Samantha Grace Martinez
June 19, 2009
12:14 PM
7 Lbs. 1 1/4 Oz.
It's been an exciting (and exhausting) 10 days and I finally have some down time to type up Miss Samantha's birth story. If any of this interests you, read ahead. Otherwise, feel free to check out the pics - which is all anyone really wants to see, let's face it... :)
Woke up on the morning of the 18th - my technical due date - to my water breaking. I didn't feel any contractions so I wasn't rushed or harried when I called the hospital who told me to come on in to check. I knew in my heart that this was it though. It just so happened that my mom was on her way down to Delaware anyway, thinking she was going to come to today's sonogram. She was an hour away and I knew we had time so I collected all the fun stuff I thought I was going to use at the hospital. You know. my portable DVD player, ipod, the important stuff. Called Jake who started giving me the details of my mom's arrival and I was like, "Hon. My water broke. We need to go to the hospital after you pick mom up from Amtrak."
Oh.
I made Jake promise not to say anything to her on the drive so when mom walked in I was like "Surprise! We're going to the hospital - not for the weekly sonogram - but to have the baby!" Needless to say, she was thrilled. We drove over and checked in to Labor and Delivery - I was given an interior room (no windows) so when I asked about getting an exterior room they said "Unfortunately, they are all taken right now." Which clued me into the fact that this little maternity ward was really busy considering they have 4 exterior rooms and a normal average of 14 births a week, that meant I was at least the 5th person today.
Mom and Jake went to the cafeteria to grab some lunch. While they were gone, Dr. Leader came and asked if I was feeling any contractions yet. I wasn't. So he said, "well then, maybe sometime next week", as he's putting on the gloves. He checks and confirms that my water has broken but I'm barely dilated. My wonderful Nurse, Karen, says, "You know, only 3% of women actually give birth on their due date". To which Dr. Leader responds, "There's only 11 hours left in this day...OK, so we are going to start you on pitocin and see where that takes us." For those not in the know, once your water breaks, most hospitals want to deliver the baby within 24 hours to prevent infection.
Nurse Karen came back with a slew of admitting paperwork which Jake and I filled out and then the waiting game began. Mom and Jake started calling everyone. Dad grabbed his bags and started his drive down the Turnpike and I slept, watched TV, slept some more. This is where the beauty of having the interior room came in. Since I had no idea of time from the changing of natural light, some 7 hours passed but it only felt like 2 or so. At around 6:15 PM I was feeling the contractions enough to want something for it. They gave me a shot of Stadol through my IV. Fun stuff. Like my childbirthing class teacher said "You'll still feel the pain, but you won't care." She had used it during her own labor and thought she was in Maui. For me, everything turned into cartoon world. Dr. Fred Flinstone, Nurse Betty Rubble, that kind of thing. Sometime around 8PM, they moved me to A Room With A View (of a wall). Nurse Karen was replaced by Nurse Cindy who brought me 2 ice pops. Grape and Orange. Tastiest ice pops I've ever had. This room had a rocking chair and the stadol had worn off. Nurse Cindy recommended that instead of another hit of stadol, I could try rocking in the rocking chair. And it worked! For awhile that is. Until the baby's heart rate started to drop after every contraction. Then I had to get back into bed and they put me on oxygen. And so for the next few hours we would do the dance. They would stop the pitocin drip until baby's heart rate evened out, but then my dilation wouldn't progress. Start the drip again, and the contractions would come back, and the heartbeat would drop. Obviously if this kept up, they said we'd have to start thinking c-section.
Meanwhile, I had to make a choice. It was 11PM. Getting close to quitting time for the anesthesiologist. Did I want the epidural before he left or did I want to run the risk of having to wait close to an hour for the anesthesiologist on call to come to the hospital in the night. I chose to have him do it before he left even though I was in tolerable pain at that point. I just didn't want to have to wait later if it came to that. Mom, Jake and Dad got kicked out of the room for the procedure which lasted about a half hour. I had been worried throughout my pregnancy that my (admittedly mild) scoliosis might prevent it's placement, but when I asked the anesthesiologist, he said, "the way your spine curves actually makes it EASIER for me to see where to place it." So all that worrying over nothing. I'm not really sure what happened with the first placement but all of the sudden I got really dizzy and my heart rate shot from the 90's to 120 BPM in 4 seconds so he removed it. That shook me. He wanted to try again and I thought to myself "If that happens again, I'd better brace myself for the pain because I'll go without." But the second placement worked like a charm. I never completely lost all sensation, was able to move my toes, but I felt no pain for the rest of the labor.
After that I slipped in and out of consciousness for the next 10 hours. Waking up to see them bring in a cot for Jake. My dad snoring. Mom wide awake and still on the edge of her seat. Woke up for real around 10AM. Nurse Karen was back. She told me that I was at 7cm to let her know when I felt pressure. About an hour later I told her I was feeling a lot of pressure. At that point they called for Dr. Petit (who had replaced Dr. Leader) who came in and checked. At 11AM I kicked mom and dad out of the room (sorry guys) so that I could start pushing. Oh, and did I mention my epidural had just worn off? They topped me off just enough to make it through. One hour and 14 minutes later, Samantha Grace entered the world. What was I thinking about during that hour fourteen? I'd like to say that I was thinking about meeting my baby. But I wasn't. I'm not proud of it but my mental focal point was, of all things, a can of Coke. "Once I have this baby, I can have a coke again. In fact, I'm going to have one here in the hospital. Here in this bed if they will let me. With Ice. Crushed ice. And a straw." And so forth.
An angel baby from the word go. She did not cry when they put her on my stomach. Just seemed stunned. Probably as stunned as Jake and I were that she was a girl (we'd both thought, unbeknownst to the other, that she was a boy). What I remember was her ruby red lips and her hair. Tons of dark black hair. Jake cut the cord and away she went to the heater where the nurse cleaned her and did footprints while they collected the cord blood from me and delivered the placenta.
After that, things were a bit of a blur. Not long after everything was done (I had to get some stitches) they gave her to me to try breastfeeding, which she took to right away. Thank goodness. And soon, too soon, they had me up and out of that room and down to recovery where we spent the next 2 days eating bad hospital food and getting to know each other. We were discharged on Father's Day, which was the sweetest gift of all.
I never did get that Coke though.
