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My Birth Story
It was Friday and I had just arrived at work. I was feeling good and I had actually taken the time to get dressed that morning in cute maternity jeans and layered a couple of tank tops. I was even on time with a minute to spare 8:59 am. Then I got out of Nadine (our 1989 Toyota Camry) and reached across to the passengers seat to grab my bags and I felt like I had to pee and then I totally thought that I did, right in my cute maternity jeans. I was thinking “no it couldn’t be, my water couldn’t have broken it is only June 2nd. Sprout isn’t due until July 13th” So I stood there a minute and then I went in to the office and went straight into the bathroom where I checked my underwear and didn’t see blood or anything so I put on a pad and went to my desk and put my bag down. Then I thought maybe I should call DH.
I went out into the parking and called him. I said that “ I don’t want to worry you because I’m not sure, but my water may have just broken.” I asked him what I should do. He said call the midwives. I said “really? I’m sure it’s nothing. I don’t want to have a baby today.” He said if it is your water you should call them. Then he told me that he was getting off the bus to turn around and head towards the hospital. He was on his way to school at Cal State LA way on the other side of town. After I got off the phone with him I called the midwife on call, but instead of waiting for her to be paged I asked the resident on call what I should do and she said to come in and get check out. The best case scenario is that they send me home. Then I called DH again and told him what they said and told him I was going to go there soon. He told me that he was going to meet me there I told him to go back toward school because I didn’t think that I would be there long enough for him to meet me. He reconfirmed that he would meet me there.
At that point I went in to work and checked my email let my supervisor know that I was going out of the office to the doctor. I talked to Vick the CFO and told him that I had to leave the office because I was having weird cramps. I didn’t want to worry him too much and I told him that I would probably be back in a couple of hours. Then I told the assistant that I was leaving in case my other teammate who was on the phone at the time asked where I was and then I walked out, by that time it was about 10:15. Then I got into Nadine and drove myself to the hospital. Luckily there wasn’t too much traffic so it only took about 20 minutes to get there. It would have been quicker except that I missed the driveway to the hospital and had to drive a while to get to a place to turn around. When I got to the parking attendant booth I asked him where Labor and Delivery was and he said and he told me and said it was $8 to park for the day. I went to take out my Credit card and he said cash only I didn’t have any cash so I said that I would go look for free street parking. Then I drove around for 5 minutes and didn’t see anything then I went looking for a Washington ton Mutual couldn’t find one and went back to the Hospital. I waited in the line got to the parking attendant and said that I needed to get to Labor and Delivery and I didn’t have any cash. He asked if I was picking someone up. I said no it’s for me. Then he told me that there was an ATM at the grocery store across the street from the Hospital. So nearly in tears I drove across the street and withdrew $20 from my checking account. Then I drove back to the Hospital and paid my $8 to the attendant and found a parking space in the garage. I had to write down the level and row on a piece of paper because I knew that with the amount of nervousness and stress I would never in a million years be able to remember where I had parked. It was about 11:00 am.
I walked myself into the hospital and asked how to get to Labor & Deliver while kicking myself for having procrastinated on scheduling my hospital tour. When I got up to the right floor I went to the nurses station and waited in line behind another couple and then asked them what I should do and asked to see the midwife on call. They took me to a check in room and I sat down on the table and answered a bunch of questions and they hooked me up to a fetal monitor and checked me out. My midwife came in and checked me herself. I called DH to let him know that I was finally in the hospital and getting checked out.
After I got of the phone with him I was talking with the nurse about how I hate hospitals and I don’t want to be a patient and I don’t want to be induced and I am afraid of pitocin. She said not to worry and that pitocin isn’t that bad, because she had to have it when she had her daughter and she didn’t end up getting an epidural. Then all of a sudden several people came in to the room and started looking at my monitor and said that the baby’s heart rate was really high like over 200 and they were concerned and then they gave me oxygen and hooked me up to an IV of “fluids”. The fluids made me freezing cold and I was shivering and shaking and they had to bring me warm blankets. Sprout’s heart rate went back to the150’s and I was taken off the fluids. Then they came back and told me that I was leaking amniotic fluid and I would not be going back to the office. At that point I called my co-worker and told her that I wasn’t going to be at a meeting later that day.
Then the midwife, the resident on duty, and the ob on duty all came into the room to let me know that they were all going to go and talk and decide what was best for the baby to induce or to wait for my labor to start on it’s own. The resident on duty stayed in the room and explained the pros and cons of my options. She suspected that they would probably wait a few hours and if there was still nothing I would be induced. Finally DH arrived at about 12:00 pm and I was so glad to see him. They all came back to the room and told me that they thought it was best to induce because they couldn’t find any reason for the premature rupture of membranes and if it was an infection the baby was so early that her lungs may not be developed enough to fight the infection. They didn’t see any point in waiting because my cervix was still long and completely closed. I was freaked out. All I could think of was pitocin and epidural and a tiny premature baby. Also I still had one more birthing class left. I wasn’t ready to have a baby yet. They took a sample of the Amniotic Fluid to test for beta strep and any other infection. And we waited to be moved to an L & D room. I didn’t have to wait to long because apparently there weren’t that many babies who wanted to be born that day. Which I guess was a fortunate thing because UCLA hospital is kind of infamous for being on the crowded side.
So once I was in “my” room I received my first dose of Misoprostal or “miso” at 1:00pm. It was supposed to thin my cervix so that it could open and hopefully bring on contractions and help me avoid the dreaded Pitocin. I was only going to have 3 chances with this. I had to lay in bed for an hour which was no fun because I was really hungry. I usually ate breakfast at 9:00 when I got to work, but didn’t really have time this morning. I wasn’t feeling any contractions and I was afraid that it wasn’t going to work. It doesn’t work for everyone. But they came in and checked me I would get another dose at 5:00 pm, and they said that my cervix seemed shorter and softer, but still closed. The nurse asked me if I was feeling anything and I aid no. She said it looked like contractions were starting. I told her that I was hungry and she said that she would try to arrange for me to get some food since there was no telling how long I was going to be there. Later she told me that I would be able to eat an hour after I got my antibiotics. I had to have penicillin just in case there was an infection. While we waited I made DH call everyone and let them know what was going on. He even called the instructor of our birthing class and made her give us the cliff notes version of the class that we were going to miss. Then I got my second dose of Miso my antibiotics and then Lunch. At long last Food. I was progressed to 3 centimeters.
Then I had to be moved into an L D & R suite that had a shower. I was really looking forward to it. Then they told me I couldn’t use it because they didn’t want me off the monitor. Then I had a nurse change at about 7pm. We decided to call our doula.
Mayora, the doula showed up about 8:30pm. DH decided to go home at 9:00 pm because he needed to feed and walk the dogs and pick up some things for us since I had not packed my hospital bag yet. Since I still wasn’t feeling any contractions or anything I thought now was probably the best time to do it.
Then I had to go to the bathroom. I felt a huge pain in my pelvis while I was in there. It was pretty awful. I came out and I told Mayora. Then I started feeling similar pains more often than I would have liked. I started needing to change position from time to time. I was getting more and more uncomfortable.
Then the OB came in and checked me and I had not progressed as much as she would have liked. I was “only” 3 centimeters and 0 station. I was glad that I had taken Jana’s class and knew that Centimeters is not the only way to measure progress. She asked me if I wanted an eipidural and I said no. Mayora told her that Susan had told us that she would be back to check on me and we would wait to make any further decisions until she got there. The OB was questioning me if the midwives had been giving me my prenatal care and I said yes. She said, “oh okay.” The resident asked me if I wanted the epidural and I said no I don’t need it yet I am doing okay. She said that she said she didn’t see any reason for me to be so uncomfortable. Then the OB asked if I was sure. I started to think that maybe I was being silly refusing and maybe it was going to get a lot worse really quickly. Mayora told them that if I changed my mind I would let them know. I was so grateful.
Then we had to have them call for Susan. When she arrived she was apologetic saying that she didn’t know that I was progressing so quickly because no one had told her. She checked me. Then she stayed with me for the rest of the time.
Finally DH got back and I was really glad to see him. In all the excitement he forgot a lot of things he went to take care of, but the dogs were taken care of for the next couple of days. Mayora caught him up on everything that was going on. There was a lot of position changing and deep breathing. Mayor gave me grapes and water. DH took a bit of a nap and then realized that he was too nervous/excited to sleep. He kept talking to everyone and it was irritating. My new annoying nurse was burning me with the antibiotics in the IV.
After Susan the midwife decided that I was going to be ready to deliver soon she called for her team. They all showed up, The OB, The Resident, The Pediatrician, The Pediatric Nurses, and a lot of other people that I didn’t know who they were, and my nurse was still there. I guess I got stage fright because there was a long pause in my contractions. Everyone was staring at the monitors and I was staring at them. Then my contractions came back and everyone got down to business. Susan said that she doubted that I would be able to puch the baby out in 20 minutes and so she was getting the vacuum ready. I told sprout that she needed to cooperate if she didn’t want to have a bruise on her head for the first weeks of her life and in all those pictures we were going to take. I think that there was talk about her heart rate dipping and they were a bit worried. I don’t really know because I was in Labor Land and they weren’t talking to me. I am pretty sure that I was only pushing for about 5 contractions and less than 20 minutes.
Sprout was finally born at 5:18 am. She weighed 4 lbs 7 oz and was 17”. They offered to let DH cut the umbilical cord but he had decided before that he did not feel the need to. Then they whisked her over to the isolette to evaluate her. I had to keep asking if it was a boy or a girl DH said that it was a girl but I didn’t believe him then someone who worked there finally told me that it is a girl. I was so excited. I had had a feeling that it was a girl and everyone kept telling me that it was going to be a girl. Then they brought her over to me where I got to kiss her and kind of see her. After that they took her away to the NICU. I told DH to go with her and to find out where they were taking her. Mayora stayed with me. Then after about an hour I was moved to a room. They were kind enough to put me in the Antepartum area so that I wouldn’t have to room in with a mom who had her baby while mine was down in the NICU. It was nice because I didn’t even have anyone in my room until the second night.
I hung out in the room and rested. I ate some food. I took a shower. Then I finally got up the strength to make my way down to the NICU to find my daughter. It was scary. The Hall was really long and then when we got into the NICU there was so much noise all of the beeping and humming of monitors and machines. The babies were crying. There were doctors and nurses and parents buzzing around.
Sprout got her Name Sakura Rose officially a few minutes before I was discharged from the hospital. We had a really hard time narrowing down our list and had to try out the name for a couple of days before we committed it to paper.
I got Dr. Sears’ Premature Baby Book, which was so helpful in reassuring me that everything that I was feeling was normal. It also told me how I could help my daughter while she was in the NICU. It helped me to remember to take care of myself. I had to be strong or I couldn’t expect her to be.
The next weeks were hard. We drove to and from the hospital a lot. I was on the rented hospital grade electric breastpump for 30 minutes 8 –12 times a day. Sakura was in the isolette and under bili lights for her jaundice. I didn’t want to go and see her at first because it was so hard to see her in there so small and helpless. Then after DH convinced me that I needed to go I wouldn’t want to leave her. We learned to change a diaper, give her a bath, give her a bottle, and even CPR. We spent a lot of wonderful moments in kangaroo care. Our favorite nurse Laurie got her to eat the required 60ccs of milk from a bottle.
I had a lot of nervousness about nursing. I was afraid that I was going to fail so I didn’t really try until her jaundice was gone. The lactation consultant was there the first time I tried and made sure that I knew how to do it. After I got her latched on she started crying like I was hurting her and I got upset. Then a couple of days later I tried again and it went much smoother. Then I decided that I was going to nurse her every time I was there at a feeding time. She gained two oz when I did that. My milk was helping her to grow.
After that she started taking 60ccs regularly and the doctors started to suggest that she would be able to come home soon if she continued for a couple of days in a row. Then an unknowing nurse gave up after Sakura was slow to eat one feeding and she gauvaged her bottle. We had to start all over. I was crushed. After that, I decided to stay there all day and nurse every feeding and she took her bottles at night. We got to room in a couple of days before they thought she would be discharged. We took care of her all night long after I had been there almost all day. It was scary, but we did it. I don’t know how much sleep we got though.
She finally came home from the hospital on Father’s Day after 15 days in the NICU. On our way to pick her up from the hospital we got a flat tire on Santa Monica Blvd., a little over halfway there. We didn’t have a good spare in the trunk (it was flat too). So DH decided that my mom and I should take the bus to the hospital while he fixed the flat. My mom came to help me when Sakura came home. She came in the day before. DH had to put the flat spare tire on his skateboard and he took it to the nearest gas station. They did not have anyone to fix flats there so he took it to the next closest gas station. This was about a mile away down Rodeo Dr. in Beverly Hills. After getting the spare fixed DH took the tire back to Nadine and even had to borrow a car jack since the one from Nadine was missing. DH arrived shortly after us and he had to scrub a lot since he was covered in black dirt.
It was the best feeling taking her home and the scariest as well. She was all ours. No nurses or doctors or monitors to tell us if we were doing things wrong. We were actually parents now.
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