I truly don't expect this to be the most exciting read for most of you, but as I do this blog partly in place of a baby book/physical records of any sort, I want to write down the story while it's still fresh (and while Cora takes an early evening doze...) so SHE can know how she entered the world. :)
As you know from my previous posts, we were told at 2:00 on Saturday, April 26th, that the soonest we would be called in to come to the hospital was 2:00 p.m. on Sunday the 27th. So we sent Mom home around 3:30 p.m. and settled in for a low-key evening at home. At 7:00 p.m. I got another call from the hospital saying they had a bed open for me, so could I come in RIGHT NOW? (Because if someone else came in, in labor, before me...then my shot at the bed took 2nd priority again. Mercy! End of April is a hot time to have a baby at this hospital, evidently!) So, we called poor Mom back to our house again, and took off for the hospital. We got there around 8:30 p.m.
Methodist hospital, where I have now delivered all 3 kids, is a very nice place...but last year they renovated the labor and delivery wing, and now it's called the "Family Birth Center." Everything is very nice and updated, and nicest of all was that Jonas got a full-on bed to sleep in, in both the delivery room and the recovery room. The recovery rooms were a huge upgrade from the rooms they had before, as well--ours had one curved wall with seriously 13-15 windows that overlooked a marsh and walking path. Nice! :)
So, anyway, we arrived at 8:30 p.m., and after one serious talk with a Dr. about MY pain management plan (i.e. I wanted drugs when I wanted them, otherwise I was walking away then and there...which she agreed to...), I was in bed and set to go with my first intervention at 10:00 p.m. The first intervention was 12 hours long, so all night long I was having contractions about 2-4 minutes apart. They weren't bad, really, so I could handle them...but as it was night it was pretty hard to sleep through that. I rested a lot, but no real sleeping. At 10:00 a.m. I was only at 1 cm (depressing, but normal for me), so they tried a pill that has a 4 hour life. Before that, though, they let me eat breakfast--and that's another thing that Methodist has improved on. The food they offer is MUCH better than 3 years ago with Finn! I got an omelet every morning, with fresh fruit, and their other food wasn't bad either. Anyway, I ate, then they gave me a 4-hour pill to help thing progress, and Jonas left to get food. I was sitting on the birthing ball when all of a sudden I realized I was going to throw up--I didn't feel sick at all, but it was clearly happening. SO annoying to me, because I hadn't had any dinner the night before, other than a smoothie, so that omelet was my first dose of real calories in a loooong time! And then it was GONE. :( I couldn't eat again because they had already started another intervention, and they don't want you eating while doing that. So, back to juice for me, sadly.
4 hours later, around 5:00/5:30 p.m., they checked me again and I was at 2 cm. For crying out loud. Me and my slooooooow labors! Keep in mind, I've been having contractions this ENTIRE time, every 2-4 minutes, since 10:00 the night before. At this point the pain was getting more annoying, and I was very tired, so they were regularly giving me doses of my most favorite drug in the whole wide world: fentanyl. It's AMAZING. At least, it is for me. My body seems to respond well to all sorts of drugs, so it's no big surprise, but man do I love it. It only last in your body for 30 minutes (at least the does they give to laboring women through an IV), and you can only get it every hour, so if you are in pain, at least 1/2 of that hour is pain free. (I was not getting it every hour, just somewhat regularly). It takes about 10 seconds to totally relax you, make you very sleepy and dizzy, and almost erase the kind of pain I was having at that point. When I was on fentanly I SLEPT. And I needed it, having not slept at all, really, the night before. I am considering giving one of my children the middle name of fentanly, I think.
At this point the Drs decided to do ANOTHER round of the 4-hour pill. So, there I was, dozing on fentanyl, or sitting up in bed/on the ball trying to help gravity move the baby down and make the contractions more effective. All of a sudden, my contractions went from manageable for me, and I'm NO pain hero at all, to TOTALLY out of control painful. You could see them maxing out the chart on the monitor next to me, and they were looooong. So, I immediately called for the epidural. It took the guy a loooong time to get to my room, and I could tell the nurse was a bit annoyed by this, but at this point I can't even open my eyes, and I'm focusing on just not losing my grip on sanity. He finally gets there, and then the set up seemed to take forever. Contraction after contraction was happening, and no pain relief yet. They finally got it in, no issues at all, and I had big expectations: with my other two kids, and a correctly placed epidural, I had pain relief in seconds, and it was massively effective. I felt nothing, and it was glorious. This time around? No such luck! I kept feeling contraction after contraction--they were getting slightly less painful, and slightly shorter in length, but still...this was not what I was expecting at all! Then it seemed to be working better on my left side, so they rolled me to my right at bit to let gravity work--and waited. And waited. That helped some, but when the Dr left I called him back and asked for ANY AND ALL DRUGS he could put into that IV or epidural to be given to me RIGHT THEN. :) Hah. Yay for 3rd baby aggression and knowing what you want/not being afraid to ask for it!! FINALLY I was feeling relief, but it seemed to take soooo much longer than necessary. (I think one small part of the problem was that the anesthesia Dr. was slightly conservative in his approach--some might like that, but that is the opposite of what I want in a pain meds Dr!!).
During this whole ordeal the nurse kept asking me if I felt "pain, or pressure??" Like I didn't know the difference. :) However, I thought I knew where she was going with that line of questioning...she wanted to know if this was just serious pain, OR if it was possible that I had really quickly progressed and was almost ready to give birth...and I knew it was much less likely they would let me have an epidural then, so I just kept saying "Can BOTH be true??" She didn't check me, thank goodness, because it hurt like HELL every time they checked me, so they stopped doing it unless absolutely necessary...and also because I had only been at a 2 the last time they checked. So, after they had me finally comfortable the nurse checked me again...and sure enough: I was at a 9.5. 10 is when you start pushing. SO. That was part of the whole pain problem. :) I had gone from a 2 to a 9.5 in a little over and hour, or hour and a half. The pain meds had a lot of catching up to do there, with that speed of progression!
I had Jonas quick call Renee and tell her to get down there ASAP--and she sure did set a record time getting there too, showing up all out of breath, camera bags flying! :) I was so glad to have her there--not only are the pictures she takes right after birth something I totally treasure, but she's a dula, so she's just a great person to have around for labor and delivery--very calming, thinking ahead to exactly what you or anyone else in the room might want or need, etc.
The nurses had me hang out for a bit longer, while I progressed that last little bit, and then a few more people joined us in the room and said I could have a baby now. :) There was a little bit of tension because Cora's heart rate had started to drop and be slow in coming back up again every contraction, but it wasn't in a "danger zone," and it was somewhat normal for that final stage before pushing. But, since I could push then, they decided to just have me go for it--the sooner she was out, the better.
Pushing to me is a funny thing, because every time I've had an epidural--so it's never painful. I guess some people don't really get how to push, but I do...and I don't know why. Either way, I've never had to push for long. 20 minutes for Layla, 10 minutes for Finn, and I'm not really sure this time around...all I know is I pushed through about 5 contractions, and they were spaced somewhat far apart for that stage of labor. This time I did feel MUCH more numb, so I truly felt I was pushing from head memory and not from muscle memory at all. But it still worked!
Cora came out CRYING and working up quite a fuss, and we were all SO glad to see her. :) A few things I changed in my requests this time around were to 1) NOT have the nurses rub all the vernix off of her skin right away, unless it was medically necessary to stimulate her (because it's good for her skin, and it helps with nursing), and 2) to NOT clamp and cut the cord until it had stopped pulsing. They actually almost forgot this, but both Jonas and Renee caught them in time. They put her on my chest, and we just soaked her in.
She was SO alert right away! Her eyes were open, and she was constantly moving her neck and lifting her chin up really high, looking in every direction. It was so funny to me! Plus, she just looked perpetually mad...ready for a fight. :) She was nursing and latching well within the first hour, so that was a relief...nursing is a BIG deal to me, so anything that goes wrong initially is a concern for sure, because it can be hard to recover from bad starts. Layla would be my classic example there: she didn't become a tolerable nurser until 3 months, and wasn't "good" until 6 months. Those were looooooong months with a pump every 2 hours, around the clock! Finn was great from the start, and Cora has been too...but she get VERY angry when she doesn't get milk IMMEDIATELY, so we're working on that part. :)
The hospital took great care of us/me, in our cushy recovery room, and we had sweet visits from the Horsmans, my Mom with Layla and Finn, and Lauren and Dan even came too! Lauren Mitchell came as well, and she'll be back there to give birth to her own child in just a few short weeks--fun fun! :) Everyone brought snacks and food, too, which is always a major plus when in a hospital...and if your name is "Jonas." ;)
Coming home has been a million times easier than when we brought Finn home. The ages of Layla and Finn are a HUGE, HUGE plus in that process. They have been nothing but adorable and sweet to Cora. They are noisy, for sure, but that's just something a 3rd child deals with from the start, right? It was a big relief to me that Layla and Finn did so well staying with my mom while we were in the hospital. I guess they got over the worst of their croup symptoms on that very last night we were at home, so she didn't have to nebulize them or take them to the hospital at all. That would have been a major stresser for everyone involved! Jonas and I were DOG tired that first night at home--I seriously felt like I hadn't slept for 3 nights straight, which was pretty much true. Night #1 in the hospital I was on drugs all night, Night #2 Cora was born at 10:48...and I was doing things like taking a bath at 3:00 a.m., moving to a new room at 4:00 a.m., etc. Not exactly "restful." Night #3 was nursing coming in all the time, nursing Cora around the clock (we kept her in the room with us this time, rather than send her to the nursery like I did the last 2), etc. So MAN were we tired when we got home. My Mom stayed another night with us, and the 3 of us took shifts to watch Cora in between feedings, then I got another nap that morning. The next night was a little rough too, but LAST night finally we did okay--Jonas got a full night of sleep, no wakings from either Layla or Finn, and Cora did well downstairs with me until about 4:00 a.m. when she decided to be wakeful, so Jonas watched her from 5:00-6:00 a.m., then went to work, and she slept again with me in bed from 6:00--8:30-ish. Finn slept until 8:45 a.m. this morning, which was just a sweet gift from the LORD. ;) Have you picked up on the fact that sleep is a major love language for me??? It is. Sleep fixes almost anything for me, so motherhood has been a challenge, that's for sure. But we're figuring it out! Lots of people are giving us meals, and those are a huge help, especially to me. I think it's one of J's most favorite part of having a kid: the surprise meals. :) Tonight a friend brought me home-made sangria with a meal. Oh.my.WORD. Heaven. I love sangria in the summer, and THIS sangria has bourbon in it as well. Faaaaaaancy! I'm pretty sure I could have been drunk in 20 seconds flat if my 10-months-alcohol-deprived body had been allowed free reign. :)
My last thought is about family. I honestly don't know how people have children when they don't live near immediate/extended family, ESPECIALLY when it is a 2nd or 3rd child. My sister Renee pretty much made the safe birth of Cora even POSSIBLE by watching my kids so much as I went in for my long and frequent hospital/clinic visits . My Mom also watched the kids a lot during the last few months as my visits ramped up in frequency and length. Then, with my Mom staying with us and watching the kids while we were in the hospital, Renee and other siblings and my Mom bringing us food, calling to see if we need things at the grocery store, etc. It's just AWESOME. We are even connected to a great church family out here, with close friends there and people we would feel totally comfortable calling on for help, but it's just not the same. MN winters are awful, but I tell you, living near family has major, major perks...and they just might outweigh those awful winters. ;)
So, there you have it. To the best of my memory, Cora's birth story, and many more tangents from me as a bonus. Welcome to our world, baby girl! We love you!
