Amelia’s Wild Ride
I’m not pregnant — woo hoo! 11 long days after her due date, Amelia Marie came charging into the world at approx. 6:45am on Tuesday, May 27. Here’s a recap of our wild 2.25 hour ride through labor.
I woke up and looked at the clock at 4:30am Tuesday morning, feeling some mild contractions, hopeful that this was it. I walked around a little bit, came back to bed. I would almost have myself convinced that the contractions were gone when one would come again. In retrospect I think they may have been as close as 5-6 minutes apart, but they seemed quite mild and tentative to me. At about 5:00, I nudged Kate and told him that today would probably be the day.
Soon after, I decided to go ahead and call our doula since I knew she might have to juggle her work schedule for the day. Kendra said she was so sorry but she suspected that she was coming down with the flu. I was disappointed, but we decided to play it by ear and I would check in with her later. Next I called my mom who would be staying with Josie (who was thankfully still sleeping at this point). I told her to bring an overnight bag to work and wait to hear from us. And then I called my dear friend Jeni so that she would know what was up, too.
During the phone calls, contractions continued coming, faster and harder — but still not a big deal. I was able to mostly talk through them just fine. Kate and I decided to time some contractions so that we would have some info to tell my doctor. Contractions were 30-50 seconds long, 2-3 minutes apart, getting harder but I wasn’t alarmed. Dr. S. said to get to the hospital pronto.
We only live about 10 minutes from the hospital (in light traffic), so the next thing was to get my mom to our house to be with Josie. She needs about 40 minutes to get to us. I called her again and asked her to come right over and then Kate and I worked on rounding up last-minute items for our bags. During this time, contractions became hard enough to stop me in my tracks. I had a thought that I would have many times that morning: that I wasn’t handling this labor as well as I could be. I started to really look forward to getting to the hospital so that I could just be still and focus.
Kate says that his inner voice was telling him that we should be leaving for the hospital now and having my mom meet us there. He suggested it, but I didn’t want to wake up Josie and have to tote her along with us. We timed some more contractions, Kate sent an e-mail to his boss. At 6:07am Josie started waking up, Kate shut the laptop, and said “we’re going now.” He changed Josie’s diaper, loaded her into the van (sans pants), and grabbed bags while I made one last bathroom stop.
Sitting on the toilet, I felt an enormous, involuntary, bearing down sensation, followed by a pop and the sound of my water breaking with a splash. For just a second my eyes landed on the bathtub and considered how nice it would be to just stay home. But with no doula, no childcare, and no birth supplies, that was only a fleeting thought. Plus, I thought again that this just seemed more intense because I wasn’t in a position to properly relax and focus.
In the van, I managed to call my mom and tell her to meet us at the hospital and then I just tried to keep my vocalizations in check (didn’t want to freak out Josie) by talking to myself. In my head, I was checking of signs of positive progress (we’re on the highway, I can see the exit, this contraction is almost over, etc). Out loud, I just kept mumbling, “that’s good, that’s good, that’s good.”
We left the van at the main entrance with four-ways flashing. Kate grabbed Josie and her diaper bag in one hand with me clutching the other. It took 4-5 very hard contractions to get across the big lobby and to the elevator, but we actually made it quite quickly. I’m sure we were quite a sight. I was not trying to be quiet anymore.
At the triage desk on L&D, the nurse said that Dr. S. had called in a direct admit but asked to see ID and insurance card. We’d left everything in the car, so she started to just lead us to room 4, our lovely natural-birth-friendly room with a tub. My composure was crumbling fast, especially at the thought of walking another long hallway. At some point between the van and L&D I’d stopped going with the flow of contractions and was now fighting the urge to push.
The nurse was not getting the picture of how quickly I was losing it. She was asking questions about my pre-pregnancy weight, etc, and walking too fast. Kate was trying to support me and cuddle Josie. Finally, I managed to say that I was feeling like pushing, and I could see in her eyes that she understood. She hollered for a wheelchair and said that we were now just going to try to make it to room 1.
My feet were taking root in the floor, but someone came up with a wheelchair and pushed me into the room at a run. I stood up from the chair at the side of the bed, leaned forward with my palms on the mattress, and couldn’t make my legs more another inch. “Can you get up onto the bed?” No. “Okay, just slip off your pants.” No. Again, someone asked me to get up onto the bed. Finally, Kate set Josie on the bed for a minute and yanked down my pants and underwear for me. I managed to kick off one shoe. And I could feel burning pressure. I was using every ounce of willpower to hold back because I knew that no one was in position to catch this baby yet.
The nurse from the hallway was calling for any doctor within earshot to get in here because we had a baby crowning. I couldn’t see what was going on because I was facing the far wall, but I heard someone behind me saying that it was okay to push. I didn’t so much push as give in and I felt the baby’s head coming out almost immediately. I gave one mighty push and felt shoulders and everything else come tumbling (quite literally) out. She came with such force — and because I was standing — that her cord broke. I had a ridiculous fleeting thought about how my shoes were probably ruined. (Incidentally, they’re not! LOL)
The next hour was tough because I didn’t get to see Amelia — at all — because she had inhaled a lot of fluid and meconium and needed to be observed in NICU, while I needed to deliver the placenta and get some stitches. In the end, everyone is well and we’re home now with our Amelia who flew into the world. Does this mean she’s going to be a drama queen?