the OR, more and more people appeared. The same anesthesiologists were the primary people talking to me - they started putting more medication in through my epidural and checking to make sure I was properly numb. John was not allowed to come in until they were sure they weren’t going to have to put me out completely, but he eventually was there and holding my hand. They offered me some sort of pain reliever that would tone down what I was feeling but has an amnesiac effect - I turned it down.
The c-section happened very quickly. It didn’t hurt, but there was a lot of tugging and pushing and pulling that affected my whole body - John said that I was being shaken all over.
Our son Saturn was born at 9:28 on Wednesday morning, and hearing him cry for the first time was a peak experience in my life. John came and went between me and him - I could see where he was and flashes of skin if I turned my head and craned my neck a little. They put a footprint on the back of John’s hand so he could bring it over for me to see.
The first comment I heard anyone make about him was ‘My, that’s a chunky boy!’. He was born at 10 pounds, 2 ounces, and 22.5 inches long, very healthy and crying lustily. He calmed down quickly, I assume after they wrapped him up - cold is one of the few things he dislikes.
After they sewed me up, they transferred me back to my original hospital bed and gave me Saturn to hold.
I was pretty out of it for the next couple of hours. I don’t know what medication I had in me, but I was loopy and sleepy. I undressed Saturn and held him. Mom and John helped me to breastfeed for the first time - I knew I really wanted to, but was too exhausted to do it on my own.
When I could move my legs on my own again, we transferred to the postpartum ward. Everyone on the labor and delivery unit gathered to say goodbye - I think I recognized most of them from the OR.
Mercy was excellent to me for the next couple of days. Lots of people came to visit; Saturn stayed with me except for brief checkups and did really well. We got off to a great start with breastfeeding. I got to go home one day early since I was doing well.
Later I learned that the monitor beeping was his heart rate dropping precipitously to unacceptablly low levels. They made sure it was his heartbeat dropping, not just that they were hearing mine, and tried to stimulate him in a variety of ways, but that didn’t work. They thought perhaps he had fallen on his cord, which was what the turning was about, but that didn’t help either, so c-section it was. People were getting ready to surgically remove him while others were trying these things, so we didn’t lose any time on attempting to pick up his heartbeat again, but as soon as those measures failed, they were ready to start the c-section. It was very quick from the time things started to go wrong until the time when he was born - no more than 10 minutes.
Some of the first things that we noticed about Saturn -
* His slightly hairy ears and shoulders
* His wrinkly old-man hands and feet
* His excellent surprised pooping faces
* How soft the skin of his head was
* His lovely dark blue eyes
* How much he disliked heel-sticks.
Now we’re back at home and learning to be parents. It’s difficult and easy at the same time. Most days, I manage to have time for a shower!
I’m glad that we gave natural birth a try, and I’m glad that we transferred to Mercy when we did. I’m glad that I got an epidural so that I could be awake and aware for his birth and first hours of life. I’m glad that we had such a good experience with the staffs of Mercy and the Midwife Center. I’m glad to have had John and Mom with me - I couldn’t have done it without them.
Mostly, I’m glad to have Saturn.