So most of the day Monday I was having painless contractions. Danielle was here for new years so we checked out Wegman's and then walked around the mall there a little before we stopped for lunch and decided to go home. Nothing much came of all the walking and the contractions pretty much stopped once I sat down and put my feet up.
Since nothing big happened, Danielle went home on Monday night. Tuesday, more of the same painless contractions. Wednesday morning I was prepared for another day of waiting but by two o'clock I was pretty sure that we were going to have a baby very soon (within about 24 hours according to my books and online self-diagnosis :-)) Of course Ben had gone into the office that day for the first time in a week and was planning to stay late. Since I really had nothing more than a hunch to go on, I didn't want to send him into panic mode but I was really worried that he's be at work until 8 and not home until 9:30 (which in retrospect would have been a total disaster). Luckily he left work at 3 under his own volition.
By the time Ben got home I was pretty sure that I was in labor and the contractions were getting more painful. While we were waiting for the contractions to come 5 minutes apart for an hour we made souvlakis and watched a little tv. By 8, the contractions were getting to be pretty painful and were about 7 minutes apart. I took a shower and Ben started to get things together to head out to the hospital. By nine I was timing the contractions at 5 minutes or less apart and called the doctor. They told me to go ahead and go over to labor and delivery.
At labor and delivery they put me in the triage room and hooked me up to the monitors. Ben found it really amusing to be able to watch the monitor and tell me when the contractions were coming... I had to tell him gently that really it wasn't that amusing. The nurse checked me and I was still at 3cm which concerned me a little but I didn't think too much of it. In the next few minutes she told me that they were going to admit me and decided to do a last minute ultrasound. When she put the probe on my belly and she asked me if I was sure that the baby was head down I got so scared. My first thought was oh god, there's no brain. The nurse worked the probe up along the spine and sure enough there was her head up under my belly button. The last thing I was thinking about when she told me the baby was breach was what the sex was. From that moment it was a total whirlwind. I remember crying and telling Ben to call his sister. A doctor came in and told me she was on call for Dr. Hebb who was out and would be performing my c-section. She was nice and patient and understanding. I was scared and so was poor Ben but to make matters worse for him, he didn't even really get all the implications of having a c-section. They thrust a gown and cap at him and told him to change and wait for them to come and bring him to the operating room and he was gone.
Within 15 minutes I was in the operating room with the anesthesiologist and the next thing you knew they were cutting. It took what felt like an eternity to see my baby but it was really special to see them pull her out. The experience was only marred by someone exclaiming we have meconium. I was pretty much panicked at this point. Poor Ben still had no idea what was going on. So she was whisked away by the NICU people who evidently are present at every cesarean birth. They were suctioning her airway because of the meconium and I kept waiting for her to cry and watching her in the mirror over the table. It felt like an eternity passed and I kept asking if she was ok because she looked so blue and wasn't crying. Even though they kept reassuring me that she was fine and that they didn't want her to cry yet so that they could make sure that her airway was clear it was very, very upsetting. She finally did cry though and it was beautiful.
They wrapped her and let Ben hold her for all of ten seconds while I took a peak at her. Then it was off to the NICU for Chase and over to recovery for me. It took about an hour and a half to get the feeling back in my legs and they wheeled me over to my room in post partum. Let me tell you, I love souvlaki but I paid dearly for having eaten it for dinner only two short hours before undergoing major surgery. I was sick as a dog for a long time which is partly why I didn't get to see my baby until after lunch.
Once I finally got up to the NICU to see her they explained that even though they thought that they had gotten everything in the operating room that the meconium had caused as irritation in her lungs and that she would have to be treated with antibiotics for an unknown length of time until the irritation resolved. It was so sad to not be able to have her in the room with us but we are so glad that the treatment only lasted 4 days and that we were all able to be discharged together on Monday. The parents of the baby that shared her room in the NICU had to stay the full 7 days so it could have been a lot worse.
Mostly I'm so happy that she's here. It makes everything worth it. Even though things didn't go the way I thought they might in my head I am still very happy. Everyone at GBMC was really really nice. The nurses were caring and helpful which was a breath of fresh air compared to the ICU nurses at UMMC which is really my only other experience with being hospitalized.
Now we're home so let the good times roll...
