The Littlest Pie

She's here! Willa arrived on June 10th. We're still adjusting, getting to know this new little person, slogging through the sleep deprivation of the early weeks... It's wonderful to have her here (and out of my belly).

Eve was born via C-section. Willa arrived via VBAC. Having experienced both, I can honestly say there are pros and cons to each method. And I would wager that most birth stories that you hear have had some of the goriest details edited out. Here is Willa's birth story. If it seems like TMI, keep in mind that this is not even the whole story, just the parts that I'm willing to share. If biology makes you queasy, this might not be the blog for you.

For dinner, the evening of June 9th, we had burritos. They weren’t particularly spicy, but it was “Mexican” food. I was up several times during the night with a stomach-ache. Or perhaps it was the early stages of labor. Or both. Dave was blissfully unaware of my abdominal distress- I could hear him snoring upstairs from the bathroom on the main floor. Around 6 AM, I decided that stomach-ache or no, I was in labor. I called my OB’s office and my mom, then woke Dave up.

I had an OB appointment scheduled for 9:45 AM on June 10th. Dave was planning to stay home with Eve that morning while I went to the appointment. So when I turned on the light at around 6:15 that morning and said, “OK, Dave, let’s get going,” he thought (at first) that I was getting up kind of early for my appointment. It only took a moment for the gears to click into place, though, and he was up and ready for action.

Mom arrived soon after, to stay with Eve until she woke up. Dave loaded my enormous duffel bag and the infant car seat into the car, and we headed for the hospital. Every street in P-land was under construction, or needed to be- and it seemed as though I had a contraction every time we drove over a particularly bumpy section of road. But we made it to the hospital pretty quickly- there was surprisingly little traffic that morning.

At the hospital, we dropped the car off with the valet and headed up to the Family Birth Center. It was about 7:30 AM. We got checked in- there wasn’t much paperwork, as we had completed most of the registration materials when we visited the hospital two months ago (when I peed my pants while loading a comforter into the washing machine at the laundromat and thought my water had broken). We met our nurse for the day, Jenna, who verified that I was in labor (4 cm already), and hooked me up with a hep lock and some fetal monitors. Dr. S stopped by- she had just returned from Hawaii at midnight, and seemed excited that the baby had waited for her to get back.
Once we were all “settled in”, Jenna encouraged Dave to get himself some breakfast. Given that the general rule of thumb is that your cervix dilates about 1 cm per hour, we estimated that I would not be completely dilated until mid-afternoon- he would need to keep his strength up if it was a long day. So Dave set off to get the car keys from the valet (since we would be parked for a long time) and grab a muffin and some iced tea from Starbucks. Meanwhile, I rested on the groovy adjustable hospital bed, sitting up for my contractions, which were already pretty strong. Jenna had me rate my pain on a scale of 0-10, “0” being no pain, “5” being pain that would wake me up, and “10” being the worst pain ever. At this point, my contractions were about a “7”- I couldn’t talk during them, but I could get through them with some concentrated breathing. And they seemed awfully frequent, although I wasn’t timing them.

When Dave returned, Jenna told him, “Things got pretty intense pretty quickly!” They got me out of the bed and onto the birth ball. I bounced and rocked through a couple more contractions while Jenna filled up the bathtub. My pain was now at about “8”. The bath was nice and hot, and Jenna gave Dave a pitcher to pour water over me (when I wanted it), and instructions to make sure I kept breathing. I labored in the tub for a while, and as the contractions got stronger, my stomach began to be upset again. Dave and Jenna seemed unfazed by the messy biology of it all, but for me the unexpected discomfort of my GI tract, on top of labor, pushed me from a “9” to a “10”. I asked for an epidural. Jenna wanted to make sure that I really wanted one- and I surely did. Jenna did a quick check to make sure the baby wasn’t already in the birth canal (she wasn’t), but because of my intense discomfort and the awkward angle (we were still in the bathroom), she couldn’t get a feel for how dilated I was at that point.

The anesthesiologist was attending a C-section, so they had to pull an anesthesiologist off another floor- Dr. C. Everyone was saying, “Oh, you get Dr. C! You’re lucky- she’s the best!” And she was. But first, I had to get back to the bed. Dave and Jenna thought they might have to carry me, but I made it. Dave held me tight (to keep me from moving) while Dr. C worked her magic. She was narrating the whole time, because she had a student with her. She got the epidural done in 5 minutes. As it started to take effect, she told Dave and Jenna that she had given me enough medicine for about 2 hours, and that she would come back in a while to set me up with a drip that would get me through the rest of the day.

A few minutes later, Mom and Eve arrived. Mom had packed a huge Grandma-bag full of new toys and activities for Eve to keep her busy throughout the day. Our plan was that if Eve got scared or grossed out, Mom would get her out of the room. I was glad that they missed the drama that had just transpired. I felt like a human being again, instead of a wounded animal.

Once I was comfortable, Jenna suggested that we do a better check of my cervix. I was completely dilated! All of a sudden, things got very busy in our room. Nurses and equipment materialized out of nowhere. Dr. S appeared, in her regular clothes, and asked if she had time to change. The nurses handed her some scrubs and said to hurry.

Then it was time to push. The epidural was so effective that I couldn’t even tell when I was having a contraction anymore. Fortunately, the nurses could tell by looking at the monitors. So they told me when, and I pushed as hard as I could. With each contraction, I got in three good pushes. After the first set, Dr. S said that it wasn’t going to take long- the baby was coming down quickly. After the second set of pushes, she helped me feel the baby’s head- she was crowning! Dr. S said, “This is the perfect VBAC!” And I replied, “The baby’s not even born yet!” But with the next contraction, at 11:38 AM, Willa was born!

Mom told me later that being present for Willa’s birth was one of the best things that had ever happened to her. I’m glad she was able to be there. Eve was so absorbed in her bag of goodies that she barely noticed what was going on in the room. But after the birth, the nurses got her a stool and she got her first good look at her sister, laying on my chest. Her first remark was, “Ooo, the baby is so cute!” Her second remark was, “There’s blood everywhere!” Dr. S calmly responded, “It’s totally normal, nothing to worry about.” And so Eve did not worry about it.

Dr. C arrived shortly thereafter, to extend the life of my epidural, and was rather surprised to find that so much had changed while she was gone- and I didn’t need any more medicine. After the epidural wore off, I never needed anything stronger than ibuprofen.

The nurses managed to check Willa’s Apgar scores and get a diaper on her without ever taking her off my chest. I didn’t even notice what they were doing- they were so unobtrusive- it was like being cared for by fairies.

Then Dad arrived, wearing his hospital name badge, and prayed over the new baby like any good chaplain would.