Amelia's Story

Well, since our little boy will be here any day I've been thinking that I don't want to get the details of his and Amelia's birth stories mixed up--like I often do in similar circumstances.  For my memory and your curiosities...

Amelia's Story

Even though we were due with Amelia on September 3, we were told by our doctor that very likely she would be early (and hopefully not premature).  So you can imagine our surprise, and partial delight, that she didn't show up when she was due... In fact, we had reservations at the hospital to be induced on the 17th since she was showing no interest in leaving the womb.

And apparently once you are so far past your due date they require you to have a NST (non-stress test) every few days to make sure the baby is still doing well and check for signs of labor.  Well, it just happened that we needed to have one on Saturday the 13th, which was also the day of the Iowa/Iowa State game (big deal here) and a good friend's baby shower.  We headed to he hospital that morning and all was fine.  Andrew went to help some friends move and I headed to the shower.  We had gotten up around 6 that morning to do some last minute house cleaning in case we had company later in the day.  I find that funny now.  After my friend Lisa's shower we all stayed and hung out.  Lisa's husband said that I was going to have the baby either that night or the next day since I'd been surrounded by so much estrogen.  Did I mention I was pregnant at the same time as a ton of our friends here... I'll show you proof in a second. We all pretty much laughed that off.

 In order of due dates:

Me, Cedar (Lisa's friend), Lisa, Kelly, Laura, Melany

This picture was taken at the shower.

After we'd enjoyed our friends for a long time, we decided to come home and rest for a bit.  I remember starting to doze on the couch around 4:30 and Andrew had this grand idea to go to church that night instead of in the a.m.  We have a few options for church times so it can be pretty nice, especially if you want to sleep a little later Sunday morning.  After an internal battle of just wanting to sleep, I got up and got myself together.  To spare you the next hour of details you probably don't need to know, we presumed my water broke as we were walking out the door and decided to stay home.  Maybe an hour or more later I finally started to have some very mild contractions.  At this point we thought we'd be making a trip to the hospital Sunday morning to have our little girl.

I had been wanting some pizza all week and I still seemed plenty far from delivering a baby so we ordered in and rented some episodes of House.  I think we got through the pizza and an episode of house by 9 or 9:30 and I decided my contractions were getting closer and definitely not mild.  I decided to take a shower since I wasn't sure how long I'd have to wait for the next one.  Somewhere in this time is when that crazy transition from "I want to look nice when I have a baby" to "Forget drying my hair or make up, I need to sit down.  Don't talk to me till I'm done with this contraction."  I think this is when we called everyone to tell them that we'd be heading to the hospital shortly.

We arrived there at just after midnight, much according to my plan since the billing cycle starts at 12:01 a.m.  I know, I know.  Looking back we wouldn't do that again, but the insurance company really should thank us.  Andrew offered me a wheelchair at the door and I scoffed.  About 3 seconds later I was humbled and accepted the ride.  We got up to the floor and they sent me to triage...  Seriously?  I was in hard labor.  Okay, fine.  After telling me I was at one cm (ONE), they decided to room me.  Andrew says it was because I was curling my toes (in pain).  I ended up getting the closest room to the nurses station because I couldn't go any farther.

This is about the time I asked for my epidural.  I'm not sure, but I bet they were laughing on the inside since I was only dilated to a one.  Then we had to go through this insane amount of paperwork that I thought I'd already taken care of and they finally gave me 'something to take the edge off.'  I think it was Nubain.  That stuff is no good if you're wondering.  It really just knocked me out for the 30 seconds between contractions.  Doesn't it sound ridiculous that my contractions were that on top of each other?  I think so.

Finally, around 2:30 or 3 the anesthesiologist got there to give me my epidural I'd been wanting.  Apparently they don't stay in our hospital because my nurses said he had to drive there... lame.  He got me set up and I had 20 awesome minutes of relief.  Oh yes, I will tell my epidural story until I die since I got the raw end of the deal.  After that I started to experience some mild pain again.  Now I've never had an epidural and I know they don't work for everyone so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, especially after they said they still want you to be able to feel enough to push later.  Okay... I definitely could feel.

Somewhere in all this time I figure out my epidural is not working.  My nurse is getting annoyed because she keeps having to come in to rearrange the bands on my belly to measure heart rate/contractions.  I was so uncomfortable I kept moving.  I also complain because my back feels wet.  The nurse and Andrew both really thought I was crazy I think and she explained it as the alcohol from the epidural IV.  Okay, who has used rubbing alcohol before?  How long does it take to dry?  Mmm-hmm.

I know, long.  So this all continues to go on and they continue to try to make my epidural stronger.  I complain more about my back.  "Oh."  The nurse says as she checks it out.  "It looks like your epidural is leaking out."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now... I'm slightly annoyed.  Luckily, my husband is awesome enough to apologize to me for not believing me about my back being wet, and the nurse follows suit.  I expect Andrew to be inexperienced in this so I'm not angry.  In fact, I'm not even that angry with the nurse at this point, I don't have the energy.  Still in pain.  The doctor comes in and says, "She shouldn't be in that much pain for having an epidural."  Tell me why it takes a doctor to figure this out.

At this point they can't believe my progress, but I'm ready to push.  They ask me if I want the epidural or if I want to push.  I ask if I can do both, but finally forgo the epidural since I found out pushing is a natural anesthetic for me.  One hour and a half later Amelia was born at 6:33 a.m.  She weighed 6 lbs, 15 oz. and was 20 inches long.  She had the quietest cry--they compared her to a cat.  Her little hands and feet were beyond water-logged.  I just found out in the last couple of months from talking with Andrew that they gave her oxygen for a short period of time after she was born.  I must have really been overwhelmed with the happenings to miss that.

That's pretty much Amelia's birth story and even though it wasn't super easy and not much went as expected... it was perfect.  I can't imagine not having her.  We are so blessed!